| The more I look at the National Journal's account of Norm Coleman's interlocking professional and residential relationship with K-Street fixer Jeff Larson, the more I think there are some real media bombshells coming for Coleman this coming week.
As much attention as the Laurie Coleman "I'm a true family man, see?" ad got, the National Journal story is so much worse. As bad as Adgate was in terms of giving a false image of Coleman's personal life, the pieces of the NJ story present potential violations of the spirit, if not the letter, of the law.
Let's review:
- K-Street Fixer provides lodging Senator lodging for what has to be less than fair market value.
- Senator misses a few payments, but it's okay, because K-Street Fixer/Landlord is cool with it.
- Senator pays K-Street Fixer/Landlord for missed rent after National Journal asks about it.
- Senator also pays K-Street Fixer/Landlord for at least one month's rent in furniture. This may be because Senator does not currently indicate ownership of a checking account, which leads Senator's wife to write rent checks for him. But seriously? Furniture?
 Senator also pays K-Street Fixer/Landlord's wife for constituent casework under her maiden name.- Senator pays K-Street Fixer/Landlord's consulting firm more than a million dollars over the course of his first term for campaign-related work.
- K-Street Fixer/Landlord's close associates donate to Senator's campaign, money which ends up, in part, back in K-Street Fixer/Landlord's pocket for Lobbyist/Landlord's political consulting work for Senator.
How can there not be some kind of official inquiry into these questionable relationships coming, and soon? Was Dorene Kainz qualified to do constituent casework for Minnesotans due to her work as a homemaker from Wisconsin (according to her stated profession on numerous donations to Republican candidates including one Coleman, Norm (R)? Maybe she had plenty of experience in constituent services earlier in her career and then quit to become a homemaker, and that'd be fine. But she's still the wife of a Washington political operator with some seriously questionable business interactions with a sitting United States Senator. It begs an inquiry, at very least.
As with so many stories in this election cycle, the local media bears watching as well: when the National Journal story broke, the Pioneer Press had a story up quickly, but where was the Star-Tribune? Right now, the Strib's most recent website headline that mentions Coleman is about the most recent poll showing Barack Obama and Coleman ahead in their respective races. That's all well and good, it's just stale like old bread. If a story about a potentially really bad situation for a sitting U.S. Senator is good enough for the rest of the traditional media in the Twin Cities (such as it is) is it not good enough, newsworthy enough for the Star-Tribune?
So it's going to be a bad week for Coleman -- mark my words. But it should be a bad week for the Star-Tribune leadership as well: for a newspaper that's supposed to be the leading source of news in the Twin Cities, it sure seems like they're dropping the ball at Strib HQ when it comes to determining what constitutes "important news."
I do like the Gardening section, though. Good info in there. Timely. Important.
**Update**: Changed "Lobbyist" to "K-Street Fixer, since, as an eagle-eyed reader noticed, Larson is not a federally registered lobbyist. |
