DFL condemns GOP's Franken cartoon attack mailer

It's coming soon to a mail box near you, and just in time for Halloween; a cartoon style attack mailer targeting Al Franken's past controversial work and comments.

"On the cover it says 'Come on in kids' with cartoons just like a comic book or a children's book," State Auditor and Democrat Rebecca Otto told reporters at the Capitol Monday. "The clear intention is to tempt children into opening the piece, and I don't want my child exposed to this type of tactic."

The flyer is the latest in an aggressive anti-Franken campaign by the National Republican Senatorial Committee in Washington DC. The cover features a caricature of Franken uttering," Come on in kids.. Senator Franken's going to tell a few jokes."

"This is out of Karl Rove's playbook directly," Otto complained, "They want to distract us from the real issues that affect our families."

Among those joining the auditor at a news conference was Marcella Roos, an Edina mother and teacher who received the flyer at home and grabbed it from one of her children.

"One of my kids looked at it and I thought, 'Give it back to me" and it was really offensive," Roos recalled, "And I contacted the Al Franken campaign and I said 'This is not okay and it's very inappropriate'." She added, "As a mom I have enough to worry about when it comes to protecting our children."

The flyer features cartoon children uttering lines such as "We shouldn't have to wonder what he will say" and "We shouldn't have to apologize for his actions."

Each cartoon panel is paired with a matching comic style statement such as, "Wrote a pornographic column in Playboy and thought it was funny?" State Republicans and the Coleman campaign have hammered Franken for six months, for his 2000 Playboy article and for comments he made in 1995 in a New York Magazine article describing a brainstorming session for a Saturday Night Live skit which never aired.

Franken's main DFL primary opponent, Priscilla Lord Faris also made those articles the focus of her ads as well, and clips from those ads were used by Coleman and the NRSC.

"The middle class is having real trouble keeping their homes, their savings, their pensions, trying to get health care," former Vice President Walter Mondale said Monday, "We should be using this time to talk about those issues and not to dump trash on the doorsteps of the families of Minnesota."

Congressman Keith Ellison, a Minneapolis Democrat who once expressed serious concerns about Franken's past work, said the format of the attack flyer crossed the lines of decency. "My kids would want to open this," Ellison explained as he held a copy of the mailer, "And then when they do they say Mom? Dad?" "And now you have children mixed up in discussing pornography and rape with their parents."

While the NRSC ad campaigns are beyond Senator Norm Coleman's control, Ellison and Mondale called Coleman to publicly denounce the NRSC and demand the group pull the flyers. "It's true under the law he can't design their ad," Mondale asserted, "But it's also true that he has the power as a senator to tell that committee that he does not want this stuff sent into his state of Minnesota."

Coleman denounces mailing too

It's already done, according to Coleman's campaign manager Cullen Sheehan. He provided copies of an e-mail Coleman sent to the chairman of the NRSC, Senator John Ensign of Nevada, asking for the mailings to cease.

"He has asked the National Republican Senate Committee, and he's asked again in an e-mail to Senator Ensign to stop all negative campaigning," Sheehan told KARE.

He said that Coleman has not personally seen one of the mailers, but has seen images posted by bloggers. "He thinks it's over the top, just like the new Al Franken radio ads, and he's asked for all negative adverting from both campaigns and outside groups to stop."

Coleman pulled his own negative ads earlier this month, but outside groups such as the NRSC, the National Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business and other third party groups have kept the Franken bashing going.

"They should all take Senator Coleman's lead, and stop the negativity," Sheehan added. The Franken campaign has not dropped its negative ads yet, using the argument that merely reporting Coleman's record will be perceived as negative advertising.

New Franken ad claim

The new Franken ads claim that Coleman has been "ranked the fourth most corrupt Senator" by and independent watchdog group, something Sheehan calls "absolutely false and ridiculous."

The claim is based on a ranking by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, of the "20 most corrupt members of Congress." Coleman is not on that list, which contains only three Senators. He is on CREW's "dishonorable mention" list, one of "four to watch" in the group's report.

The CREW's Coleman listing centers on the Washington DC apartment he leases from his friend and Republican operative, Jeff Larson. The group suggests Larson discounts the rent for the basement apartments, constituting a gift in excess of what Senate ethics rules allow senators to accept.

The DFL has raised the issue previously in news conferences and press releases. Coleman's campaign has always defended the arrangement, and asserted that the $600 rent the senator pays is a fair market value considering the cramped and noisy accommodations.

And staffers note that the Senate Ethics Committee, headed by a Democrat, has not chosen to investigate the matter.

But the CREW report was the Franken camp's opening to slap the "fourth most corrupt" label on Coleman in the new ad campaign.

Coleman and the NRSC

Al Franken, and DFL leaders who gathered at the Capitol Monday, say Coleman is actually campaigning to head National Republican Senatorial Committee, the same group that issued the flyers.

"You'll hear Norm say he's not campaigning for this post but that is not true," Auditor Otto said, "Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming said Coleman has already explicitly requested his support for this job."

To back that assertion the DFL shared copies of an October 2nd article from the Congressional daily The Hill, reporting that Coleman is lobbying fellow GOP senators to elect him chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Sheehan told KARE Coleman's running for nothing but the Senate seat he now holds. "Nothing beyond running in the state of Minnesota for the US Senate," Sheehan said Monday.

So when Al Franken says Coleman's running for the NRSC post that's not correct? "Again," Sheehan said, "Not true. No." Otto called on Coleman to apologize on behalf of his fellow Republican Senators for those cartoon mailers, and pledge not to serve as chair of the NRSC.

"If he's sincere about his pledge for positive campaigning he should announced today that he doesn't want to be the head of this group that produces this type of garbage and uses these types of tactics."

By John Croman, KARE 11 News

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