Sen. Norm Coleman (R), "who quit" the Dem Party 12 years ago, "has accused" entertainer Al Franken (D) "of changing positions, demeanor and rhetoric in his attempt to win a Senate seat." Coleman "makes the charge in a fundraising e-mail sent out this week with the subject line, 'It's Hard to Deny this Kind of Evolution.'"
Coleman, in the e-mail : "After decades of carrying the flag for radical left-wing causes, his extremely liberal viewpoints are couched in softer, more acceptable terms. And for the most part, he's stopped using curse words. ... For some folks, this dramatic change happens after the birth of a child, a conversion to faith, or some kind other kind of life-altering experience. For Franken, it took place when he decided to move back to Minnesota --30 years after he left -- to challenge me for the U.S. Senate."
"The e-mail prompted dropped jaws" in Dem circles 5/8. Franken spokesperson Andy Barr "responded that Coleman has been all over the political map in his career." DFL chair Brian Melendez called the e-mail "one of the most hypocritical political pieces I have ever seen. ... He talks about having always been a conservative but for a while he was a liberal Democrat -- almost a radical Democrat. For five of the past six years, he's been a staunch Bush conservative, he's been the attack dog for the Bush administration. Now suddenly, in an election year, he wants to reinvent himself and pretend that his entire past never happened."
As a college student, "Coleman was a long-haired hippie protester against the Vietnam War." By the time he became St. Paul Mayor in '93, "he was already a conservative" Dem, and made the party switch in '96. The following year he won re-election as a GOPer (Frommer, AP, 5/8).
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