Norm Coleman’s term as a U.S. senator ended at noon Washington time on Saturday, and by evening his hopes of winning a second term had been dealt an expected but serious setback as state officials counted previously rejected absentee ballots in St. Paul.
DFLer Al Franken held an unofficial lead of 225 votes over Coleman as this edition of the Star Tribune went to press, according to a newspaper tally of the officials’ count of the absentee ballots. Franken had led unofficially by 49 votes going into the day and gained a net 176 votes from the new ballots.
With the recount complete, focus immediately shifted to the Minnesota Supreme Court, which continued to consider a request from the Coleman campaign to alter the process and add more absentee ballots to be reconsidered. But by early evening there was no word from the state’s highest court as to when it would rule or hear arguments.
Coleman almost certainly can’t win no matter how many legal challenges he files. At this point, here’s the real question: Will Harry Reid fight as hard to seat Al Franken as he’s fighting not to seat Roland Burris?
Franken won an election outright, and Burris was appointed by a corrupt governor under investigation for possibly trying to sell the same seat Burris is now appointed to. Reid would look better if he was seen fighting for democracy than for Illinois corruption.
I really hope someone in the mainstream media picks up the GOP opposition to seat Franken for what it is: Republicans will try to block Franken because of who he is, what he represents (pure, unadulterated political incorrectness), rather than the process by which he was elected. Basically, the GOP is scared shitless of having someone like him amongst them.
I admit I was a little nervous with only a 49 vote lead and there was the whole Minnesota Supreme Court (appointed mostly by GOP Governors) out there (think Bush v. Gore). But now it’s 225 votes, the campaign’s agreed on the 933 absentee pile 5 ballots to count, and now it’s down to this double counting absentee thing and Coleman trying to get 650 correctly rejected ballots (from GOP strongholds) added back in. Good luck Norm!
The United States Senate in the 111th Congress will have 59 Senators in the Democratic organizing caucus. We now have our 55 elected Senators including Fraken. Then we needed appointments for Obama (IL), Biden (DE), Clinton (NY), and Salazar (CO). Delaware and Colorado are set with relatively painless appointment processes. New York seems to be settling on Caroline Kennedy.
And that leaves us with Illinois. As for Burris – I wonder why he’d accept the appointment from the Governor given the situation. Blago should resign (impeachment forthcoming) and let Quinn pick someone. I guess I should be glad Blago didn’t appoint a Republican!
I have been avidly watching this play out since the November election and Al Franken and his lawyers have been amazing. What a great way to start the New Year!!
Harry Reid should find his spine and make a provisional appointment immediately. I don’t think that requires more than a majority vote. Let the Republicans stomp their feet and whine but let the Democrats stand up for their rights and show some guts for a change.
I hope they will not let him tie this up for a year or more. I would think that courts would hear and rule on the case quickly, as the courts did during the 2000 Florida recount.
What committees shall we have Sen. Franken on?
Judiciary for the coming SCOTUS vacancies alone. I would have killed to see him interrogate Alito. Environment & Public Works so he can piss off Inhofe obv. Oh, and of course Foreign Relations.
the Republican leadership would have the incumbent Democrat’s office cleaned out by sun-up. A little backbone please Harry…
Norm Coleman is one of my favorite Senators in the Senate. By far in my top 5. I would hate to see him go. Not only will MN miss out on such a great Senator, but so will the nation. And to top it off losing to a freak like Franken?
But it is time for Coleman to conceed defeat and let Franken take his Senate seat. It is pointless to keep fighting this with nothing that really stands out being wrong in the process.
Whooohoooo!!!
So now someone needs to explain to the Republicans that they can’t filibuster the duly elected Senators (maybe if Cornyn tries to go through with it, the Democrats should try to filibuster his seating [now that would be entertainnment :D]).
i can hardly believe we might finally have put a stake in his heart (metaphorically of course).
if the court moves quickly they can deal with whatever coleman’s camp brings forward (double counted ballots? adding rejected absentee ballots?) fairly quickly, and we can wait a week to seat senator franken and avoid a big ugly deal. if the courts drag their feet, then reid and the democrats seat him anyway. no muss, no fuss.
then Democrats should revisit that good ol’ “nuclear option” that the GOP liked to fantasize about four years or so ago. Should. I know that Harry wouldn’t even make them actually filibuster, let alone do something that not even the self-proclaimed permanent majority didn’t dare to do.
I think the Republicans could only filibuster the seating and swearing-in of all senators elected on Nov 4th (incl. Sen. McConnell).
If they do, there are 63 senators left (64 when a replacement for Obama is seated). 3/5 of 63 are 37.8 senators to overrule a filibuster. Democrats would habe 38 (incl. Lieberman, without Obama).
I think it would be self destructive for Coleman to mount a court challenge. A procedure question. Would his challenge be heard by the same Minnesota Supreme Court that has already ruled against him 3-4 times? And since rules for seating Senators are matters settled by the Senate, if Coleman loses – where could he appeal?
Besides which his case loses on many counts:
1. He would be trying to get the MSC to change rules that he had previously agreed to but now does not like the outcome. (Duplicate ballots and Absentee Ballots). And changing rules you previously agreed to is not allowed. Estoppel.
2. Franken’s 225 vote leads means even if Coloeman wins, he loses. Duplicates plus lost ballots only net 140 votes at the most.
3. Looking at his 600+ ballots won’t help as they were already checked twice and rejected. The third time will NOT be the charm.
4. Counting the 400+ absentee ballots that both campaigns vetoed is the only item with any merit and will never net him the 80-100 votes he would need even if he won on the other two issues which he wont.
5. He is already running low on funds and will have to pay ALL the costs of anymore recounting.
So I hope he spends the weekend weeping and gnashing his teeth and then concedes on Tuesday.
Happy Camper
the Al Franken Decade has officially begun!
but it looks increasingly likely to me that senator coleman might concede. his 3 “legal” arguments are utterly flimsy and might be dismissed outright.