March 25, 2005: Headlines: Congress: Redwood Falls Gazette: What's up with Norm Coleman, head of the Senate Subbcommittee that oversees the Peace Corps?

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Library: Peace Corps: Congress: Congress and the Peace Corps: March 25, 2005: Headlines: Congress: Redwood Falls Gazette: What's up with Norm Coleman, head of the Senate Subbcommittee that oversees the Peace Corps?

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What's up with Norm Coleman, head of the Senate Subbcommittee that oversees the Peace Corps?

What's up with Norm Coleman, head of the Senate Subbcommittee that oversees the Peace Corps?

What's up with Norm Coleman, head of the Senate Subbcommittee that oversees the Peace Corps?

What's up with Norm?

by Erik Posz / Staff Writer

For the first two years of his term, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman was a poster child for G.W.

In fact, he was dubbed a Bush Boy from the get-go. He voted pretty much along party lines. Now there seems to be a few changes in the way Norm is carrying out his job. I like what I'm seeing, but by no means do I trust the man any further than I can throw him.

Maybe it's the perfect hair or the cookie-cutter smile. It's probably still just the accent, though.

Norm has begun to stray from party line votes and represent the interests of the people. To begin with, Coleman voted with Democrats to increase minimum wage. This is a huge departure for any Republican to make. Then Coleman voted against drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which I am sure Bush and his supporters from the oil industry, like Vice President Dick Chaney, saw as an affront to their personal interests.

Coleman has also won passage of an amendment to Bush's budget that would block cuts from the Community Development Block Grant program.

In addition, he was one of only a few Republican senators to vote against Bush's proposed cuts to the Medicaid program. So, what is he doing?

The theories are wide and wild. Some say he's reinventing himself ... again. Others say he might return to the Democratic Party. Some say he's off his rocker. I think they are all wrong.

Minnesota has a bit of a bizarre history with politicians. We like our political figures to be slightly odd and even a little eccentric.

We like them to have an independent edge so those in Washington, D.C. can't take their vote for granted. This may be what Norm is up to. He may be embracing his role as a Minnesota politician.

Perhaps he is following in the footsteps of former Gov. Elmer Anderson, who, while a Republican, still had a social conscience for the people he served. Maybe the legacy of Coleman's longtime friend Paul Wellstone is starting to rub off on him.

Whatever is going on, the best we can hope for is that Coleman is seeing what needs to be done for the good of Minnesota and the nation as a whole.





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Story Source: Redwood Falls Gazette

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