From Politico.com today.
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), also the new NRSC Chair, wasted no time making a complete fool out of himself today (again), as he vowed to filibuster any attempt to seat who appears to be Minnesota’s New U.S Senator.
First, Cornyn lays out his “rationalization,” for his proposed actions:
In a conference call with reporters today, Cornyn, the newly selected head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee said: “I think it’s very clear that the people of Minnesota and the courts of Minnesota” should choose between Franken and Coleman, “and not politicians in Washington, D.C.”“It is the height of arrogance for any leader in Washington, D.C. to tell Minnesota voters whose votes should count and whose votes shouldn’t count,” Cornyn added.
I’m not sure what Cornyn is objecting to. Al Franken appears to have the most votes cast out of every candidate. Ergo, Minnesotans have elected him as their Senator, albeit by a wafer thin margin. Unless state law has runoff provisions like in Georgia, I don’t see how Cornyn can block Franken even after the state certifies that he’s won the election. And wouldn’t it be ironic if Cornyn, as a consummate Washington insider, is seen to be blocking the will of the people? He’d just be contradicting himself! What an idiot!
Next, Cornyn says this is a response to what Amy Kloubachar, the state’s other Senator, said:
The Texas senator was responding to comments made by Minnesota’s Democratic junior senator, Amy Klobuchar, suggesting Franken should be seated in the upper chamber if he is certified as the winner by the State Canvassing Board.
However, this is what Kloubachar actually said:
“If the Canvassing Board declares a winner, that should be our senator,” Klobuchar said last week. Even if a court challenge were to follow, Klobuchar said, “[The Senate] could seat a senator pending the litigation.”
Excuse me, Big John, but where in that statement did Kloubachar say she suggested the canvassing board seat Franken, specifically? I think she was referring to either Franken or Coleman, although the latter is highly unlikely. Cornyn, maybe you should actually listen or read what other people are saying before you respond to what they’re saying.
Anyway, the Canvassing Board is meeting Saturday to count at least another 1300 ballots. Hopefully, this gets resolved before Monday, since I’m getting really tired of this story dragging on.
Oh, and to the Senate Democrats, if you actually let that clod Cornyn tell you what to do, when by next week you’ll have an actual majority in the Senate, you should just go home, since you won’t deserve the power you got. Harry Reid better get out of his perpetual comatosed state, show some actual anger and stop this waste of a filibuster from happening.
Did us all a favor by showing us how willing he is to part from reality as head of the NRSC. The only addition he brings from Dole and Ensign is better fundraising. Losing the MN-Sen and having that over his head instead of Ensign’s head will taint his recruiting ability.
….with that nutty ad that you’d think he’d be returning to Washington with a paper bag over his head rather an obstructionist agenda. Klobuchar’s statement hit the nail on the head. If Cornyn gets it his way, Coleman will be able to exhaust months worth of legal options before the seat is allowed to be filled and Minnesota will needlessly be without two Senators.
Gotta hate it when they grab highly visible URLs and fill them with crud.
..is the same concern about not seating Burris. The Congress simply does not have the option of simply not seating a certified congressmen under Powell v. McCormack assuming they meet their constitutional requirements. What they can do is take an affirmative action. Be it to expel the member or to decide to put aside the certified winner and do their own count/investigation of the election. What they can’t do is simply not seat someone.
I wonder what motions the Coleman campaign is going to file since their duplicate ballots challenge has fallen on deaf ears, especially now considering Franken’s lead is greater than 130 (number of duplicate ballots claimed) they need to couple that challenge with something else to actually have a case in stopping Franken from being the certified winner.