True North

Last night, I joined several of my MOB friends for a blogger conference call with Norm Coleman. Norm was on his A game last night. Sen. Coleman started the call with a brief monologue about Al Franken's tax troubles. Sen. Coleman said that it wasn't that Franken owed lots of money in taxes--he doesn't--it's that it showed that he isn't willing to take responsibility when something goes wrong. I agree.

Franken has offered a litany of 'the dog ate my homework' type of excuses since Michael exposed him. Sen. Coleman said that Minnesotans have a simple view on this issue: If you owe taxes, you pay them and you don't make excuses.

Sen. Coleman also spoke briefly about a deal signed by outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush. If President Bush signs it and sends it to Congress, it will go into effect 90 days after Congress receives it unless Congress votes it down. Sen. Coleman is opposing the deal. He said that we need to go back to the Russians and demand that they cease helping the Iranians get a nuclear capability before going forward with this deal.

Frankly, that's another example of why Sen. Coleman is superior to Franken. Could you picture Al Franken figuring this out, much less opposing the deal? I can't. I also can't picture Franken working across the aisle, which is what Sen. Coleman is doing. In fact, Sen. Coleman's teamed with Evan Bayh, one of the few Democrats that takes national security seriously.

One thing that appealed to last night's bloggers was Sen. Coleman saying that he really appreciated the opportunity to talk with bloggers because they give him an opportunity to talk about issues on an in-depth level, something he says doesn't happen with the MSM. One of the things Sen. Coleman spoke in-depth about last night was energy policy, specifically ethanol and clean coal technology.

Sen. Coleman said that we need to move away from grain-based ethanol and start emphasizing cellulosic ethanol production. Sen. Coleman says that it's important to start building nuclear power plants, to develop fuels based on clean coal technology and to drill off our coasts.

Finally, Sen. Coleman is working diligently on the mortgage crisis. He's opposed to Sen. Durbin's "cramdown" approach. Instead, he favors making available fixed rate mortgage money, which the homeowner would have to repay. It would just eliminate the exhorbitant payments they're currently getting buried by.

He isn't in favor of bailing out speculators who simply got stuck while trying to make money on the housing market. I agree with that. People that make commitments while trying to make money know that there's risks involved. If they get hung out to dry, that's part of the inherent risk involved in speculating.

All in all, it was an informative, impressive conversation on some important issues. I'll just speak for myself in saying that I look forward to these conversations because Sen. Coleman is an impressive legislator. We're fortunate to have him representing us.

Comments welcome at LFR.