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Al Franken's tight race in blue Minnesota
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Turning Point: 2008 Nov. 5: NBC's Tom Brokaw recaps the historic election of America's first black president. Produced by msnbc.com's Kevin Flynn. |
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Franken then mocked the just-convicted Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens. “It is sad that such a distinguished…” His deadpan voice trailed off as the crowd laughed and jeered.
What will happen to Lieberman?
He then mused that if the Democrats got to 60, “Of course, one of those would be (Sen. Joe) Lieberman, so I’m not sure…”
When a person in the crowd said, “Get 61 and get rid of Lieberman,” Franken seemed to defend the Connecticut senator saying, in a wry tone, “Sen. Lieberman votes OK… he’s a Democrat, in many ways.”
Either it was the words themselves, or it was his deadpan delivery, but that line got a huge laugh from the crowd.
Standing at Franken’s side, a clearly uncomfortable Sen. Amy Klobuchar appeared to want to get off the topic of Lieberman.
Asked Wednesday whether he’d been implying that he’d like Lieberman out of the Senate Democratic caucus after the election, Franken said, “No, I didn’t say that at all — I don’t think. I didn’t mean that at all. I think Sen. Lieberman is a Democrat on so many different issues and I think we want to keep him in the caucus.”
In his speech to the NARAL gathering, Coleman also showed his wry side when he said he supported a NARAL-backed bill which would require the Defense Department to make available to female soldiers the emergency contraceptive known as “Plan B.”
“These women need these services. These are young women. And the ratio of men to women is such that,” he paused and chuckled, “ — they need them.”
Coleman, meanwhile, portrays himself as someone who is a humble, earnest consensus-seeker.
Coleman's first campaign stop of the day Tuesday was at the Ugly Mug diner in Farmington, a town in Dakota County, south of St. Paul, which Bush won by a narrow margin in 2004. Coleman told reporters that voters “are looking for folks who do more than complain.”
'Mayor' stitched in his underwear
He said his approach was the pragmatic one he had used as the mayor of St. Paul. “I may have ‘senator’ in front of my name, but I still have ‘mayor’ stitched in my underwear.”
He told the crowd of about 200 supporters, “We can overcome that very bitter partisan divide in Washington.” He said it was “the obligation of leadership not to divide, not to be angry, not to tear apart, not to put down, but to lift up.”
He noted at a stop at Khoury’s restaurant in suburban Inver Grove Heights that “there’s an anger out there” about the decline in people’s retirement accounts. A few minutes later, he repeated, “There’s a lot of anger out there.” He seemed to be hoping that anger would not be turned against him.
A look at Coleman’s votes shows him to be a fairly consistent GOP loyalist, but he navigates carefully on some votes, demonstrating his distance from conservatives on some issues.
A year ago, for instance, Coleman broke with most Republicans and joined with most Democrats in voting to move ahead with the Dream Act, allowing illegal immigrants under the age of 30 to remain in the United States and gain legal status if they attend college or join the military.
Coleman also wins a respectable 73 out of 100 vote rating from the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), a group that usually supports Democratic candidates. His LCV rating is the second highest of any Senate Republican, after Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, who, like Coleman, finds himself in as tight re-election battle in a state that Obama is likely to win by a big margin.
On the other hand, Coleman did vote to confirm Chief Justice John Roberts and for the man Franken derided as “a racist and a sexist,” Justice Alito.
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