photo from MPR, here.
And that headline quote from Franken from the most recent Senate candidates' debate - it is the truth.
The entire issue is not Laurie Coleman. The issue is Norm Coleman hiding behind his wife's skirts, not facing allegations and producing evidence from Hays Companies and Laurie Coleman's paperwork. She is called the insurance firm's "independent contractor" and as such there has to be a paper trail. She billed. She was paid on her invoices. It is all there to be shown the public to prove, if it proves, there is all smoke but no fire.
What we have is a failure to communicate We see a strange and almost inexplicable Coleman refusal to go pubic with some kind of record, which is unique for a seasoned former litigation lawyer, the top litigator in the Attorney General's office, and to instead see him bellow and rage and blame Franken without a shred of cause for that.
It figures the man has something to hide. Otherwise he would calmly and decisively present FACT, not ranting and raving about how this is about "his wife" when every person having a third-grade or better intelligence knows it is about him, his energy stance favorable to the "political sugar daddy," and a paper trail presented by a Republican litigant in Texas, Paul McKim, that Coleman should face instead of trying to glide and slide.
It's Dick Nixon repeatedly saying, "I am not a crook," then resigning in shame, but only after a prearranged Gerald Ford pardon.
Are there perhaps prearrangements for a lame duck Bush pardon in the works? For that we have to wait and see. But these are the immediate Minnesota voter questions:
Did Norm Coleman cross the line?
Is he trustworthy to be returned where it can happen again?
These are the only real issues, not whether Laurie Coleman is mentioned only via indirect focus on the question of whether she was an intermediary in funneling wrongful cash from Nasser Kazeminy, to Norm Coleman - for friendship, or what beyond friendship?
That said, here is excerpting from MPR's reporting on its final 7pm Nov. 2 Senate candidates' debate:
Minnesota's three major party U.S. Senate candidates have now just one more full day of campaign before Minnesotans head to the polls on Tuesday.
Last night Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and DFL candidate Al Franken met for the final debate of the campaign.
Not surprisingly there was considerable talk about allegations that one of Coleman's contributors illegally funneled money to him.
Coverage of the race for the past few days has centered around allegations that one of Norm Coleman's friends facilitated the transfer of $75,000 to the Senator through the insurance company Coleman's wife works for.
Coleman has firmly denied the charge. During the debate he said he has never received any unreported money.
Coleman kept up with his accusations that Al Franken and Democrats are behind the 11th hour allegations, but Coleman was unable to offer evidence of that. Coleman went after Franken for not speaking out against an outside ad about the allegations which Coleman says attacks his wife.
"What he doesn't get is that when you take the candidate's wife and you put a commercial up the same day this thing is filed defaming my wife -- she has a right to earn a living, she has a right to live a life," said Coleman. "Al maybe you just don't know there are lines you don't cross. Maybe that's your career of not knowing there's a line to be crossed."
Franken said he had no involvement in the allegations. Franken stopped short of calling Coleman corrupt, but he said the allegations involving a conspiracy to funnel money to a sitting U.S. Senator are very serious.
"This is not about Norm Coleman's wife. This is about Senator Coleman's political sugar daddy. That's what this is about," said Franken.
Dean Barkley from the Independence Party called the allegations and fighting over them a fitting cap to what he called the most negative U.S. Senate campaign in Minnesota's history.
"Both my opponents have spent about $20 million each filling our airwaves with garbage this entire campaign, and I don't know who's right and wrong on this. We're not going to find out up here on the stage on whether or not there's any truth to that allegation whether the timing is suspect. Certainly it's suspect," said Barkley.
When asked about the biggest challenge facing the nation, Barkley said it was restoring confidence in the federal government. Coleman said it is getting past partisan fighting. Franken said the biggest challenge is reviving the economy.
Both Coleman and Barkley proposed a spending freeze. Franken spoke out against that idea, saying now's the time for the federal government to increase spending.
"The way that President Clinton created record surpluses were a couple of things, and it was investing in things that had a return on investment in education, in infrastructure and research and development, all the things the were cut and all the things that would be frozen with this freeze which is a crude instrument. We need to cut things with a scalpel not a meat clever," said Franken.
Coleman said moving ahead with Franken's proposed spending programs could push the nation from recession in to a depression. Barkley underscored the need to address the increasing national debt.
The candidates themselves were invited to ask each other a question. Barkley asked Franken whether he agrees with John McCain on anything that Barack Obama is not talking about. Franken answered this way:
"And this is actually from the Sarah Palin-Biden debate. She was talking about using counter-terrorist techniques in Afghanistan, and I agree with that, so I agree with Sarah Palin," said Franken. Coleman asked Franken to name three things he's done to either help a Minnesota farmer, a Minnesota small business or a Minnesota neighborhood.
"Okay. I think your point might be that I haven't been a political office holder, so if you're asking what piece of legislation I've done, no, I haven't done one. I've done a lot of visiting of chemical dependency rehabs," said Franken.
Franken also said he's done numerous speeches for all kinds of charities.
Franken asked Coleman if he would support a lifetime ban on lobbying for former member of Congress. Coleman said he would not.
Norm has his future to think about after all, so why support anything curtailing the cashflow possibilities that way?
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There's more on the MPR post, here. Have a look.
PiPress reports the debate, here.
Strib reports it, here, with the below Strib photo by Martin Levison, here.
