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     (AP)  Sen. Norm Coleman loses two subcommittee
chairmanships next year and slides from majority to minority status
as the Democrats take over the Senate. But ever the optimist, the
Minnesota Republican says he thinks he can pick up some extra clout
in the remade Senate.
   

   "Listen, I would prefer to be in the majority, no question
about that, but in terms of representing Minnesota, I think there
may be added opportunity," he said in a telephone interview this
week.

      Coleman pointed out that to block a GOP filibuster, Democrats
will need 60 votes, not the 51 votes they will have next year.

      "If you want to get to 60, you're going to have to get a small
group of people you can work with," said Coleman, a former
Democrat. "And I'm going to be one of those."

      While Coleman backs his party most of the time, he has broken
ranks and sided with Democrats on several issues, such as Pell
Grant funding, Community Development Block Grants and against
drilling for oil in an Alaska wildlife refuge.

      "In many ways, being more of centrist here, I've got some added
clout, because you've got to get to 60 in the Senate," he said.
"When they're at 51, I'm going to be needed."

      Coleman said he plans to use that leverage to extract gains for
Minnesota.

      A spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,
said that Reid is anxious to work with Republicans to get things
done in the next Congress.

      "Despite the elections, the whole game in the Senate is 60
votes," said the spokesman, Jim Manley. "So any one senator can
have a powerful impact on the Senate."

      Steven Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College
in Northfield, Minn., said that Coleman will likely try to position
himself as someone who can work with both parties in anticipation
of his re-election campaign in 2008.

      "So I think he has electoral motivation to pursue that
strategy, as well as a more moderate temperament than some other
members of his caucus," he said.

      "He knows what happened to Mark Kennedy - Mark Kennedy was
branded a Bush clone, and he got 38 percent of the vote," Schier
said of the defeated Minnesota GOP Senate candidate and
congressman. "Minnesota is not Bush country, never really has
been. He's never carried it."

      Coleman is part of a vanishing group of middle-of-the-road
Republicans. Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine and Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln
Chafee both lost their elections this week.

      "Centrists Republicans in the Northeast and Upper Midwest are
certainly at risk," Coleman said. "We're from states that still
tend to be more blue than purple, and certainly than red."

      Democrats are already talking about mounting a challenge to
Coleman in two years. Comedian Al Franken, who is considering a
run, has started a political action committee, and Minneapolis
Mayor R.T. Rybak told WCCO Radio Friday he wouldn't close the door
on a race.

      When Democrats take over, Coleman will surrender the chairman's
gavel of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and the
Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps and Narcotics Affairs subcommittee.

      He said he has worked with the ranking Democrats on those panels
in a bipartisan manner, and hopes they will reciprocate.

      But the investigations subcommittee, in particular, has given
Coleman a high profile perch.

      Coleman can salvage one committee advantage from the GOP
wreckage: he jumps up the seniority ladder on the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, with the defeat of Chafee and Virginia
Republican George Allen. Coleman is now third on the Republican
side behind the chairman, Richard Lugar of Indiana, and Chuck Hagel
of Nebraska.

      "And Lugar's not young," said Coleman, adding he might be line
to become chairman or top Republican of the committee in six or
eight years. Lugar is 74, and Hagel is 60. Coleman is 57.


Gallery

Politics and Government News

Fred Frommer

Author

Norm Coleman is part of a vanishing group of middle-of-the-road
Republicans. Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine and Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln
Chafee both lost their elections this week.


Democratic majority: an opportunity for Coleman?

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