Since I consider myself very well-informed on the "deceive or destroy" credo of nationa politics as practiced by BushCo since it stormed the castle walls with its army of neocon orcs, I'm ashamed that I didn't know Norm Coleman was a certified antiwar progressive (and a New York boy, yet) before he made his Faustian bargain and sold his soul in 2002 for a chance to be in the Senate. It's a testament to Coleman's bottomless cynicism that a guy who actively opposed the Vietnam war, and then worked for Paul Wellstone's election, could step behind the magician's curtain and--poof!--turn into a one-note political storm trooper in the President's four-year snow job selling the Iraq war.
Al Franken's YouTube video introducing himself to Minnesotans is brilliant in its simplicity, directness, authenticity and self-possessed clarity of purpose. If you've ever seen or heard Norm Coleman speak, you know Franken's performance in this video is the anti-Coleman.
It makes me wish I could relocate to Minneapolis tommorow, just so I could campaign and vote for Al. One hopes and prays the people of Minnesota will see and hear what I see and hear in this presentation.
For Coleman to question the source of Franken's campaign contributions is the sign of a scared, perhaps even desperate, man. For Coleman to invite Bush to Minnesota to shill for him at a fundraiser this month, just before Patraeus will "report" on the DOA surge in Iraq, is the political equivalent of flipping the bird to the people of Minnesota and to the nation as a whole. It's as if they're living in some parallel universe where "freedom is slavery and war is peace." Sound familiar?
Given the stomach-turning, I'd venture pathological intransigence of this President--and of sycophants like Norm Coleman--as Bush continues his delusional support for the war, while virtually every week presiding over yet another squad of American troops being turned into hamburger on the Iraqi battleground, Al Franken's candidacy, and his own persona as viewed through the video, have the laser qualities of radiating sanity over lunacy, rational judgment over the Bush legacy of blind faith fueled by pro-war lies and propaganda, and the humane politics of common interest over the ruthless politics of divisiveness and Social Darwinism.
Norm Coleman belongs on the ash heap of history, and Al's got the shovel to put him there. Go Al!
Stewart Braunstein
Port Washington , NY
08/07/2007 @ 4:03pm
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