I had the phrase "The Senator has reported ever gift he's ever received" in my Minnesota Senate press conferences drinking game. Didn't turn out well for me. Or the dude saying it over and over.

He should have ended the press conference. The badgering was senseless, though a bit amusing. The reporters should have asked for copies of the disclosure report forms or otherwise made attempts to locate them.

Seriously? Just tell me if he's cheating. Coleman couldn't have made it this far with a staff that naive.

How about the source, how about the place the suits were purchased - background ladies and gentleman.

We've only got a few weeks and shouldn't spend it fussing, use the time wisely.

The deal here is that there are various open secrets in Coleman's career that the MN press and vaguely-clued public know -- the 'unconventional' marriage and the happy bachelor lifestyle that accompanies it -- and the entire MN senatorial campaign has been conducted with that as the unstated pivot. Except that Minnesota Nice kicks in.

The source on this particular story? Ken Silverstein, who isn't just J. Random Blogger.

One candidate had ties to National Socialists, and it isn't Obama.

Dear Anonymous,

If you'd ever met a socialist, you might be a little more skeptical of this stuff. I sure wish that Obama was a closet socialist. Hell, I wish McCain was a closet socialist. Sadly, there's no empirical basis for either wish.

Again, because you've never met a real socialist, you are so panicked by the prospect of a guy who once talked to a socialist that you don't get the difference between "pandered to" and "was."

Why do we need "accusations" of "hidden" socialism when the Bush Jr. administration itself is close to nationalizing our largest banks?

What, are the Democratic Socialists of America going to disagree?

Hell, if we'd have handed the entire national economy over to the Democratic Socialists of America, they'd probably have been less ham-handedly interventionist than the Bush Jr. administration.

Shut the f*** up 'Anonymous' copy & paster, get your blankie, and just go cry in a corner about how you and the whole sh*tty, awful Reagan legacy are about to get your a** kicked on November 4th.

That guy has a really lousy job.

Nothing dissuades an anonymous troll like every single subsequent commenter taking them on.

norbizness: Aw, c'mon, can't we please kick them while they're down? They'd do it for us!

Whoops. Anonymous, he gone. Now it looks like I derailed the thread all by myself.

On a purely superficial note, the guy is kinda cute. (Umm, sorry!)

What I don't understand is, why didn't he just lie? "No, Senator Coleman always bought his own suit." That worked so well for White House spokesman, right? He could even have a book deal at the end of it - I WAS DUPED: COLEMAN'S SHAMEFUL SECRET SUITS.

You think politicians would eventually get a clue that accepting lots of free trips and gifts is not a politically smart move. They can pretty much take any of this stuff if they become lobbyists, or consultants, once their out of office, with few consequences. Impatience, impatience.

It's so unfair. Times have changed so much, back from the days when senators and congressmen had safes in their office to keep the bribe money, because "that's just how business is done in Washington".

I am surprised that this didn't get brought up. The fact that Senator Coleman rents a room (seems at below market rates). And in the same house, are the offices for a consulting firm that works for groups that are running ads on behalf of Norm.

There is no proof of coordination, but they are in the same house!

http://wcco.com/politics/fec.complaint.coleman.2.820660.html

That guy has a really lousy job.

I like to think of him as Minnesota's answer to Scott McClellan. His sad-puppy routine earns him some pity, but ultimately his situation is his own damn fault.

What does Norm Coleman's wife do for that company???

Well, Bud Dwyer had the roughest press conference ever...