Coleman:another slimy Republican running
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| Mon, 11-03-2008 - 10:33pm |
This Republican Coleman running to be reelected as Senator in Minnesota has been part of the problem for the past 6 years. He was happy to work with the Republicans to deregulate America into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And he has committed all kinds of ethical violations just like so many other Republican Senators Vitter, Craig, Stevens and others. Here are his ethical violations (from a watchdog group that targets both Democrats and Republicans) and click on the link to see lots more details:
"Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) is a first-term senator, representing Minnesota. His ethics issues stem from lodging he accepted in violation of the Senate gifts rule.
Failure to Pay Rent
When in Washington, Sen. Coleman lives in a basement apartment in the Capitol Hill townhouse of Republican operative Jeff Larson. Mr. Larson runs FLS Connect, a telemarketing firm, which has been paid over $1.4 million since 2001 by Sen. Coleman’s leadership political action committee (PAC) and two campaign committees. Mr. Larson is also the treasurer of Sen. Coleman’s PAC and provides it with office space in St. Paul, MN. Adding to the relationship between the pair, Mr. Larson’s wife, Dorene Kainz, had been employed as a casework supervisor in Sen. Coleman’s St. Paul office, though after a news organization questioned Sen. Coleman about this, his staff announced that she would leave the office on July 10, 2008.
Over the past year, Sen. Coleman appears to have accepted lodging from Mr. Larson for at least three months without paying the agreed upon rent until caught by National Journal. Although Sen. Coleman paid $1,200 and Mr. Larson cashed a check for an additional $600 after National Journal questioned the pair about the payments, the fact that the payments were not made until flagged by the media heightens rather than diminishes the concerns over Sen. Coleman’s conduct. Sen. Coleman’s repeated missed rent and utility payments, and Mr. Larson’s failure to cash Sen. Coleman’s check suggest that Mr. Larson was not, in fact, necessarily expecting payment. Moreover, it is unclear whether the $600 rental rate represents the fair market value of the apartment considering other rental rates in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. After touring Sen. Coleman’s apartment, a Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter wrote that the space is not extravagant but well kept and renovated. A spokesman for Sen. Coleman said, according to their research, the senator is paying fair market value, but a Minnesota political group reported similar apartments on Capitol Hill rent for $1,100 to $1,450.
Because lodging clearly falls within the Senate’s definition of “gift,” Sen. Coleman appears to have violated the Senate gifts rule by accepting free lodging from Mr. Larson, someone who financially benefits from his relationship with the senator. Further complicating the issue is the question of whether the salary paid to Mr. Larson’s wife as an employee in Sen. Coleman’s office might constitute the true payment of the rent. Also troubling is the fact that Sen. Coleman paid his back rent, and Mr. Larson cashed Sen. Coleman’s checks, only once the media began questioning the living arrangement. Finally, by failing to pay his utility bills, which were valued at $532.88 – well over the $49.99 permissible gift limit -- Sen. Coleman accepted an improper gift from Mr. Larson.
On July 1, 2008, CREW filed a complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics requesting an investigation into this matter to determine whether Sen. Coleman has violated the Senate gifts rule.
DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT ON SEN. NORM COLEMAN (R-MN) >> "
http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/node/429/print
And here look at Coleman run away from reporters trying to ask him about that lawsuit filed alleging fat cat donors illegally funneled money to him through his wife.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/30/155949/83
"MN-Sen: Coleman Sues Franken, Runs from Reporters
by brownsox
Thu Oct 30, 2008 at 05:50:04 PM EST
Well, now we've seen everything; Norm Coleman's campaign, in a last-ditch effort to distract Minnesotans from Coleman's voting record and lobbyist ties, is now suing Al Franken's campaign for purportedly false advertising.
The campaign claims Franken violated the law in recent TV and radio ads by knowingly running false attacks against a political candidate running for office. The campaign says they will take appropriate civil and criminal sanctions against Franken.
...
The Coleman campaign is focusing on recent ads since Oct. 25 and continuing through this week that claim Coleman is the fourth most corrupt senator in Congress. This claim comes from Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington (CREW), which the campaign calls a Democratic-partisan group closely tied to Franken.
According to the CREW report, Coleman received a "dishonorable mention" after the list of most corrupt members of Congress. Coleman is one of four Senators on the complete list, including the dishonorable mentions.
MN Publius notes that it isn't the first time Coleman has filed suit (ha ha ha) in a campaign.
Oddly enough, however, Coleman himself faced an unpleasant lawsuit at the time, filed against Coleman crony Nasser Kazeminy and implicating his wife Laurie:
According to Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan, the lawsuit, filed Tuesday and withdrawn Wednesday, alleged money was given to Laurie Coleman, the senator's wife, through the insurance company for which she works to help the Colemans' personal finances.
The claim was "simply false," Coleman said.
"The purpose of this stuff is to, at the 11th hour, throw something out there and see if it sticks," Coleman said. "There were some things that we believe were thrown in there for the purpose of influencing the campaign. It was withdrawn because the attorneys recognized that there were some things in there that weren't factual."
When pressed by reporters on whether his wife did, in fact, receive $75,000 from Minnesota businessman Nasser Kazeminy (one of the stars of Suitgate), Coleman bravely ran from reporters:"
Now Coleman is promising he's gonna change. He's gonna be different now after 6 years of this. Uh huh. And I've got this great bridge to Brooklyn to sell you.
So think about this Minnesota. Do you want to send the Republicans like Coleman a message that it's fine for them to do this with our money, our lives and our trust, and we'll just trust them some more when they promise not to walk all over us next time, or more precisely for another 6 years?? If that's the message you want to send, that you are a doormat, then go ahead and vote for Coleman!
Otherwise it's time to give the other side a shot. Franken has the promise to make another truly great, independent thinking Senator from Minnesota who actually will look out for the interests of ordinary Americans instead of just himself.

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Hey now he is my state republican, you can have anger all you want over Bush but you better have facts on Norm.
show the link please
yes he ran away because he had no idea what they were talking about because the last ditch dem filed the lawsuit and gave the info the the paper before the lawsuit was filed.
Maybe you don't know about Norm he used to be a democrat and then he saw the error of his ways.
He brought business back to downtown St. Paul, brought hockey back.
Show some real facts and not from your liberal sources.
He's a good man, really you from MInnesota you want Franken who writes jokes about rape?
Do You know about the man you are endorsing here soupy?
One of his campaign ads he has his wife say oh I am a recovering alcoholic and Al took care of me, he debases his o
he always sues, could you post a fact to that?
You ought to take a careful look at your Republican Senator before leap to the conclusion that this guy is miraculously different from all those other slimeball Republican Senators like Stevens, Craig and Vitter.
You want the link showing why Norm is on the honorable mention list of the most slimy politicians in Washington? Here it is. And this is from an equal opportunity watchdog group that does not discriminate between slimy Democrats or Republicans:
"Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) is a first-term senator, representing Minnesota. His ethics issues stem from lodging he accepted in violation of the Senate gifts rule.
Failure to Pay Rent
When in Washington, Sen. Coleman lives in a basement apartment in the Capitol Hill townhouse of Republican operative Jeff Larson. Mr. Larson runs FLS Connect, a telemarketing firm, which has been paid over $1.4 million since 2001 by Sen. Coleman’s leadership political action committee (PAC) and two campaign committees. Mr. Larson is also the treasurer of Sen. Coleman’s PAC and provides it with office space in St. Paul, MN. Adding to the relationship between the pair, Mr. Larson’s wife, Dorene Kainz, had been employed as a casework supervisor in Sen. Coleman’s St. Paul office, though after a news organization questioned Sen. Coleman about this, his staff announced that she would leave the office on July 10, 2008.
Over the past year, Sen. Coleman appears to have accepted lodging from Mr. Larson for at least three months without paying the agreed upon rent until caught by National Journal. Although Sen. Coleman paid $1,200 and Mr. Larson cashed a check for an additional $600 after National Journal questioned the pair about the payments, the fact that the payments were not made until flagged by the media heightens rather than diminishes the concerns over Sen. Coleman’s conduct. Sen. Coleman’s repeated missed rent and utility payments, and Mr. Larson’s failure to cash Sen. Coleman’s check suggest that Mr. Larson was not, in fact, necessarily expecting payment. Moreover, it is unclear whether the $600 rental rate represents the fair market value of the apartment considering other rental rates in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. After touring Sen. Coleman’s apartment, a Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter wrote that the space is not extravagant but well kept and renovated. A spokesman for Sen. Coleman said, according to their research, the senator is paying fair market value, but a Minnesota political group reported similar apartments on Capitol Hill rent for $1,100 to $1,450.
Because lodging clearly falls within the Senate’s definition of “gift,” Sen. Coleman appears to have violated the Senate gifts rule by accepting free lodging from Mr. Larson, someone who financially benefits from his relationship with the senator. Further complicating the issue is the question of whether the salary paid to Mr. Larson’s wife as an employee in Sen. Coleman’s office might constitute the true payment of the rent. Also troubling is the fact that Sen. Coleman paid his back rent, and Mr. Larson cashed Sen. Coleman’s checks, only once the media began questioning the living arrangement. Finally, by failing to pay his utility bills, which were valued at $532.88 – well over the $49.99 permissible gift limit -- Sen. Coleman accepted an improper gift from Mr. Larson.
On July 1, 2008, CREW filed a complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics requesting an investigation into this matter to determine whether Sen. Coleman has violated the Senate gifts rule."
http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/node/429/print
This is not to mention Coleman's latest scandal resulting in a lawsuit against him.
"Suit Alleges Ally Funneled $75,000 to Colemans
By Paul McEnroe and Tony Kennedy, Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul)
October 31, 2008
A Texas businessman has filed a lawsuit alleging that Minnesota multimillionaire Nasser Kazeminy used his Houston marine company to funnel $75,000 to Sen. Norm Coleman last year via a Minneapolis insurance company that employs the senator's wife.
Coleman adamantly denies the claims in the lawsuit. "This is a vicious, defamatory attack on the senator and his wife less than one week before the election," Cullen Sheehan, Coleman's campaign manager, said Thursday.
The company, Deep Marine Technology, is controlled by Kazeminy, a close friend of Coleman's and a longtime campaign contributor.
The allegations about Coleman were among the claims in the suit over corporate practices filed Monday by Deep Marine's former CEO, Paul McKim, who founded the company in 2001. The suit was withdrawn later Monday during a flurry of settlement negotiations but was refiled Thursday after those talks failed, said Casey Wallace, a lawyer for McKim. Robert Weinstine, listed in the lawsuit as Kazeminy's Minneapolis attorney, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
"
http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/node/802/print
More:
"Norm Coleman Facing Questions About Donor's Payment Of Clothes
By AHN Staff, AHN
October 9, 2008
St. Paul, MN (AHN) - With the critics still insisting that his special living arrangements still constitute illegal gifts, Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) is now being hounded by accusations that he has also received donor gifts in the form of clothes from an upscale retail store.
Harper's magazine published a report on its website early this week saying Minnesota businessman Nasser Kazeminy, one of first-term senator's top donors, had paid for "lavish clothing purchases" by Coleman at Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis.
Kazeminy was previously reported as having allegedly paid for trips Coleman made to the Bahamas some years ago.
The two unidentified people quoted by the magazine as sources of the report on clothing purchases are uncertain of the dates of the bills. Coleman had served as mayor before becoming senator five years ago. "
http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/node/663
Happy to oblige - I'll give you some more if you don't like this one...
Soupy,
I know Norm
no he is not a slimey politician, he is a good man.
How about Frankin, suppose he's settled his tax bill?
Biden wouldn't think he was very patriotic.
one question you should ask yourself if you are actually looking for the truth, why was this filed in Texas, in the most democratically corrupt district moments before an election?
Ask that to yourself?
never happened.
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