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Coleman: GOP Needs To Compete On "The Ethernet"
Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) spoke to a friendly conservative video-blogger yesterday at the at the Conservative Heartland Leadership Conference in St. Louis, and said Republicans need to more effectively organize around the newer modes of communication -- like the "ethernet":
"In the end, we need to compete, as I've said before, we need to compete in each and every kind of forum," said Coleman. "And whether it's on the ground traditionally, or today it's in -- it's in the ethernet. It's in the -- you know, it's online. It's in the blogs, it's Twitter, it's Facebook, and the next iteration."
Oh well. At least he's trying.
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Josh
Matt
Eric
The GOP is always competing inside my network card. Fortunately, I have ways of avoiding them.
June 5, 2009 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Coleman, it's full of tubes!
June 5, 2009 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Next he'll be telling us about how net neutrality means the Tubez will get jammed.
June 5, 2009 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
He forgot those "ethernet" "tubes". :-)
June 5, 2009 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
We had an Ethernet when I was at BC in the mid-'90's. Could print out your grades, class schedule, tuition info, etc.
Very HI-TEC!
Have there been upgrades since 1995 that I'm not aware of?
June 5, 2009 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Quimby can haz intertoobz.
June 5, 2009 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think he meant to say "the internets."
Or whatever it is the kids are calling it these days.
June 5, 2009 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Online porn?
June 5, 2009 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where's norm been for the past 15 years?
The GOP OWNS the ethernets
June 5, 2009 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
So when our network goes down at work it's because there are Republicans in it? That actually makes a lot of sense.
June 5, 2009 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey I like the sound of that -
Former Sen. Norm Coleman
It has a nice ring to it.
Go Away Norm
June 5, 2009 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
And this is why RNC Chair Michael Steele has proposed a GOP-only token ring.
June 5, 2009 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ok *somebody* has to say it - I thought that Mikey was the token in that ring...
BTW - you realize, of course, that 90% of all LAN failures are caused by the token falling out of the ring and rolling off into a corner where nobody can find it (god, I love old geek jokes!)
June 5, 2009 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
And Norm Coleman needs to be captured with the fruitcake net!
June 5, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
And men like him are making laws that govern the Internet?!?!? How can you regulate something when you have absolutely no knowledge about what it is and how it works?
June 5, 2009 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hello, Operator… this is Senator Coleman. Could you give me the telephone number for Netscape? I think it may be listed under "MS-DOS."
June 5, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ethernets are used for local area networks.
Sounds about right considering the size of the Republican "big tent". They need to communicate more to the guy at the end of the hallway.
June 5, 2009 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
For that they can just use Dixie cups and cotton string.
June 8, 2009 2:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think he misspoke. He simply recognized that soon the entire GOP will fit comfortably in one room, at which point ethernet is the correct protocol.
June 5, 2009 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
At their current size, forget ethernet and go for dial-up.
June 5, 2009 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Semaphore?
June 5, 2009 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
... or a couple of tin cans and a string.
June 5, 2009 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do former senators talk like clueless halfwits or is Coleman a "special case".
June 5, 2009 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
All GOP Senators and former Senators are [intone Church Lady]"special".
June 5, 2009 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe Coleman is just trying to play the ethernet card like any other brainless Republican politician.
June 5, 2009 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
[i]Oh well. At least he's trying.[/i]
Yes. He is that.
June 5, 2009 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exceedingly.
June 5, 2009 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
isn't the Ethernet the thing you use to capture the Ether Bunny?
And the connection here is that Normie's chances of political resurrection are equally fantastical.
June 5, 2009 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
About the time Norm departed the DFL -- when he was still Mayor of St. Paul, but wanted to run for Governor in 1998, (Ventura Won)-- the big issue in St. Paul was the ethernetwork that had been established in St. Paul for the benefit of the State Legislaure, but had proven to be somewhat flawed, and the Republicans in the State Leg had made an issue of the DFL's failure to build the best of all possible systems. Norm is probably still on that thought beam.
But yea -- it might be very useful for some sort of group to refine a set of questions about new and newer technology that could be placed before any candidate running for office as a test of whether they have the basic awareness to assess policy issues that come before them. I would expand it beyond IT -- our DFL Lt. Governor candidate collapsed three years ago because of lack of knowledge of ethanol issues.
June 5, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Norm Coleman makes absolutely perfect sense.
After all, the Republican ethernet is a series of tubes, to which you attach yourself to the open end of one, take several deep breaths, and then all of the sudden, things seem so much brighter, more colorful and funny, too -- so hysterically funny, in fact, that your uncontrollable laughter causes the room to spin counterclockwise and everything around you seems in such a hurry.
Of course, Norm better watch out and not overdo it, because ethernet marketing got Tommy Chong nine months in the federal slammer.
Aloha.
June 5, 2009 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
This seems like an a particularly apropos place for my comment. Anyone else around here remember vampire taps? Now, that would a proper Republican entrance into an Ethernet.
Alohanet
June 7, 2009 9:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have absolutely no problem with Coleman and his buddies hanging around my ethernet. If that's where they think they need to hang out, great.
"Yes Coal Man that's where you need to be. And that place called the Net, that you may have heard about, disregard. Nothing going on there."
June 5, 2009 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I happen to think that Coleman is a big jerk, but I am willing to cut him some slack here. I honestly think that what we heard is a combination of the Brooklyn accent and the fact that Coleman is a tongue thruster. If you listen to him, his pronounciation is often a bit off. He needs a speech therapist.
June 5, 2009 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Coleman is a tongue thruster.
TMI, thanks.
June 6, 2009 9:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
But no matter what he intended to say, he still got it wrong. The Republican party needs to develop a rational, functional ideology that is rooted in reality, not wishful thinking and faith based. If you have just junk to sell, no matter what the PR, it won't sell. Ask about the Edsel and the Yugo. Ask about Karen Hughes' experiences trying to make Bush's policies look good in the Middle East.
And the Republican party NEEDS to develop a reality based philosophy in order that our country can continue. For the US to be successful, we need a responsible opposition party to keep the party in power honest. If the Republicans don't change their ways and develop a reality based program, then with time the Democrats will fall into the same trap that Delay and his crooked crew did, but there will be no one to call them on it.
June 5, 2009 9:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why would they do that ?
For decades they have managed to stay in power by having better - much better - PR and descipline than the democrats. Why change now ?
Ofcourse the other problem is - in the short term if they changed their ideology they will be even worse off - since they lose even the base ....
June 5, 2009 10:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Coleman's not a geezer, a la McCain or Stevens..... but he's trying so hard!
June 5, 2009 11:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
funny, cause Senator Franken used to joke "my son has an internet. i think we have two internets at home."
coleman's a complete dongle.
June 6, 2009 9:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
madabout... In the bigger scheme of things how he pronounces a word is not important.
But he does pronounce the word correctly, Ethernet.
He says "eee ther net" which is correct for usage of that word.
He does not say "eeen ter net.
Just saying.
June 6, 2009 11:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Of course, word pronunciation is irrelevant since Coleman is such a horse's pitoot; once downgraded to that status, society has a green light to poke fun over stuff like this.
Obama can slip and say there are 57 states, who gives a rat's pitoot (because he's not a pitoot, of any animal species). But if Norm slips we are gonna have more fun than the Sham Wow guy in a Florida hotel room, pre-arrest.
That's the way it goes when one's pitootness flares up. Palin knows how that works.
June 6, 2009 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
As they say, all politics is Local Area Network.
June 7, 2009 11:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
At least he didn't call it the ARCNET - Which everyone in the GOP knows is the network protocol used by Noah.
June 7, 2009 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Those crazy intertubes.
June 8, 2009 2:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Those crazy intertubes.
June 8, 2009 2:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Does this really deserve a headline on TPM for several days running? So Norm is a tool and he said the wrong word. Is that news?
I wish TPM would focus on substance rather than these " gotcha" moments.
June 8, 2009 9:39 AM | Reply | Permalink