Glamour and the graveyard of ambition: Will RNC = RIP for Chris Coleman’s career?

[struggle4progress]

Rich Broderick, September 4, 2008

... It’s too early to say for sure, but one has to wonder if St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman might not find himself joining the long list of previously successful political figures who found their careers ruined by virtue of their having succumbed to the truly destructive glamour cast by the Bush Administration and its various minions and familiars.

Among the most prominent who fell prey to this fatal attraction we can count Tony Blair, Colin Powell, Jose Maria Aznar, former prime minister of Spain, Silvio Berlusconi, former prime minister of Italy, John Howard, former prime minister of Australia, and Coleman’s predecessor, Randy Kelly. All of these men – and there are undoubtedly many more less known to us – thought they could gain some kind of advantage by allying themselves, even temporarily, with the Bush version of the Republican Party. In each case, some combination of ego and narcissistic miscalculation led these figures, each of whom no doubt considered himself a hard-headed realist and master political manipulator, into allowing the shape-shifting Bush incubus to take over their souls.

As far as Coleman’s future is concerned, it’s going to take time for things to shake out. We will not know for some weeks, for example, how badly the Republican Convention will fall short of fulfilling advance claims by Coleman and other city officials overcome by glamour that it was going to fill local coffers. We will also not know for at least as long how much the city will end up owing in law suits that will undoubtedly be brought by scores of individuals wrongfully detained and arrested.

But what’s going to bring Coleman down, if that happens, is not simply the naïvete he has shown in entertaining the idea that bringing the RNC to St. Paul made good economic sense. His downfall will also be the result of his initial silence in the face of blatantly illegal raids led by our very own Sheriff of Rottingham, Bully-Bob Fletcher, followed by his praise for the over-the-top display of law enforcement overreaction that turned downtown St. Paul into something resembling Children of Men’s frighteningly realistic glimpse of a “democratic” police state ...

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/blog-entry/2008/09/04/glamour-and-graveyard-ambition-will-rnc-rip-chris-coleman-s-career.html

[Bob Dobbs]

1. Coleman needs to be in prison.

Along with the rest of the republic party traitors he aligned himself with.

[Robbien]

2. St. Paul is a city I will avoid from now on

We used to go up there on occasion for weekend vacation getaways. But never again.

There's something really wrong there.