Conservatives unhappy with Norm Coleman, Part II

A report of Senatorial partisan voting habits came out recently. Norm Coleman (R-MN) had a rating of 64% in 2007. Norm voted with the Republicans 64% of the time in an effort to appear more moderate because of his upcoming 2008 reelection bid. This isn't sitting so well with the conservative base.

This is a great example of what I mean when I say "wayward Republican". You can't take the conservative base for granted. We expect results, and that isn't a one time deal on election night.

Leo wants to have a talk Mr. Senator.

Your base– you know, the ones that work for you and give you money to get you elected–would like to have a talk with you, Norm. With a RINO voting record like that, who the hell needs democrats?

So would a lot of others. If you don't start to reconnect with your base, Senator, and I mean stat, this sort of news and revelation on your record is going to spell your demise. You've voted against the best interest of limited government conservatives in the party a number of times, and we're stubborn elephants with a long memory.
(Residual Forces)

This demonstrates the difficulty of the political gymnastics Norm needs to perform. On the one hand he has to keep the wingnut base happy -- the folks who will volunteer on his campaign -- and on the other hand appear moderate.

Here's a telling quip in the comments:

We all have our limitations on time, money and energy, and you are right, there are a lot of candidates more "deserving" than Norm out there to defend or promote. We don't even have to be "against" the opponent– a positive message works much better and on that, I DO fault the Coleman campaign.

Closed circuit to The Senator: Enough with trying to scare us with Al Franken, already. None of us were ever going to vote for him, anyway. What we want is to have a reason to vote FOR you, and to do that, you need to vote for us– and better than 64% of the time. Those who are paying the most attention to your votes are those those with the votes you need the most, who will pound signs, contribute and generally make the effort. It's like you always say, "A leader without followers is just a guy out for a walk."
(J. Ewing's comment on the post at Residual Force)