In general, Coleman’s pretty much a tool, and I don’t care to defend him much more. I just thought the attacks were a bit excessive.

But I’ll concede that the events surrounding his election alone are not reason enough to cast him out. As you say, it was Just Politics. He’s done lots of other stuff that was also Just Politics… taken together, it isn’t a pretty picture.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU

http://www.guerillastickers.com/norm_coleman.htm

Gerrison Keillor, besides being a subdued NPR personality, is also wiser than all the wisemen in Persia.

http://www.news-star.com/stories/103102/New_39.shtml

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1030-07.htm

They honored him the way they saw fit. Fine. Maybe it’s exactly what Wellstone would have wanted. Who knows? But people were offended by it. It’s not Coleman’s fault that people were offended by the tone of the event.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=%5CPolitics%5Carchive%5C200210%5CPOL20021030b.html

How is the fact that people were offended by this event, rightly or wrongly, somehow Coleman illicitly “scoring political points?” Look, as I’ve said, I don’t have any real love for Coleman, but it bothers me to see him unnecessarily eviscerated and made into some sort of “black sheep” that we should be ashamed of or something.

Also, if the poll Steve referred to as having Coleman far behind Wellstone was the Star-Tribune, then take it with a grain of salt. It’s been shown to be significantly and consistently wrong in favor of Democrats. For example, their last poll before the ‘02 election put Mondale winning by 5, when Coleman actually won by 3. There are other examples as well. So, the notion that Coleman would not have won but for Wellstone’s death and the aftermath thereof might not be accurate.

http://www.claremont.org/projects/pageid.1873/default.asp

“Dems” did no such thing. Wellstone mourners did. The man was a grassroots political phenomenon, and the GOP capitalized on that by suggesting it was somehow unseemly that his supporters would celebrate his political legacy upon his death.

It was probably a bad idea to have a remembrance in a sports arena, because it invited an atmosphere apropos of a sports arena. But to suggest that Democrats somehow “turned” anything into anything is begging the question of in what way is it appropriate to celebrate someone’s life. Clearly, the people in attendance celebrated it in the way they thought appropriate.

Scoring political points off mourners, in my mind, is what’s unseemly.

Coleman is a rank political opportunist, and he was one before he was elected to the Senate. Poor Coleman! If only he didn’t already have the reputation as craven and lacking principles, he wouldn’t suffer the perception that his election to the senate was likewise tainted.

However, this is pretty funny. It’s a pic of Coleman as a student activist. Remember, the dude is now a REPUBLICAN senator. It’d be like Steve Mahieu serving on the Board of the John Birch Society in 25 years.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/03/ColemanBullhorn.jpg

I do have to call shenanigans on some of this post, particularly accusing Coleman of some this post, particularly the parts that accuse Coleman of some wrongdoing following Wellstone’s death. Much of the reason that the Dems lost in MN in ‘02 is that Mondale was a fossil and THEY turned Wellstone’s memorial service into a political rally in which Republicans in attendance were booed and turned what should have been a time to remember a loyal American and honorable public servant into a cheap political sideshow. When it backfired, Terry Mcauliffe blamed…the Wellstone family. Nice.

Furthermore, regarding Coleman’s behavior. What is he supposed to do? He believed that he should be the Senator from MN. That doesn’t change because Paul Wellstone dies. Two years earlier, when MO Governor Mel Carnahan died in a similar plane crash just short of the election for US Senate in which is was opposing John Ashcroft, Ashcroft pulled his ads, didn’t make public appearances, etc, allowing the late Mel Carnahan won the election. The race had been much tighter with Ashcroft in the lead (I believe) before Carnahan’s death. However, the MO Democrats took Ashcroft’s silence and ran with it, turning the last two weeks before the election into a neverending memorial service for Governor Carnahan. I’m sure Norm Coleman didn’t enjoy campaigning after Wellstone’s death, but he learned his lesson from the Ashcroft/Carnahan race. If you believe you should be Senator, then your opponent’s death doesn’t change anything, and it certainly doesn’t make your “election” somehow invalid.