While Al Franken is out fighting for seniors today, Norm Coleman rolled out a more-of-the-same health care policy this morning. The kicker is that Coleman did so with Dave Durenberger. From the New York Times, July 26, 1990: (emphasis mine)
The Senate took the rare step of punishing one of its own members today, denouncing Senator Dave Durenberger for bringing ”dishonor and disrepute” to the institution through improper financial dealings.
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The session opened late this afternoon when Senator Howell Heflin, the Ethics Committee chairman, spoke somberly and in great detail about Senator Durenberger’s violations of Senate rules in supplementing his income through book promotion and real estate deals.
”The evidence of knowing and willful misconduct,” said Senator Heflin, an Alabama Democrat, ”is clear and convincing, and far more troubling than Senator Durenberger’s admitted negligence, lack of wisdom or asserted misplaced reliance on others.”
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…he evaded limits on the amount of speaking fees members can receive from private groups by converting $100,000 worth into promotional fees for two books he wrote. The other was that he engaged in an elaborate financial scheme to lease a condominium he owned in Minneapolis so that he could collect $40,055 in travel reimbursements from the Senate.
What is it with Norm Coleman and shady and unethical real estate schemes? Out of all the people he could have picked…
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One would think that if there’s ANYONE ol’ Smokescreen wouldn’t want to hang around, it’s Dave Durenberger.
After all, it’s Coleman’s housing scandal that landed ol’ Smokescreen on the Most Corrupt Members Of Congress list.