Norm Coleman: No More Mr. Mean Guy?

It's amazing what's happened to Senator Norm Coleman this election year. He has transformed himself from just another Republican politician in thrall to President George W. Bush's administration into Mr. Bipartisan, selling himself to Minnesota voters as a man who seeks support from Democrats to get important legislation passed in this era of bad feeling between the two parties.

Recently, Coleman decided to drop those ads trashing his Democratic opponent Al Franken, citing the worsening economic situation. Which means that we won't be seeing any more of those ads depicting Franken as a raving lunatic who wrote sex jokes and doesn't pay his taxes. They've been replaced by new ads featuring his daughter and a cute kid living with cancer. Who knows? The Bowling Alley Guys might stage a comeback.

Could this kinder, gentler approach have anything to do with Coleman's poll numbers, which are now falling behind Franken and just ahead of Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley? Naah!

Coleman's opponents aren't buying this Mr. Nice Guy act. Among other things, they say, the Senator has been in Bush's back pocket way too much, takes favors from special interests, and--along with the rest of Congress--has been asleep at the wheel when it came to reining in those Wall Street executives getting rich off of other people's money. Even those independent organizations who support Coleman have yet to back off from their negative advertising.

Whether the new-and-improved Coleman convinces enough voters to give him another six year term remains to be seen. He's gone through more changes than David Bowie: Brooklynite to Minnesotan, campus anti-Vietnam War activist to conservative U.S. Senator, Democrat to Republican, etc. It's hard to know where Norm Coleman the Chameleon ends and Norm Coleman the man begins, and that's why he's an election target.