In a move that both builds upon and belies his recent characterization of Al Franken as “mean, nasty and divisive,” Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman (R-WH), has officially launched his re-election campaign against the presumptive DFL candidate by portraying himself as the transcendent, above-the-fray choice:

"If the partisan disease is what's tearing Washington apart, for years he was part of that…The talk radio culture, the Rush Limbaughs, the Ann Coulters, the Al Frankens. If that's the disease, I've tried to be the cure to that disease for a long time."

This argument is actually rather clever, if you think about it.

Coleman, in squaring off against one of the Left’s more outspoken voices, sees an opportunity to use Franken’s willingness to stand up against the likes of Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbaugh against him, with a parsed version of Barack Obama’s platform. 

There are, you see, two components to Obama’s campaign for change…a need to change which party controls the White House, and the need to change how business is done within Washington.  As he will have a hard time convincing Minnesotans that he hasn’t been one of the current administration’s closest supporters, Coleman wants voters to focus on the latter. 

This campaign strategy places the Senator’s public rebuke of Rush Limbaugh last Fall over the “phony soldier” comments in proper context…the call for civility was a “Sister Souljah” preamble to this re-election campaign theme. 

Can Coleman successfully lump Franken together with the Right Wing noise machine (not to mention his political patrons in the White House) and repackage himself as the Happy Warrior reincarnate?

I doubt it. But with his support for the Iraq War and his political patrons shackled to Norm's ankles, he probably doesn’t have a better option.