Land rights group warns: Re-elect Norm Coleman, or else

If Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., loses his bid for re-election next week, the U.S. Senate is in "grave danger" of being "filibuster-proof," a national land-rights coalition is warning.

"Get ready for 'change' we haven't seen since 1965 or 1933," the American Land Rights Association said in a Friday afternoon e-mail.

If Coleman loses to DFL opponent Al Franken – and if Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Gordon Smith of Oregon, Ted Stevens of Alaska (who’s currently awaiting sentencing after being convicted this week of seven federal felony charges), Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, John Sununu of New Hampshire and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia also lose their re-election bids – "a potential Democratic tidal wave threatens to wipe out senators friendly to private property rights and the use of federal lands."

"Every effort must be made to save (the eight senators) to keep Majority Leader Harry Reid and a possible President Barack Obama from having free reign in the Senate," the group warned.

The American Land Rights Association, which began in 1978 as a group whose mission was to protect private property landowners from unwanted acquisition by the National Park Service, now states its mission as encouraging family recreation, commodity production and access to federally controlled and state lands.

According to the association's website, "Converting these lands into wilderness and parks often removes people from the equation and discriminates against the handicapped, elderly and very young."

The e-mail quoted a Wall Street Journal story from earlier this month, which said that if Obama wins the White House and Democrats consolidate their congressional majorities, "probably with a filibuster-proof Senate or very close to it,="” then the Senate "would become like the House: able to pass whatever the majority wants."