Coleman deflected questions about what is next in his political career. But at least one insider says he is actively keeping his options open for the next gubernatorial election.
"He's increasingly attracted to the idea of running for governor," said Larry Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political science professor. "What I'm hearing from some folks is that Norm Coleman's made recent phone calls to some of the top Republican donors to him, asking them to hold off making any commitments to other candidates.
"This does not mean he's going to run," Jacobs said. "But he's trying to freeze them."
Some other political observers say Coleman, who styles himself a moderate Republican, could be a serious candidate in a wide-open field.
"I've always seen him as someone who is a fairly ambitious politician," said Steve Smith, a political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis and a longtime congressional observer.
Barf.
I can envision him, with the Nasser Kazeminy thing sitting on his shoulder, lurking, leering, laughing; and Norm standing in front of the cameras and microphones giving his speech sincerely with his dog in tow, talking about Laurie's plain cloth coat, Laurie "doesn't have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat, and I always tell her she'd look good in anything." Can't you see it, a modest coat even if getting an extra seventy-five grand from Kazeminy. Norm doing the lines with his version of sincerity. As the moment requires.
And that phrase Strib uses, "who styles himself a moderate Republican," I guess that's how you style it when you are a party-jumper depending on testing the winds and seeing who's queued up in front and behind you in the DFL, then seeing a "road to Damascus" light saying GOP.
He "styles himself" with a blo-n-go.
He should retire to the family business that way.