(7/26/07) President Bush's MN approval ratings from Survey USA:

29% approve
68% disapprove
3% undecided

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Norm was one of the lead defenders of Karl Rove during the investigation of the Bush Administration's outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Ari Berman provides the details in Norm Coleman: Minister of Agitprop:

Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman ☼ is once again playing the coveted role of Republican Minister of Agitprop. Leading the smear campaign against Kofi Annan wasn't enough for the once-moderate Mayor of St. Paul. Now he's been hand-picked by the Republican leadership to be one of Karl Rove's "principle defenders in Congress."

Norm loves John Bolton. Man-love between conservatives is never a pretty thing, so you'll have to click on the link for the details.

MPR reports: Seven months ago at the state Republican State Convention in Minneapolis, Coleman compared President Bush's efforts in Iraq to that of Abraham Lincoln's during the Civil War. [However, now in Jan. 2007 o]ne of those asking the questions was Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. He's been a strong supporter of the Iraq war but is a vocal critic of President Bush's latest plan. Read the whole of the article here (1/16/07)

Partisan voting record
2003 98% (via Wikipedia)
2004 84% American Conservative Union ranking
2005 ??
2006 88% Congressional Quarterly Presidential Support score
2007 79% So far this year (5/31/07, Wash Post)

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Jonathan Singer at MyDD reports several numbers about Norm's partisanship in 2006 and has some interesting commentary:

It's worth noting that because the National Journal rankings deal in percentiles rather than hard numbers, a particular Senator might appear more moderate than he or she deserves credit for. For instance, Norm Coleman's 53.8 conservative score would seem to put him not too far out of line with his Minnesota constituents, but a gander at his party unity and presidential support scores -- 77 and 88, respectively -- paints a different picture: one of a Senator too beholden to his party's leadership.

(7/25/07) Norm is once again tilting at his favorite windmill, the United Nations. This time its the Human Rights Council. He wants to ban any further US contributions to the UN to go to the HRC which is a flip flop from his earlier position. To fully understand this, a little background is necessary: The United States left the island before it was voted off the island.

Read all about Norm's ulterior motives for defunding the UN's Human Rights Council

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(7/5/07) Norm supports Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby. Norm enables and supports the lawlessness of President Bush. Defending the indefensible is really difficult, but Norm bravely tries.

Read more about it...

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(5/31/07) When not in front of a conservative audience, Norm will be claiming that he's a moderate. However, Norm still votes with the President on an important issue ... or at least as the rest of the Republicans are according to Paul Kane (Capitol Briefing):

Fresh off winning election to the Senate in the fall of 2002, Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) entered the chamber as a staunch conservative, voting with a majority of his GOP colleagues nearly 94 percent of the time in the 108th Congress.

In 2005 and 2006, Coleman sided with a majority of Republicans on less than 85 percent of the votes he cast in the 109th Congress. Now, facing re-election in 2008 in a state that's grown increasingly hostile to Republicans, Coleman is voting with his GOP colleagues just 79 percent of the time so far this year.

Coleman's not alone. Across the board, Republicans have shed their partisan natures while Democrats have grown more sure ideologically in the first five months of the 110th Congress. The average GOP senator voted with a majority of Republicans on nearly 92 percent of roll calls in the 108th -- while Democrats stood at less than 85 percent. And so far this year the average Senate Republican has voted with his or her majority just 83 percent of the time. (Democrats are now voting together 90 percent of the time.)
(WashPost)

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(5/21/07) Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) past up genuine opportunity to show he's a moderate by voting against the 2008 budget bill. In prior years, Norm had voted for Republican budget bills that:

• underfunded vet programs while he claimed to support the troops
• provided tax cuts for the middle class
• jacked up the deficit while he talked about fiscal responsibility
• provided funding for State's Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)

Now he's voting against the Democrat's 2008 budget bill that would:

• fully fund veteran's programs
• provide tax cuts for the middle class
• begin actually balancing our nation's budget
• provide up to $50 billion to expand coverage and improve children’s health care through SCHIP

One of two things have occurred. Either Norm has flip-flopped on his earlier positions or he is voting against things he supports because he is voting the Republican Party line. Whichever it is, it isn't good for Norm's credibility. Either he's the chameleon-like flip-flopper which he's been accused of or he's the solid conservative who votes the party line. Norm always claims that he's a solid conservative when he's in front of conservative audiences.

Norm was part of the Bush Administration's slandering of John Kerry

4/02/04
Everybody remembers how the Bush Administration (made up mostly of draft-evaders), their trolls and the compliant media slandered war hero and Democractic Presidential candidate John Kerry. Who can forget Swift Boat Veterans for Truth? What many people have forgotten is that Norm played a large roll in slandering Kerry as well.

The Bush campaign has recruited Sen. Norm Coleman to paint presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry as weak on defense and a flip-flopper, despite Coleman's own reputation for changing political positions.

Coleman, in fact, is a former Democrat who left the party in 1996, the same year he co-chaired Bill Clinton's re-election campaign in Minnesota.

"Coleman's flip-flopping is legendary," said Mandy Grunwald, a Democratic media consultant. "Flip-flopping is not a topic that he should be opening his mouth on."

Added Kerry spokesman Bill Burton: "He's probably one of the only senators who has voted for both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush."
(MPR)

Mr. Glistening-Whitened-Teeth, Mr. Bush-Loyalist, Mr. Pot-Smokin'-Hippie, Mr. Former-MN-State-Chair-of-Bill-Clinton's-relection-campaign, Mr. Anti-War-Activist-Turned-War-Cheerleader, Mr. Tool-du-Nord, Mr. Political-Gymnastics, Mr. Partisanship-Is-Bad-Unless-I-Do-It had the gall to slime the Democratic Presidential Candidate.

"If Norm Coleman is seen as an attack dog, that could hurt him," Schier said. "Strong partisanship is seldom appealing to many Minnesota voters."

Coleman acknowledged that he does risk a backlash among voters.

"But I get back to my belief that I can be most effective for Minnesota by working with this president," said Coleman, who prides himself on a close relationship with the administration that has paid off for the state.
(MPR)

Just in case anyone forgot Norm wasn above sliming an opponent.

(taken by Alex Wong of Getty Images)