This 1970 photo is of a young New York college student named Norm Coleman who is today a conservative, redmeat Republican senator from Minnesota. Alternet’s Evan Derkacz describes the once-long-haired stud as a Jewish kid from New York who became “Minnesota’s anti-gay, anti-woman, pro-war Senator.”
Why dredge up this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde morph-over now? Because liberal firebrand and comedian Al Franken is readying a Democratic Senate bid against Coleman. There’s already some mumbling in the Coleman camp about Harvard-educated Franken, one-time Saturday Night Live star, representing “Hollywood values” and being out of touch with Minnesota.
Franken’s retort:
“If I do run against Norm Coleman in ’08, I’ll be the only New York Jew in the race who actually grew up in Minnesota.”
Both Franken and Coleman were born in New York, but Franken moved to Minnesota when he was a kid. Coleman grew up in Brooklyn, New York.
In 1998, journalist David Schimke with the Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages dug up this little tidbit of a comment made by Coleman during his college days on Long Island:
“I know these conservative kids don’t fuck or get high like we do (purity, you know)…. Already the cries of motherhood, apple pie, and Jim Buckley reverberate thorough the halls of the Student Center. Everyone watch out, the 1950s bobby-sox generation is about to take over.”
Coleman isn’t the only swing hitter in politics. Hillary Clinton once campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1964. Arianna Huffington was one of Newt Gingrich’s most energetic cheerleaders in the mid-1990s.
