Opinion Editorial: Stance on Iraq could become Norm Coleman's election albatross
2007-07-22
Source: St. Paul Star Tribune
Six months ago, I praised Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman for seeming to back away from the Kool-Aid vat on Iraq.
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rss feedI spoke too soon. The Iraq quagmire has gone from bad to worse, but Norm is still wearing a Kool-Aid mustache.
Minnesota used to produce politicians willing to buck their party's establishments, even when their party was in power. Eugene McCarthy opposed the Vietnam War being waged by fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson, and Minnesota Republicans called themselves Independent Republicans to distance themselves from Watergate and Richard Nixon. Today, neither party in Minnesota shows a willingness to stand on its own. You can't stand up straight when you are covering your rear end.
Norm is hoping to win a second term after soaking up the home-state limelight at next summer's GOP Convention in the Twin Cities. By convention time, though, he may find himself having to sink or swim with Iraq tied to his ankle.
Democratic opponents like Al Franken have begun not-too-subtle campaigns to saddle Norm with the increasingly unpopular war. Despite the naked politics of that effort, Coleman's refusal to turn against the war -- as some of his Republican colleagues have done -- makes him ripe.
Coleman recently was quoted saying, "We are going to be in Iraq a long time." If he thinks that's true -- and he's not against it -- he must defend it.
Minnesota won't like it.
Seventy percent of Americans want the troops home by next spring, and in Minnesota, where there is a palpable sense of relief over the return of 2,600 National Guard soldiers from Iraq, the percentage is probably even higher.
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