| My guess is "No."
Here are some comparable listings in the neighborhood of Norm Coleman's sweetheart living arrangements in our nation's capital:
"Cozy One Bedroom" Two blocks from Coleman's posh digs, listed at $1450/month.
$1325 A Month For A "Beautiful Studio" In an apartment building two blocks away...
English Basement Studio listed at $1100/Month.
$950 To Share Capitol Hill English Basement with roommate whose boyfriend sleeps over once or twice a week...
Oh, and raise your hand if you saw the GOP's "It's not so bad because see? A LIBRUL DEMOCRAT DID IT TOO TWENTY YEARS AGO OMG LOLLERSK4T3S!!" spin. What I get from Brodkorb's eloquent rhetoric here is the Republican Party admitting (through its loyal mouthpiece, as always) that Coleman has done some very bad things, but if they can make it a bipartisan bad thing, it's not quite as bad.
Good luck with that. Paging CREW...
All snark aside, there's an important issue here that we could be addressing: is it better to be represented by a rich man who may not be from the salt of the earth crowd, but doesn't need the help of political consultants to afford a place to crash in D.C., or a poor man who takes sweetheart deals like these for who-knows-what in return?
Let's lay it out on the table: Al Franken came from humble beginnings in St. Louis Park, but has made quite a name and quite a bit of bank for himself in the process. Norm Coleman went into a not-as-profitable legal practice, later became Mayor of St. Paul (which, if I remember correctly, isn't exactly lucrative) and then became a U.S. Senator. It's sad when $160,000 or so isn't that much money, but there it is -- he does have a house here in Minnesota, and he does have to stay somewhere in Washington. The expenses add up. But so do the IOUs and favors that will eventually and inevitably be called in.
So which is better? The dollar-rich but IOU-poor entertainer looking to make a difference in the world, or the guy who increasingly looks like he's bought and paid for by the men who helped get him where he is today...
And their furniture. I wonder how many months of rent that chaise lounge could buy on the open market... |
