OK, this is getting bizarre. Mister dirty politics himself, Smilin' Norm Coleman, is suing Al Franken for defamation. This is not an unusual tactic for Coleman. In fact, this is the fourth time he has sued an opponent in the waning days of a political campaign. In other words, it's his "go-to" strategy.
What makes this a little odd is that Coleman has had a sizable lead in recent polls.
The full stories are posted on MNpublius and below from Huffington Post.
Sen. Norm Coleman announced on Thursday that he was filing a lawsuit against his Democratic opponent Al Franken and the Franken campaign over what he deemed defamation of character.
Aides to Coleman, speaking Thursday morning at a hastily organized press conference, seemed far more interested in generating political theatrics than they did in explaining a serious legal quibble.
For starters, their complaint was directed at an advertisement that the Franken campaign aired that claimed Coleman was a stooge of oil interests. The spot was standard fare for politics. Indeed, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has done far worse, accusing Franken of writing pornography, laughing at the disabled, humiliating minorities and demeaning women. And even Coleman's Communications Director Mark Drake acknowledged that the Franken spot was based on "half-truths" (so some of it was accurate?). Only later did he say of the suit:
"It is not a tactic. Sen. Coleman is being falsely attacked. These are flat out falsehoods, this goes beyond the typical tit-for-tat that you see in a campaign... We just want Minnesotans to know, take a look at it. There is one campaign waging a positive campaign...and you have one candidate who will clearly say anything to get elected."
Oh yeah, Norm is really above the filth. How about the misrepresented ads about Franken's anger? How about the mailers referencing Franken's comedy scripts and stating that he supports raping of women ... wrapped nicely in a mailer with cartoon illustrations that would entice children to look at it?
Like I said, this hasn't been the first time Coleman, a former attorney in the Minnesota AG's office:.
If the move seems dramatic, it shouldn't. This is now the fourth time that the Minnesota Republican has filed a suit late in the course of his runs for office.
During the gubernatorial race in 1998, Coleman filed and later dropped a complaint against his Democratic rival Hubert Humphrey III over an issue of unfair campaign practices. In 2002, the state's Republican party (operating, ostensibly, on Coleman's behalf), filed a complaint against then Senator Paul Wellstone, accusing him of inciting "union thugs" to rough up a GOP cameraman. And, again in 2002, the Coleman campaign filed a separate suit against Wellstone for distorting his stance on social security.
Again, the timing seems a bit suspect here. There were rumors of this lawsuit a couple of days ago, but Coleman's camp decided to hastily cancelled a press conference. Does Coleman think/know that Franken has something on him? Or perhaps it's this lead that the StarTrib has been tracking:
On Wednesday, the Senator was cornered by a group of investigative reporters from the Minneapolis Star Tribune who were inquiring about a lawsuit, filed in Texas, that included an allegation that Nasser Kazeminy -- a friend of Coleman's and employer of his wife Laurie -- funneled $75,000 to the Senator's family through his business, Hayes Companies.
Remember, the former left-leaning StarTrib unexpectedly endorsed Coleman over Franken and Independence Party candidate, Dean Barkley.
The timing just doesn't make sense. And as Minnesotans, we're always a little suspicious of a PR move posing as a lawsuit.
We have a little smoke here ... let's wait for the fire.