Norm Coleman is Our GOP Hypocrite This Week for Pinching Pennies Only When it Suits his Cause

(Wanna be) Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Delusional)

Welcome back to the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week. 

When you're locked in a contentious battle to keep your prestigious job, it's tough to keep other people's interests in mind. But when serving the public is your job, walking that line becomes a necessity.

Some people do it better than others. One man, who is showing us with each passing day that he is not cut out for the true definition of public servant in Minnesota, is sure to lose his Senate seat yet is determined to take his state's fiscal reserves down with him.

Norm Coleman fought a contentious battle over his U.S. Senate seat against writer and comedian Al Franken. The tally on Election Night had Coleman up by less than 1,000 votes. Back then, Coleman was so confident he'd maintain his lead that he tried to shame Franken into give up immediately, even though the state constitution mandated an automatic recount.

From an Associated Press story filed the day after Election Day:

"It's up to him whether such a step is worth the tax dollars it will take to conduct," Coleman said, telling reporters he would "step back" if he were in Franken's position trailing in the vote...

Coleman said the odds of anything changing with a recount are "extremely remote." Coleman also encouraged Franken to handle it the "Minnesota way" by not dragging it out in the courts.

As the days wore on, Coleman's lead diminished, but his gusto continued unabated. By the time the recount officially ended, Franken was up by 225 votes.

It's been a real mood swing of a post-election season, and Coleman is clearly not ready to give up on the drama. Now that his chances of holding onto his seat have slipped from "extremely remote" to impossible, Coleman is proposing a whole new election. So much for stepping back.

But as Time Magazine puts it, Coleman's do-over proposal is unlikely to gain any traction in Minnesota:

As the state retrenches in the face of a $4.5 billion deficit, another election would be costly, even if feasible. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie says it would cost the state between $3.5 and $5 million.

"It's pure fantasy, pure baloney."

As Talking Points Memo notes, the recount Coleman was so worried about foisting upon taxpayers cost "in the low single-digits as a percentage of the cost of a new election."

Even without the re-vote, Coleman's litigious whining has been expensive for the state well beyond the $120,000 recount. So much for the "Minnesota way." From Talking Points Memo again:

The state has to pay more after the recount proper, as a result of Coleman's lawsuit to overturn Franken's margin. In the time since Coleman brought the election contest, the Secretary of State's office has put in another $55,000. And [Minnesota Secretary of State Jim] Gelbmann is sure that local election officials throughout the state and the courts have cumulatively had to put in far more than the total $175,000 that his own office has paid during the two periods.

Thankfully, as Franken's lead attorney told us earlier this week, the end is near. And, though he refuses to admit it, Coleman seems to realize that fact as well. In fact, Coleman took a full-time, salaried job with the Republican Jewish Coalition in January, one which he could not legally keep if he were a U.S. senator.

Coleman insists all the legal bills from all his many court challenges are putting him in an economic crisis, hence the need for the new consulting job. Yet he doesn't seem to care about putting his cash-strapped state through further financial strain. And that's why he's our GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.

Believe it or not, this is Norm Coleman's first GOP Hypocrite of the Week Award. Welcome to the club! You can see a list of all previous nominees here.

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