asheris

Coleman makes mistake about state's Great Lake
September 29, 2004
Washington Bureau correspondent Paul Sand

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- The city of Duluth located on Lake Erie? That's what Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., mistakenly said Tuesday in a speech on the Senate floor.

Coleman, who was speaking on an amendment to the National Intelligence Reform Bill, listed Minnesota's security challenges. He cited the Mall of America, the Prairie Island nuclear facility, the United States-Canada border and Duluth's status as a port city.

"We have Duluth, which is located on Lake Erie, which is the entryway, the gateway to the Great Lakes," he said as C-SPAN broadcast the proceedings. Duluth is on the shore of Lake Superior.

He acknowledged the mistake later and said he corrected the congressional record.

Yes, everyone has had a moment where they've said the wrong word. But this? In a prepared speech?

Let's read that again: Coleman... listed Minnesota's security challenges... "We have Duluth, which is located on Lake Erie, which is the entryway, the gateway to the Great Lakes..."

He's not even talking about the correct end of the Great Lakes- and didn't even use the name of the right lake for that! Lake Ontario (and the St. Lawrence Seaway) is the eastern-most lake, "gateway" to the Great Lakes. Duluth is the port farthest West on the Great Lakes.

Someone needs a serious geography lesson! If he doesn't even know such basic information about this state, he doesn't belong in one of our Senate seats.

How the heck can he possibly have gotten up to speak about Minnesota's security challenges, without having a freaking clue what they are?? Does nobody check his stuff?

Hell, if the staffers that help write and proof his speeches can't recognize such egregious errors, or be bothered to check up on facts in his speeches, it doesn't bode well for anything else he's said on the floor of the Senate, does it?

While both Wellstone and Coleman were born and raised elsewhere, Wellstone cared enough to learn about his adopted home state. Coleman has never seemed to care, and this is just one more example of that.

Gods, how the Wellstones are missed!