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Minnesota Members’ Property Vandalized

Updated: 7:54 p.m.

Six Members of the Minnesota Congressional delegation had their homes vandalized Tuesday night.

The Twin Cities area homes of Sens. Norm Coleman (R) and Amy Klobuchar (D), and Reps. Michele Bachmann (R), John Kline (R), Jim Ramstad (R) and Keith Ellison (D) were spray-painted with similar large writing on the edifice, driveway or garage of their homes. Many of the messages included the word “SCUM,” and all of them featured the words “Psalm 2.”

A spokesman for Klobuchar’s office, Ross Corson, confirmed that the Senator exited her house Wednesday morning to see the words “SCUM” and a reference to the 2nd Psalm written on her property. Corson said the vandalism appears to be in the same fashion as that left on the property of other Minnesota Members.

“It’s basically in line with all the others,” Corson said.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune first reported that the mess at Coleman’s house was discovered when his wife found these words on her garage: “U R A CRIMINAL RESIGN OR ELSE! Psalm 2.” Coleman, his wife, Laurie, and their children live about half an hour south of Minneapolis. The Senator was not home Tuesday night because he was campaigning in another part of the state.

A spokesman for Ramstad, who is retiring this year, said he walked out of his Minnetonka home Wednesday morning to see the writing “SCUM U R 2!!! Psalm 2” on his garage door.

Spokesman Lance Olson said Ramstad, who lives about 30 minutes west of the Twin Cities, was “disturbed that someone could come to his house and do something like that.”

Bachmann spokeswoman Michelle Marston said phrases like “scum,” “no on bailout,” and “resign now” were written on the Congresswoman’s driveway and house. Bachmann voted twice against the recent $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan in the House.

“From the reports that I’ve heard from the other houses, it sounds like the same stuff,” Marston said.

The Congresswoman was not at home when the vandalism was discovered, Marston said. Bachmann had just moved out of the house the past weekend in preparation to sell it, she said, and the Congresswoman’s real estate agent discovered it Wednesday when she took a prospective buyer to the Stillwater home. The house is about 45 minutes north of downtown Minneapolis.

About 25 minutes south of downtown Minneapolis, Kline’s suburban home was also targeted. Kline spokesman Troy Young confirmed the Congressman’s home was vandalized, but would not comment any further other than to say that the home was defaced in a similar fashion as the properties of other Minnesota Members.

Ellison spokesman Rick Jauert confirmed the Congressman’s Minneapolis home was also vandalized, and that the graffiti included a reference to “Psalm 2.” Ellison was not at his Minnesota home Tuesday night, but his wife discovered the writing Wednesday morning.

The home of Rep. Betty McCollum (D), which is just 20 minutes away from Minneapolis in the St. Paul area, was not vandalized. According to her office, the Congresswoman was in Washington, D.C., Tuesday night.

The Minnesota homes of the other three Members of the delegation, Democratic Reps. Collin Peterson, James Oberstar and Tim Walz, were also unharmed Tuesday night. Oberstar and Peterson live about 200 miles north of the Twin Cities in northern Minnesota.

Psalm 2 is known for being an ominous warning from God to leaders on earth.

“Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?” the 2nd Psalm opens, according to some translations. “The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.”

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