Norm and Iraq: he will say anything

There's a new blog on the Minnesota scene, The Uptake. I've gotta say it is citizen journalism at its best. After the organized protest earlier that day, some folks walked over to Sen. Norm Coleman's house and staged a mini Iraq War protest. He came out to talk with them. Listen to Norm dissemble, dodge, weave and parse yourself. I'll analyze a few choice morsels below.

Here are a few choice quotes.

Some may disagree but we’re fighting a fight were we are against Al-Qaeda; foreign fighters come from other countries and we battle them; that’s the battle of terrorism right there. On the other hand we shouldn’t be in the middle of a civil war so that’s the challenge.“
(The Uptake)

Actually, we are in Iraq because the Bush Administration claimed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He does not and will not recognize that we are in Iraq because of a lie. Furthermore, Iraq descended into civil war because of the incompetence of the Bush Administration. Norm will not recognize this, either.

Norm overlooks so many inconvenient facts that do not fit in with his version of reality in which the Bush Administration is not mind-bogglingly incompetent, comprehensively corrupt and pathologically incapable of telling the truth. He works so hard to sound reasonable and like he's agreeing with whatever position his audience holds, yet he only listens to find a way in which to twist their argument into something that sounds like it fits more with what he believes.

Like this bit. A person in the crowd pointed out that nobody talks to him about Iraq because everyone knows his mind is made up and that he supports Bush 100% (I'm paraphrasing). Norm responds (2:02 until 2:24 of the vid):

I disagree uh with the President ... uh ... I, I, I, I agree with him and I disagree with him ... [laughter from crowd] ... I disagree with him on disaster assistance, I disagree with him on [mumbles incoherently] funding, I disagree with I that things I that again I have to tell ya I don't call him up and ask him what he thinks, I try to represent you. And on this issues, and on this issue I was uh by the way I was one of the ones I didn't think the surge would work and by the way ..."

"And you were right," A woman says from the crowd. Most everybody in the crowd laughs.

I have done my best to recreate the way he actually talks and have not cleaned it up to make him sound more coherent. Listening to him is difficult. He will say whatever he thinks the group he's in front of wants to hear. As you can see from the vid, this group was a little more savvy and used to his parsing and lying.

Furthermore and from the record, he initially said that he was opposed to the surge, then said he was only opposed to the surge in Baghdad but for it in Al Anbar province, then highlighted his opposition to the opposition to the surge then voted for the surge and lately after meeting with Gen. Petraeus in Iraq during Labor Day weekend even said that he was wrong originally because the surge had worked. He even sounded shocked when he said he was wrong! Did you follow all that? No? Your only supposed to hear the part about him making sounds that make you think he opposed President Bush. Just pay attention to his position today and don't look back at things in the past that might show that he's either lying now, was lying then or can't keep things straight anymore.

Once again, great stuff from The Uptake.