wellstone coleman frankenAfter three months in office, former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, chomping an unlit cigar, pronounced himself “a 99 percent improvement over Paul Wellstone.”  Coleman’s successor, Al Franken, has now held Wellstone’s old Senate seat for three months: Is he a 99 percent improvement over Coleman?

Coleman was showered with criticism after his self-assessment appeared on the cover of the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. In his responses, first unapologetic then remorseful, the freshman senator insisted he’d only meant the comparison in terms of support for President Bush.
That sort of direct contrast isn’t possible for Coleman and Franken because their Senate terms coincide with different administrations: Coleman served only under President George W. Bush and Franken only under President Barack Obama.

But Coleman was in the Senate with Obama for a couple of years, so that’s a basis for comparison. In 2007, when both voted, Coleman and Obama voted differently 119 times. In 2008, Coleman and Obama cast opposing votes 43 times, for a total over their two years together of 162 votes at odds.

Franken on the other hand has voted with his party (and Obama, presumably) 95.5 percent of the time in 88 votes so far, according to the Washington Post — meaning he has voted against the Democrats (and Obama) about four times.

At that rate, over a two-year span equal to Coleman’s overlap with Obama, Franken will vote out of step with Obama only about 32 times — an 80 percent improvement over Coleman, by Coleman’s standard of measurement.

One thing almost everyone can agree on: As his 100th day in office approaches on Thursday, Franken (whose staff didn’t respond to a request for comment) is surely a 100 percent improvement over the vacancy in Wellstone’s seat that persisted for six months while Coleman challenged his election in court.

Here is an excerpt from the the April 7, 2003 Roll Call story, “Coleman Becomes Big Draw“:

Still, Coleman is loyal to Bush, perhaps because the president stood by his side in the last days of the campaign. And the Minnesota Republican is not shy about comparing his legislative accomplishments to those of his predecessor.

“To be very blunt and God watch over Paul’s soul, I am a 99 percent improvement over Paul Wellstone,” Coleman said. “Just about on every issue.”

When pressed about the remaining 1 percent, Coleman sidestepped the issue and instead talked about his desire to support Bush.

“In other words, Wellstone was never with the president,” Coleman said of the first two years of the Bush administration. “I could be with the president most of the time. If I disagree on affirmative action. If I disagree on ANWR. If I disagree on something else down the road, so what. The differences are so profound.”

Two days later, Roll Call reported on the fallout, under the headline “Coleman Under Fire“:

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) spent most of Tuesday dodging criticism over the freshman’s claim in Monday’s edition of Roll Call that he is a “99 percent improvement” over the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D).
Former Wellstone aides demanded an apology from Coleman, while Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) chastised his new colleague.

“I think it was an unfortunate comment,” Daschle told reporters. “I was one of those fortunate enough to consider Paul Wellstone a very, very dear and special friend. And I disagree with Senator Coleman 100 percent of it.”

Protesters also showed up at Coleman’s St. Paul office demanding that he “change the tone in Washington,” a pointed reference to one of the themes of his campaign last year.

For his part, Coleman initially released a statement that did not challenge the quotes that were attributed to him in the front-page story. He also did not specifically apologize in that statement.

“Mark Twain said the problem with talking to the media is they’re likely to print what you say,” Coleman said in a prepared statement. “It was my responsibility to be more clear in my remarks to Roll Call. It was my understanding we were comparing my relationship to this White House to the relationship Senator Wellstone had with this White House. I would never want to diminish the legacy or memory of Senator Paul Wellstone, and I will accept full responsibility for not having been more accurate in my comments.”

But late Tuesday, Coleman phoned HOH and said that he did want to apologize for any hurt that he caused.

“I fully apologize,” he said. “I accept the fact that there is a higher degree of sensitivity when talking about Senator Wellstone.”

Coleman stressed that he did not want to hedge anything about the context of his comments. “I apologize and it won’t happen again. I’ll choose words more carefully in the future. It’s not the reporter’s mistake. It’s my mistake.”