Mere hours after we originally reported on the issue, Norm Coleman’s campaign is featured in a front page article on MPR’s website apologizing for the inappropriate seeding of two identical letters to the editor. MPR reports:
Republican Sen. Norm Coleman’s re-election campaign is apologizing to two Minnesota newspapers for two nearly identical letters to the editor that ended up published under two different names. The campaign acknowledges a staffer was behind the letters.
The letters, critical of DFL Senate candidate Al Franken, appeared in the Minnesota Daily and the Winona Daily News.
Coleman campaign spokesman Cullen Sheehan said one of his staffers sent the letters to at least two people who then sent them to the newspapers under their own name.
Sheehan said the letters should not have been sent to the newspapers the way they were.
“It’s a mistake, but in the realm of the campaign, it’s a mistake you learn from, and you move on and it’s not going to happen again.”
The Franken campaign said it wants to know if the Coleman campaign has used similar tactics in the past.
The full story along with the text of the two letters can be found in our post from earlier today.
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Well, he certainly looks contrite in the pic.
Is that guy actually married or what?
Hey check out one of my favorite websites crooksandliars.com. They have picked up this story. Be sure to read the comments. As noted, the Repuglicans have been doing this kind of stuff for years. It’s just now that people are fed up with the lies from the right, the Dems are organized and not going to take it anymore!
Bye Normy!
Another signal, when a Repuglican scandal opens up and Brodkorb sends a memo to his spawn like Swiftee to try to put a cork in it before it gets legs, you know it is really damaging to the Repuglican, and true!
I dunno, it doesn’t seem like too big of a deal to me. Form letters are form letters. It doesn’t seem to fit “scandal.”
Morons in CD1 trying to screw each other over … that fits “scandal”
He looks like he got caught with his hand in the Cookie Jar.
“Oh, I got caught? I am so, so sorry. Really. Honest. I ‘promise’ I won’t do it again,”
Did anyone notice the crossed fingers behind his back?
It’s pretty amazing that a campaign sending out sample letters to the editor to supporters (and then having the supporters publish the letters) is a scandal. If you read the Star Tribune and the Rochester Post Bulletin and the Mankato Free Press and the Duluth Tribune, all of the DFL letters pretty much repeat the same DFL points anyway. What’s the big deal?
It is easy to paint Al as angry and unhinged because everyone knows he is.
Norm Coleman is just the opposite, he’s not angry about anything. That’s why Norm will win in a landslaide. http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh312/TFRWGuy/NotAngryAtAll.jpg
Using the same points is not the same as word for word regurgitation. But Chris, Normy apologized. In other words he admitted they did something… oh what’s the word?… oh yeah, “WRONG”.
Hey guys I appreciate all the comments and the support, but I have to say that using the word “Repuglican” doesn’t help our cause. Obviously you’re welcome to do whatever you want, but using childish, insulting terms shouldn’t be part of our MO.
Gee you mean like when every one of the GOP criminals uses Democrat Party instead of Democratic Party? Matt I’ll get right on that polite thing when they do… or when it matters which ever comes first. Or we could stop losing our country to these criminals and fight back.
Astroturf LTE are a norm in my local conservative newspaper. Conservatives, for the most part, can’t think for themselves.
And what about the students who didn’t write the letters but still submitted them? Doesn’t that violate a university’s student code of behavior? Good thing I’m not an administrator, they’d be out on their butt.
You mean the reichwing RepubliCONs are not able to write their own letters? As ususal, they use RNC talking points, otherwise they’d be speechless. When you have nothing but George Bush to offer the American public, you start out in the gutter with the rest of the bush crime family. Why arent’ these republiCON “college students” in Iraq if they support their president so much? Oh I forgot, republiCONs are all show and NO GO.
Here’s a “heads up” on this campaign tactic. http://www.headzup.tv/wuhzup/2008/03/headzup-norm-colemans-letters-to-the-editor/