Suitgate Sinking Coleman

Minnesota Republican Senator Norm Coleman faces a laundry list of ethics questions at the moment: about his apartment in Washington, close ties to lobbyists and now, how he pays for his suits.

This week Ken Silverstein of Harper's reported that a major Coleman donor, businessman Nasser Kazeminy, "covered the bills for Coleman's lavish clothing purchases at Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis."

The Coleman campaign, which polls show now trail Democrat Al Franken, has refused to answer a yes or no question about whether Kazeminy paid for Coleman's suits. They've repeated, to comical effect, that "the Senator has reported every gift he's ever received." Watch this painful press conference on Tuesday with Coleman campaign manager Culleen Sheehan:

So just who is Nasser Kazeminy? The Iranian-born businessman, who runs the investment firm NJK Holdings, has forged a close relationship with Coleman over the years.

In the past few years, Kazeminy has paid for Coleman's trips to the Bahamas, Paris and Jordan. Coleman called him "a friend with a plane."

Yet the relationship is deeper than that. When Coleman was mayor of St. Paul (from 1994 to 2002), the city gave a $425,000 loan to help renovate the St. Paul Athletic Club, a project Kazeminy was an investor in. When the new gym opened, Coleman became the first member.

Between his stint as mayor and senator, Coleman joined a law firm, Winthrop and Weinstine, retained by Kazeminy's company. Coleman was paid $140,000 during that brief time period, even though his law license was suspended at the time of the hiring because he'd failed to pay his dues to the Minnesota State Bar while mayor. Coleman initially declined to disclose the terms of the contract, telling the Minneapolis Star-Tribune it was "between the firm, me and my wife."

Coleman has been similarly dismissive about ethics questions today. If Suitgate ends his political career, he'll always have a friend in Kazeminy.

UPDATE: Coleman says today in a statement at a press conference: "Nobody except my wife or me bought my suits. If my friends have shared gifts with me and my family – or I have shared gifts with them – if they rose to the level of having to be reported – they were reported."

Comments (10)

1. At the law firm, Coleman could have been a highly paid secretary or maybe a consultant". Damn, Coleman is a true hustler. He got paid by working for a law firm when he didn't even have a law license. I got it! He was a very overqualified para-legal. Well, I tried but that's all I could come up with.

   Posted by k330k at 10/10/2008 @ 12:27pm

2. I said oh oh domino Roll me over romeo There you go Lord have mercy I said oh oh domino Roll me over romeo There you go Say it again Oh oh domino I said oh oh domino.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 10/10/2008 @ 12:36pm

3. Normally stuff like this wouldn't lose it for Coleman.

   As the serpent-headed man once said...

   "It's The Economy, Stupid!"

   Posted by Maskdelta at 10/10/2008 @ 12:54pm

4. no,

   it's the stupid economy.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 10/10/2008 @ 1:10pm

5. The fact that he's a Republican is enough to lose the election for him - I'd be curious to see how many Repubs are expected to win their races?

   I'm even more curious to see how many actually do...

   Posted by Balrog at 10/10/2008 @ 1:41pm

6. Posted by Balrog at 10/10/2008 @ 1:41pm

   Heard a guy from THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION (no less) say that Dems were almost guarenteed to pick up 4 seats in the Senate, as much as 8 possible.

   Coleman's is a toss-up still despite seemingly good polls for Franken.

   Posted by Maskdelta at 10/10/2008 @ 2:57pm

7. Maybe Coleman can take a cue from Sarah Palin and just issue his own report on the subject of his ethics...

   ...that exonerates himself.

   Posted by Lillian at 10/10/2008 @ 3:04pm

8. Can we please dispense with the "___gate" appellations?

   It's ri-frickin'-diculous.

   Posted by skeletonman at 10/10/2008 @ 3:09pm

9. oh wow - that WAS painful to watch...

   whew! better "culeen sheehan" up there than me!!!

   Posted by dexter666 at 10/10/2008 @ 5:02pm

10. One definition of "stonewall," for sure. I've met more lucid parrots.

    Posted by A_Pax_On_Your_Houses at 10/11/2008 @ 10:03pm