Sen. Coleman Now Backtracking From U.S. Attorney He Once Championed
Sen. Coleman Now Backtracking From U.S. Attorney He Once Championed
In 2006, Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) championed the nomination of Rachel Paulose to U.S. attorney in Minnesota. Last week, four top staffers to Paulose voluntarily demoted themselves in protest of Paulose’s “highly dictatorial style” of managing. Immediately after the resignations, Coleman’s office issued a statement of unqualified support for Paulose:
Rachel Paulose was nominated to be U.S. Attorney based solely on her exemplary qualifications and experience. She was confirmed with the bipartisan support of Senator Coleman, former Senator Dayton, and the entire United States Senate. She replaced someone who resigned, not someone who was fired, and her nomination should not be confused with the current controversy over the recent dismissal of several U.S. attorneys in other jurisdictions.
But a look at Paulose’s background indicates that she was handpicked by the Justice Department because of her personal connections, rather than her professional qualifications. “She was a special assistant to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, worked as a senior counsel for deputy attorney general Paul McNulty and is best buds with [former Justice official] Monica Goodling.”
With the national media now highlighting the Paulose case, Coleman is backing away from his previous statements of support, saying that Paulose needs to explain her situation “given the recent issues related to the U.S. attorneys nationwide.” In a letter to Paulose he wrote:
As you know, your confirmation to be U.S. attorney enjoyed bipartisan support and was unanimously confirmed by the Senate because of your outstanding qualifications. At the same time, there are clearly managerial issues that need to be acknowledged and rectified. … Given recent issues related to U.S. attorneys nationwide that have now extended to your own position, I urge you to take immediate action to shed light on the resignations and address the concerns which have been raised relative to your management skills.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) has called on Congress to look into the case, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has written to the Justice Department requesting information that shows “any political pressure by the Justice Department or White House.”
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For more on Rachel Paulose and the latest news, email archives, hearings, legal filings and other essential documents on the Bush DOJ prosecutor firings, see:
April 11th, 2007 at 5:23 pm“The U.S. Attorney Scandal Documents.”
Coleman was for championing incompetence before he was against it.
April 11th, 2007 at 5:25 pmColeman is trying to look like he is in the center now..and not to the extreme right where he is.
April 11th, 2007 at 5:26 pmHe is facing re-election in 2008…his seat is one of the seats Democrats can get in 2008.
Aren’t there any reasonible Republicans left?!
April 11th, 2007 at 5:31 pmLet’s see, we’re escalating the murder of Iraqis, exploiting the military, continually poking Iran to see if we can trick them into starting something, ignoring the genocide that is occurring in Africa, destroying our planet, and selling off our progeny to China.
But that’s not important. Nope, we need to focus on a small group of Jewicons attacking an Italian grandmother. Yup, that’s progress.
April 11th, 2007 at 5:33 pmVote this jerk out. YES! YES! YES! Than we can get another Senate seat.
April 11th, 2007 at 5:33 pmIs Ms. Palouse also a proud graduate of the Pat Robertson School of Law, which is ranked exactly where among law schools — oh, yes that would be among the lowest tier of them. Seriously, does anyone know where she was awarded her precious JD?
April 11th, 2007 at 5:35 pmOops, wrong thread. This one is about loyal bushies throwing each other under the bus.
April 11th, 2007 at 5:35 pmAh, Norm Coleman, ever the gutless, cover his own ass politician. Last thing this guy needs going into a tough reelection battle is a crazy U.S. Attorney, so figures he’d drop her like a hot potato.
April 11th, 2007 at 5:36 pmHey Barry Goldwater, you’re back!
April 11th, 2007 at 5:43 pmWanna go rafting down the Grand Canyon?
We can stop in at the site of that cabin you and your buddy torched way back when!
Thought we’d forgotten all about that, eh?
Comment by tarazan — April 11, 2007 @ 5:26 pm
Is this the seat Al Franken’s running for?
April 11th, 2007 at 5:47 pmSenator Colon is about to get his yearly r*ct*l exam by his esteemed colleagues. I hope he l*b*s himself up first, or it might hurt!
April 11th, 2007 at 5:47 pmShe was given full bipartisian support??? I thought she was another hack Gonzales snuck in thanks to his slimy Patriot Act provision. Which was it Coleman?
April 11th, 2007 at 5:47 pmAren’t there any reasonable Republicans left?!
Comment by Barry Goldwater — April 11, 2007 @ 5:31 pm
April 11th, 2007 at 5:48 pm——————
Sounds like an oxymoron to me. A reasonable person does not see the world in pure Black and White.
Okay, the guy IS an IDIOT!!!
Other than that, he championed someone and that person turned out to be an DICTATORIAL IDIOT!!!
Now apart from the OBVIOUS references, unless he had something to do with her SPECIFICALLY being picked for that position, he has done nothing more than the same if TP hired someone who was not up to par!
Let’s face it…MANY (if not all) of the CURRENT REPUBLICANS are INCOMPETENT, IMMORAL, ILLOGICAL, and IRRELEVANT to intelligent discourse and reality…
But he’s calling her to the carpet, and that is a start. But, let’s see where it leads before calling it a conspiracy???
April 11th, 2007 at 5:58 pmLook, Paulose PUBLICLY apologized to her staff. Norm Coleman doesn’t brush his teeth without asking Karl Rove for permission. Only after Paulose apologizes does Coleman utter a peep about Paulose. And what does he say to her? “Shed light on the resignations and address the concerns”. Norm, Dude, why do you so dangerously push entrusting the enforcement of the entire body of federal law in the great State of Minnesota to a 35 year old, inexperienced lawyer, appointed simply on the basis of her ideology and friendship with an equally inexperienced ideologically driven recent law grad? why? WHY????????? You just didn’t care, Norm. You just didn’t care. The people of Minnesota deserved better and you know it. Those resignations at the US Attorney’s Office came because people couldn’t countenance YOUR actions. Who can fault Rachel Paulose? You, Sir, let the people of your state down and your namby-pamby response to being called on it continues to show your stripes.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:06 pmMr. Coleman gained his Senate seat back in 2002 by Republican electronic computerized election theft, in the same manner as the GOP’s rigged of the 2002 Senate election in Georgia. Not even a paper trail… Just trust GOP-run electronic voting machine corporations to “count the votes” honestly…
The resulting “GOP Senate Majority” in Jan, 2003 was due to GOP electronic computerized election theft in Nov, 2002…
Demand hand-counted paper ballots in all future elections to prvent any more GOP computerized electronic election theft.
Just do a search on “GOP election theft Minnesota Senate 2002″ for details…
April 11th, 2007 at 6:11 pmPaulose got her law degree at Yale, but that obviously doesn’t make her competent.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:12 pmPaulose got her law degree at Yale, but that obviously doesn’t make her competent. Comment by pdefalla — April 11, 2007 @ 6:12 pm
As Ann Coulter proves, you can drag a horse faced woman to the trough of legal learning, but you can’t make her drink in anything that makes her competent. Sometimes the only product you get from their time at the trough, is a pile of h*rsesh*t.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:17 pmSuch good chums! What fun they must have!
Now pay the Piper, losers.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:23 pmIn the interest of doing my patriotic duty, and keeping her away from courtrooms, I’ll see if I can make room at my trough for Paulose….
April 11th, 2007 at 6:25 pmGlobal warming will certainly produce greater numbers of various vermin such as these Bush political appointees.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:29 pmWorm Moleman. Pfffffffft.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:31 pmCronyism is alive and well in this white house!
April 11th, 2007 at 6:40 pmIs this the seat Al Franken’s running for?
Yes. Al’s been itching to payback Coleman, the GOP and the Wingnut Press went spin-cycle on Sen. Paul Wellstone’s memorial service. I doubt there are few things in life (other than family related ones) that would make Al more happy than to beat Coleman in November 2008 for “Paul’s seat”.
It’s also why Coleman has been spinning around lately. He’s had four years of being able to take positions that don’t match those of the people of the state, play simply to the Republican Base, and be a good lapdog for the Administration and the party. He now knows he’s in for a fight, and has a rotten voting record he’s going to need to justify. It’s why he joined with John Warner and Sue Collins to try for a bipartisan anti-surge bill. Not surprisingly, all thee are up for re-election in 2008.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:41 pm#17….As Stalin once said: “It’s not the voters who decide elections; it’s the people counting the votes that do!”. Truer words were never spoken.
When the GOP begins spouting off one of their twisted “talking points” regarding “voter fraud”, it’s clear that it’s a smokescreen to imprint in people’s minds that they “care at all” about voter fraud when it’s their party, with the help of the EVM industry and key people in the GOP, who need to be investigated.
They stole the election while people slept in 2000 and then again rigged the paperless voting machines in 2004! How much more despicable can you get? How much more criminal can one get?
And yet, there is still not much being done to bring these criminals to justice or to correct this horrendous voting machine debacle. Why vote at all in 08 - unless and until all states have paper trails and are hand counted. The OptiScanner is only more thing to be corrupted by the software within it! DO NOT BE FOOLED.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:44 pmMaybe Paulose was “working under the covers” for her position? I wonder how many GOPigs she was sleeping with to get ahead? Time will tell as the whistleblowers and the book deals begin flying around.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:46 pmActually, once the depth of corruption is unearthed for everyone to see the ugly, disgusting state of affairs in all key positions staffed by Repugs, it will take twenty congresses to investigate all of the filth.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:47 pmSen Coleman turned Rachel Paulose into a speed bump.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:48 pmHey, anyone hear any more about Guckert/GannonGate or PalfreyGate (The DC Madame who has everyone quaking in Congress….can’t wait to get those little black book details!)….Stay tuned….next week it will be the “Scandal (Flavor) Of The Week”! Bring ‘em on! heh-heh.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:48 pmMethinks Sen. Coleman is afraid of winding up a one-term senator.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:49 pmMaybe this one should be called RachelGate?? Maybe she was shackin’ with Gonzales? What a horrid visual on that one!
April 11th, 2007 at 6:49 pmAhh good old Norm Coleman.
He’s what we got after Paul Wellstone’s plane mysteriously went down, killing everyone onboard.
His seat, is the one that tipped the balance of power and sealed the dual house majority for Bush.
I miss Paul Wellstone.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:51 pmMSNBC has fired IMUS…
Talk show host Don Imus’ situation worsened Wednesday, when MSNBC announced that it would no longer simulcast the “Imus in the Morning” radio program…read on
When will all the other racist talk show hosts on Conservative radio be fired? They spew garbage all day long like Limbaugh and Beck with never any consequences. Instead, they get to go to the White House for message control.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:56 pmhttp://www.crooksandliars.com/
#25…there is a hope that Al Franken can win….If Jesse The body Vetura can be a governor of Minnesota, Al Franken can also be a Senator in the same state.
April 11th, 2007 at 7:04 pmKaty. Imus had a large liberal fan base.
In fact, he was one of the most vocal critics of the Bush administration we had.
Oh well.
Looks like you guys managed to push your little scapegoat right off the cliff.
:|
Guess race relations are all better now.
April 11th, 2007 at 7:14 pmdon’t shoot the messenger, worfeus…
i actually would have like to have seen him squirm a bit longer…
kept the discussion going a LOT longer…
and spread the “love” to all the other hate mongers on the teevee…
this may have the effect of sweeping the problem under the rug…
there are too many REAL racists and bigots out there…
kind of curious why imus was picked on…
April 11th, 2007 at 7:22 pmREMEMBER WHEN COLEMAN GOT ELECTED AS A DEMOCRATIC, AND THEN ONCE IN OFFICE HE SWITCHED TO REPUBLICAN?
FOR THE LAST YEAR HE HAS SLOWLY BEEN REMOVING HIS HEAD FROM UP BUSH’S ASS AND TRYING TO LOOK LIKE A MODERATE.
SORRY NORM, WE REMEMBER ALL THOSE TIMES YOU VOTED IN LOCK-STEP WITH THE REST OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE.
AL FRANKEN HAS MY VOTE IN 2008!
April 11th, 2007 at 7:25 pmColeman is nothing but a rubbernecked brown shirted Dubya apologist. He is short termed for the Senate anyway. He has a snowballs chance of re-election after supporting failure for all these years. Dubya supporters are dead on arrival.
April 11th, 2007 at 8:19 pmI was one of Rachel’s classmates at Yale Law School and can confirm that she had an undistinguished career in the classroom and in her extracurricular pursuits. She was not a member of the law review. She was quite active in the Federalist Society, though not a leader there, either.
April 11th, 2007 at 8:20 pmI thought she was appointed after the change to the Patriot act, was she actually confirmed by the Senate?
April 11th, 2007 at 8:47 pmColeman also ran as a D, and after elected switched to R.
waffling is his game.
He’s an embarrassment to Minnesota.
Right up with this Pawlenty thief.
April 11th, 2007 at 9:44 pmI don’t find her horse-faced at all. She is attractive until she opens her mouth (which is only used for speaking, I might add).
April 11th, 2007 at 11:04 pmColeman—OUT!!!! Al Franken IN!!!!! YEAH!!!!! Bill O-LIElly GETS EXCEDRIN HEADACHE NO. 13!!!!!
April 12th, 2007 at 1:02 amIt helps that Palouse gave Coleman $1500 in campaign contributions, $500 after he recommended her for the very position she holds now.
April 12th, 2007 at 2:55 pmLibertyLover wrote “I thought she was appointed after the change to the Patriot act, was she actually confirmed by the Senate?”
No, she was never formally confirmed by the Senate. Mash in a DailyKos diary explained that her confirmation vote by the Judiciary Commitee was bypassed by Senate Majority Leader Bill Fritst in a rare discharge resolution.
April 12th, 2007 at 4:13 pm