Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman has accused likely DFL opponent Al Franken of changing positions, demeanor and rhetoric in his attempt to win a Senate seat.

Coleman makes the charge in a fundraising e-mail sent out this week with the subject line, "It's Hard to Deny this Kind of Evolution."

"After decades of carrying the flag for radical left-wing causes, his extremely liberal viewpoints are couched in softer, more acceptable terms," Coleman writes. "And for the most part, he's stopped using curse words in public."

He adds: "For some folks, this kind of dramatic change happens after the birth of a child, a conversion to faith, or some other kind of life-altering experience. For Al Franken, it took place when he decided to move back to Minnesota -- 30 years after he left -- to challenge me for the U.S. Senate."

Coleman, who faces a tough re-election battle, concludes, "So if you don't believe Al Franken's evolution is sincere ... then I'm counting on you" for a campaign donation.

The e-mail prompted dropped jaws in Democratic circles Thursday. Franken campaign spokesman Andy Barr responded that Coleman himself has been all over the political map in his career.

"What's most troubling about Norm Coleman is what he has evolved into since he came to Washington," Barr said. "And that's someone who always puts special interests first and doesn't look out for Minnesota families."

DFL chairman Brian Melendez called the e-mail "one of the most hypocritical political pieces I have ever seen."

"He talks about having always been a conservative, but for a while he was a liberal Democrat -- almost a radical Democrat," Melendez said. "For five of the past six years, he's been a staunch Bush conservative, he's been the attack dog for the Bush administration. Now suddenly, in an election year, he wants to reinvent himself and pretend that his entire past never happened."

In the letter, Coleman says that throughout his career -- as both St. Paul mayor and senator -- he's been a "common-sense conservative," and he didn't back off that when asked about the letter Thursday.

"I have been in the U.S. Senate for six years," he said. "My positions have been very consistent - whether it's on (drilling in) ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska), whether it's on renewables -- you pick the issue. Even when I was a Democrat mayor of St. Paul, I switched parties and didn't switch a single position. I'm proud of the years of public service that I've had."

"I'm running against a guy who was either for the war or against the war," Coleman said. Franken has said had he been in the Senate in 2002, he would have voted for the resolution authorizing the war in Iraq, but now favors withdrawal.

As a college student at Hofstra University in New York, Coleman was a long-haired protester against the Vietnam War. By the time he became mayor of St. Paul in 1993, he was already a conservative Democrat, and made the party switch in 1996. The following year, he won re-election as a Republican.