I understand primary challenger Priscilla Lord Faris's argument. I really do. Al Franken is not a good candidate; fine, I can appreciate that. Hell, I've been saying it for months. But the irony behind Faris's campaign is that she's not helping herself or the DFL party; she's running a scorched-earth campaign that is doing more than Norm Coleman ever could to assure his victory.

According to her website, here's why Faris is running:

Make no mistake:  I am in this race to win.  My candidacy is 100 percent aimed at replacing Norm Coleman this November with a U.S. senator whose legislative and policy positions are consistent with the views and priorities of most Minnesotans...

I am concerned that the Franken campaign has squandered a lead and fallen behind in the polls even as Barack Obama has opened up a wide double-digit lead.  All the facts are showing that he is way behind in the polls and he has had two years & millions of dollars to work nonstop as a campaigner. The Washington Post has downgraded Franken's chances of winning as the lowest.  As a Minnesotan, I couldn't sit by and let this happen.  This is why I am running for US Senate and intend to represent the values of my fellow Minnesotans.

But with her tactics, how does Faris believe she could possibly win the election? Her scorched-earth campaign will surely turn off most DFLers, while doing nothing to attract moderates or swing voters. Her  strategy has been to use any means necessary to attack Franken. When I say "any means necessary," I mean she has sold her soul to the very people she claims to be running against. She has fed an endless stream of nasty press releases to Republican blog Minnesota Democrats Exposed, and even appeared in a Norm Coleman ad. She's going to the only people who will listen to her; surely she has to understand why they're so eager to amplify her views. Blue Man in a Red District also has some great information on some of her other shady connections.

I can't help but wonder: what is Faris's true motivation? And if she is really interested in beating Norm Coleman, how in the world will she accomplish that after months of relying on Republicans for support?

By the way, here's Faris's appearance in the Coleman ad. Her own negative ads are really helping Coleman to stretch his own budget.

Crossposted to the Twin Cities Daily Liberal

John McCain, desperately trying to seize upon the one topic he has some leverage with, derided an aside of Barack Obama's regarding gas conservation. He and MN Governor Tim Pawlenty seized on a comment Obama made that maintaining proper tire pressure could help save gas. Clearly, this is pretty lame. McCain is taking a single line from Obama's comments out of context. That's pretty typical political hack work, but nothing unusual.

But check out this insight from David Brauer at MinnPost, a Minnesota news site:

According to fueleconomy.gov, gas use drops 3.3 percent when tire pressure is right, offering a bigger savings than, say, offshore drilling.

Brauer has a fantastic point here. Recently, on my personal blog, I showed that that the conservative energy plan would save us $1 per barrel of oil in 2030. John McCain should avoid taking Obama's comments out of context when even Obama's small ideas pack more of a punch than McCain's major policy initiatives.

Crossposted to the Twin Cities Daily Liberal

Remember Norm Coleman's nasty ad last week? Well, I predicted people wouldn't be fooled, and it looks like I was right. After engaging in a brief round of character assassination, Coleman returned with a heartwarming human interest story, a far cry from the negative campaigning I was expecting to continue throughout the race.

I can't help but wonder why Coleman decided to back off. Has Coleman's internal polling shown a negative response to his nasty politics? His negative ad was immediately followed by a great ad from Franken; are Coleman's pollsters finally seeing a rise in the polls for Franken?

This is pure speculation, but I'm looking forward to the next round of polls to see if Coleman knows something we don't yet.

Here's the text of Coleman's new ad, via the St. Paul Pioneer Press's Political Animal:

"Wyatt was diagnosed with Wilms' Tumor, which is a form of childhood kidney cancer in February of 2004. On a routine screening, they found a spot on his right kidney. We knew that there needed to be more research done for Wilms' Tumor, because the drugs that we were using were drugs that were developed in the 1960s. We attended a meeting for CureSearch, and within two hours of being in the meeting, we knew that there was no funding for childhood cancer. We had eight meetings that day, and Senator Coleman's office was the last meeting of the day. We knew before we left his office that he was going to help us do something about the lack of funding for Childhood Cancer. And then in the months after that, Senator Coleman authored the Conquer Childhood Cancer Act. Senator Coleman is a lifeline for every family of a child who has been diagnosed with cancer. He's not just my Senator. He's my friend."

It might not surprise you that the answer is "no." He doesn't care about your price at the pump; all he cares about is increasing profits for the oil companies that have donated $210,000 to his campaign. That's the only possible reason for some of his ridiculous votes and fuzzy math.

Let's look at his ridiculous votes first. Coleman's campaign said he "voted against last week's [proposal to reduce oil speculation] because it lacked an offshore provision." Let me see if I understand this correctly: Coleman believes that oil speculation is hurting Americans, but he won't fix it unless we allow more drilling to increase oil companies' windfall profits. Clearly, Coleman's not being motivated by a desire to help Minnesotans.

Now, in the fuzzy math department, Coleman has essentially admitted that his offshore drilling plan is useless. He has criticized Al Franken's plan to sell 50 million barrels from the strategic oil reserve between now and election day, saying it would make only an "incremental difference." But Franken's plan would provide at least 30% more oil per day than Coleman's plan for offshore drilling. I've explained previously why conservatives' plans to lower gas prices are useless, and Coleman's is no better.

Now, I'll admit I don't believe Franken's plan will be helpful. Why? Because adding small amounts of oil to the supply in a global market hardly causes prices to budge. The exact same principle applies to Coleman's plan to dramatically expand drilling, just to produce an amount of oil he has already admitted will not have an impact on prices. So, if Coleman admits that this won't lower prices, why is he so focused on offshore drilling? You guessed it: $210,000 is a lot of money.

George W. Bush and the Republicans' plan to redistribute Americans' income to the wealthiest 1 percent is working quite well. The Republicans, while claiming they're looking out for "regular folks", have been cutting services for the middle class and transferring the savings to the wealthiest Americans.

The Wall Street Journal reported today:

In a new sign of increasing inequality in the U.S., the richest 1% of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation's adjusted gross income for two decades, and possibly the highest since 1929, according to Internal Revenue Service data. Meanwhile, the average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years.

I don't know that it's possible to be overly horrified at this. We are returning to the robber-baron period of the 1920s, after decades of progress on income inequality. And what's worse, the Republicans are telling us that we should continue to lower the taxes on the wealthiest.

The wealthiest in our country owe this nation everything. Our nation's strong economy, its investments in infrastructure and education, its preeminence in the world, and its healthy middle class have provided the foundation on which entrepreneurs have built their fortunes. Without the platform provided by our nation and its citizens, they would have nothing, and they, more than anyone, have cause to give back.

We once had a system in which we invested in our citizens, and anyone could dream of one day being wealthy. But now, our Republican government has decided to kill the American dream--if you're rich, you'll stay rich, and if you're poor, you'll stay poor. Over the last 20 years, they've shown that they have absolutely no connection with what has made our country the greatest nation. They can wear flag pins all they want; their policies show that they don't love this country, they just love themselves.

Crossposted to the Twin Cities Daily Liberal

From the diaries - Josh

Despite all of his negative ads and attempts to change the subject, Norm "W" Coleman is going to have to debate the issues sometime. Now, Al Franken has responded to Norm's negativity with a great ad that expresses remorse for some of his past jokes, and then steers the conversation back to the issues.

From the script:

I'm not proud of every joke I've ever told, but I know there's a difference between what you say as a comedian and what you do as a U.S. Senator. Norm Coleman has supported George Bush's war on Iraq, and he's taking millions from big oil and special interests. Unfortunately, that's no joke.

Last week, I wrote on my personal blog that Franken's new communications director had to do three things:

1. Institute a "zero-tolerance policy" against Norm Coleman's attacks.
   
2. Re-introduce Al to Minnesotans.
   
3. Relentlessly turn the conversation to the issues, where Coleman is the most vulnerable.

I think this ad accomplishes at least two of those goals, if not all three. Bravo to Team Franken for turning things around!

Here's the ad:

"Flip-flopping" is yet another Republican phrase that Democrats have allowed into our communications. We need to stop using it ASAP. Call them liars, crooks, etc., but not "flip-floppers."

So many Democrats out there don't seem to understand that when we use Republicans' language, we lose. In fact, we love to use the same attack language they use. Here's a tip: it does not help our cause. A great example came during the DFL convention in Rochester. Howard Dean spoke against John McCain, and one of his biggest applause lines a list of policies which "he voted for, before he voted against it." Now why would the leader of our party want to remind people of one of John Kerry's biggest flubs of the campaign?

Democrats, in general, are amused with the irony of using Republicans' language. But the irony doesn't translate well. Instead, we just wind up as the party that can't come up with its own message.

Yesterday, on my personal blog, I wrote about Norm Coleman's feigned outrage over a simple compare-and-contrast ad produced by Democratic senate candidate Al Franken. Coleman's campaign fumed: "Al Franken has launched the first television attack ad of 2008 and is going negative in a big way against Senator Coleman."

Well, check out this piece of filth: