Every vote counts, if you count every vote. (Coleman/Franken)

[JohnnyRingo]

The senate race in Minnesota between comedian Al Franken and the incumbant conservative Norm Coleman certainly was one for the history books.






After months of recounting ballots, and with almost three million votes tallied, the race was decided in favor of Al Franken by a mere 215 ballots, and has highlighted the importance of each individual getting out to vote.


During this historical campaign, barbs were thrown back and forth by both candidates in increasingly fervent language as the polls indicated a closer and closer outcome.


Norm Coleman in particular, refered to Franken as everything from a crook to a clown, but to his great credit he never once called him a "draft dodging, drug addicted, flower throwing hippie". I for one am proud he saw fit to refrain from such a cheap shot.


That could be because when the famed 60 year old senate warhawk graduated high school in the '60s at the height of the Vietnam War, he may have held a different set of values:


Coleman's politics have changed dramatically throughout his political career. In college, Coleman was a liberal Democrat and was actively involved in the anti-war movement of the late '60s and early '70s. He ran for student senate and opined in the school newspaper that his fellow students should vote for him because he knew that "these conservative kids don't fuck or get high like we do... Already the cries of motherhood, apple pie, and Jim Buckley reverberate through the halls of the Student Center. Everyone watch out, the 1950s bobby-sox generation is about to take over."

During his time at college, Coleman was an active member of the 1960s counterculture, he celebrated his 20th birthday at the Woodstock Music Festival, and was allegedly a marijuana user.



That doesn't sound like uber-conservative Norm Coleman at all, and I wonder if maybe the Franken campaign started this false bio in an attempt to alienate him from his right wing base. I think it's much more likely Coleman spent his formative years protesting high taxes and attending "Nixon for President" keg parties.



After all: From the start, Coleman was a strong supporter of the war in Iraq and the War on Terror. He has been a consistent supporter of the war over the past several years, and generally tends to agree with the positions of the Bush Administration on Iraq.



And he would never use drugs because he says: "I oppose the legalization of marijuana because marijuana can have serious adverse health affects on individuals. The health problems that may occur from this highly addictive drug include short-term memory loss, anxiety, respiratory illness and a risk of lung cancer that far exceeds that of tobacco products."



Since Norm seems to be a quite healthy and sharp witted adult, it can't be possible that he wasted his youth with such a mind-blowing drug.



Thanks to the internet wayback machine, there's a way to fact check these allegations.




Let's go back in time to 1968 and ask a young Norm Coleman how he answers these scurrilous charges that when his ass was standing in line for the draft, he protested the war and shuffled off to get blasted at Woodstock in a beat up Volkswagen bus:






"I have no comment at this time."


I guess we'll never know for sure.

[ogneopasno]

1. I know, it's hard to believe. But there are few assholes more craven than Norm Coleman, who is ready

to be anyone's lapdog..

[geardaddy]

2. You don't have to go that far back...

Mr. Polident ran as a DFLer for the mayor of St. Paul and won.

Then he left the party.

[samplegirl]

3. The face only a mother could love.

K&R

[JohnnyRingo]

4. Kelso's mom maybe

Hahaha
You know, I looked like that in the '60s
But at least I still hold the same values on war and politix now.
I didn't become a warhawk after they ended the draft.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. Norm went to college at Stoner Brook.

Back then, the amount of drugs of all sorts, but especially Quaaludes, that went through that place was amazing. It was known far and wide as THE drug campus.

And then I look at the picture and know that he worked as a roadie for Ten years After.

Sure, Norm. Sure thing. Lying sack of shit.