Democrats use mock President to make point about Coleman

Odds are you won't see President Bush and Senator Norm Coleman share a stage between now and election day, but you will see a Bush imitator talking up the Minnesota Republican's virtues.

The DFL Monday rolled out their mock version of George W. Bush at a State Capitol news conference, to make a point about Coleman's past loyalty to the President.

"Norm has been my best buddy in Washington," actor Josh Eakright told reporters, with his forehead furrowed to achieve the classic "Dubya" squint.

"He's been there with me side by side, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, never toe to toe, always seeing eye to eye, and dancing cheek to cheek."

Reporters, for the most part, suppressed any urges to laugh. People in the Coleman's camp failed to find any of the bit humorous.

"Minnesotans are not warming up to Al Franken and with good reason," Coleman spokesman Mark Drake said, "And today's gimmick is not going to change that."

Pushing the Bush links

The DFL's stab at political comedy came on the same day the Al Franken's campaign launched a new web site at www.BushColeman08.com, aimed at detailing the times Norm Coleman sided with Bush on issues and votes.

It coincides with the launch of a new TV ad by Franken, featuring an image of the two politicians arm and arm at an Xcel Center rally in November of 2002.

"On the 10 issues most critical to the Bush presidency," a narrator is heard to say, "Norm Coleman has stood with George Bush."

Republicans dispute the premise of the ad, known as "Two Images," citing recent tallies by the Washington Post which ranked Coleman as one of the more independent members of Congress.

The Coleman campaign pointed out the senator broke from the President on several votes in the past few years, including drilling in ANWR, cuts to the S-Chip medical program for lower income children, and more recently on the farm bill.

DFL staffers contend that doesn't erase Coleman's track record of supporting Bush on Iraq, subsidies for oil companies, preventing Medicare from negotiating discounts with drug companies, and efforts to make tax cuts permanent for the wealthiest earners.

"Now Minnesotans have the opportunity to judge whether or not that close friendship, and close partnership has in fact been good for Minnesota."

Democrats haven't forgotten that, during their 2004 convention in Boston, Republicans dispatched Coleman to do media interviews bashing Senator John Kerry.

Lasting images

And they'll do all they can to remind voters how hard President Bush worked to help elect Norm Coleman in 2002. That year Coleman defeated former Vice President Walter Mondale, who stepped in when Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash 11 days before the election.

"Bottom line is the President's not on the ballot," Senator Coleman told reporters in June, "It's not about yesterday."

At the same time, Coleman asserted that his relationship with Bush has been good for Minnesotans.

"Yes, I campaigned with the president in 2002 because he was in a position to be of help to the things that were good for Minnesota, and I tapped into that and it's a good thing."

That translated to rapid help from the administration in times of crisis, according to Coleman.

"Talk to the folks in southeast Minnesota after the flood last year, talk to the folks about the 35W Bridge," Coleman remarked, "I flew in the next morning the Secretary of Transportation."

Stiles isn't swayed by that line of thinking.

"I'd hate for Senator Coleman to suggest that things like disaster relief would be partisan, and that it would matter whether a Democrat or Republican were senator to work with the White House."

Fake book flap

The people in the Coleman camp object even more strongly to an image used in that Franken commercial, a bound book bearing the presidential seal entitled "Bush Presidency: 10 Critical Issues."

"They're putting something up clearly intended to deceive voters with the presidential seal, giving it the imprimatur of the government."

The Franken campaign viewed it merely a computerized graphic, a means of illustrating a point, and not an effort to create the illusion that a hard cover Bush political priority playbook exists.

By John Croman, KARE 11 News

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