WASHINGTON – Former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman has painstakingly maneuvered to stay in the game here.
Long a fixture on the Minnesota political scene until he lost his bid for a second term, Coleman's day job now includes representing the interests of the Saudis, the Indonesians and the Emiratis on Capitol Hill. He runs South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham's super PAC in hopes of getting him elected president. Recently he forged ties with former Sen. Joe Lieberman to launch a nonprofit organization that is urging members of Congress, mostly via television commercials, to oppose the Iran nuclear deal.
In the six years since leaving public office, Coleman wields more clout inside the Republican Party than he did when he was a senator. He has crafted a national reputation as a lucrative lobbyist, a formidable fundraiser and has emerged as a rising star behind the curtain in the GOP 2016 presidential primaries.
The former politician, who turns 66 Monday, is still known as "senator" to those working at the front of the house in posh downtown Washington establishments that he frequents on weeknights with clients. Trim, tanned and always wearing a dark suit and his Senate pin, Coleman often orders just hot tea or an appetizer.
On the weekends, just as he did as a senator from 2003 to 2009, Coleman hops a flight to Minneapolis and then drives, usually with his wife, to a cabin three hours north of the Twin Cities to go fishing. On Mondays, he usually returns to Washington, where he has an apartment in suburban Virginia — a crash pad at various points for his 20-something kids, as well, when they cycled through jobs here.
"I'm like an over-the-road trucker," he said, from his D.C. high-rise office with espresso makers, lofty views and framed photos of former President George W. Bush everywhere. "I go out on the road, I'm gone four days, then home for four nights. … This is where I can earn the money to take care of my family, and I'm proud to be able to do that."
Coleman has some competing interests between his largely secretive fundraising life — his nonprofit 501(c)4 groups, the Minnesota Action Network, American Security Initiative and American Action Network, do not have to disclose donors — and his main job as a lawyer and lobbyist.
The Saudi government, for example, has softened its initial stance against the Iran deal and now is signaling some tepid support for the Obama administration. While representing that embassy on Capitol Hill, Coleman is working to fight the nuclear agreement this month via a national grasstop movement homing in on undecided members of Congress ahead of the September vote.