Secrets of the City

Minnesota law doesn’t allow for a ‘do-over’. He/she who gets the most votes wins. Period. Besides its outright dangerous to change the rules of an election in the middle of an election contest.

The republicans are being obstructionist and hypocrites. And so far no one has proven any fraud. Its just another republican talking point.

Breaking: Pawlenty to name Rep. Michele Bachmann to fill vacant Senate seat until court challenges are over. http://tinyurl.com/2g9mqh

Clearly, with the April Foolishness of Bob’s comment, I am not going to visit the link. However, would it be within Tiny Tim’s prerogative to appoint a Senator on an interim basis? My guess is no, but I do not know.

They can cry fowl all they want, but they have to SHOW it. That is the big flaw in their argument. There have showed no evidence of any flaws in the system. Yes there were problems. However, every attempt to rectify those flaws has led to an increase in the Franken margin.

Bill the clown also blamed Franken for the lawsuits.

Douglas, right now, Timmy has stated that he has no authority to appoint based on the fact that the law states he can appoint to a vacant seat, and the seat hasn’t been declared vacant. I suppose it’s possible Reid will cave to McConnell and agree to declare our election null and void, the seat vacant and force us to revote.

We’re discovering when the GOP can’t win in the ballot box, they sue.

In the NY-20 special election yesterday, the GOP filed before the polls had even closed, asking that the court declare Tedisco the winner, or, barring that, issue an injunction preventing the certification of the Democrat. Basically, “if I win, I win. If I lose, I still win.”

I’ve been starting to wonder if there is some point at which some citizens (or maybe since Senators actually represent the states), the legislature or AG could sue to force the issuance of the certificate. After all, Norm isn’t the only one with Constitutional rights. The citizens/states are being deprived of our right to two Senators.

…is Coleman just being obsctructionist?

Is this another April Fools’ joke. Because the answer to that question is “Of course he is.”

Coleman needs a job when this is all over, so he is going to see it through to the bitter end to delay the dems getting the extra vote in the senate. The payback will be some cushy GOP related job when this is over. But I am not looking forward to Scalia and Thomas getting to rule on this.

Minnesota law doesn’t allow for a ‘do-over’. He/she who gets the most votes wins. Period. Besides its outright dangerous to change the rules of an election in the middle of an election contest.

Yes, but they do allow for a coin toss or rock-paper-scissors or a dance off or a cage match. All of which I find a lot more interesting.

coleman has a responsibility to those that voted for him and donated money to his campaign to exhaust every avenue possible before conceding the election. i appreciate his efforts.

Are the 3 judge panel still considering waving the court costs that were supposed to be paid by the loser? If they do, it means we all fit the bill for this exercise in futility. I guess I can send my portion to Cubbie who appreciates this court case.

There’s a fine line between “conceeding an election” and merely being an obstructionist tool for his party, cubbie, and many others think Coleman has passed that line. Count myself among them

As a longtime public servent, he is no longer serving the public well.

Step asiade, sir, and thank you for your service to Minnesota and the nation.

Yes, but they do allow for a coin toss or rock-paper-scissors or a dance off or a cage match. All of which I find a lot more interesting.

But it has to be an ACTUAL vote tie. Not a statistical tie.

cubbie, I can see your side of things, and perhaps Coleman is, in his mind, standing up for the people who supported and voted for him. However, hearing the opinions of some of the others in his party makes me lean toward the obstruction formulation.

There is no doubt that he is depriving the people of Minnesota of representation in the Senate. Call that what you will, support or obstruction.

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I’m not convinced even Scalia and Thomas will want to touch this. They’ll have to explain that they didn’t really mean it when they said Bush v. Gore wasn’t precedent setting (that’s going to have to be a future court with none of that majority on it, I think).

They’d also have to explain why they’re tossing out article 1, section 5 of the US Constitution.

Are the 3 judge panel still considering waving the court costs that were supposed to be paid by the loser? If they do, it means we all fit the bill for this exercise in futility.

I missed that they were even considering that. The only motion I thought related to court costs before them was that Franken had submitted expenses that they thought should be reimbursed by Coleman (after the court sanctioned Coleman’s lawyers).

I think of the situation reversed. If Franken was in coleman’s position right now, how many of you would just be yelling for Franken to concede if there was a chance that he could still win?

Coleman has a responsibility to those that voted for him and donated money to his campaign to exhaust every avenue possible before conceding the election. i appreciate his efforts.

Funny. That’s not what the Republicans were saying in Florida 2000 or Ohio 2004.

It’s also not what Coleman was saying the night of Nov 4 2008 with a STATE mandated recount looming.

Myself, if it were merely the names reversed, I would not have supported Franken going beyond the recount.

Second, baker, I don’t think even Norm truly believes he has a chance to win.

I think that many are saying that Coleman is past the point of having a chance, baker.

And to mnblrkr’s point – Coleman did take the position that he wouldn’t contest a recount.

Personally, at this point, if the roles were reversed, I’d see it the same way and hope that Franken would concede gracefully.

yea, i suppose.
Cubbie makes a good point about fighting to the last breath for all his supporters. Personally I think they are both douchebags, and really don’t care who gets the seat at this point.

He’s not supposed to be the Senator for his supporters, but for the state. If his decisions are exclusively based on “what’s best for the people who have me money” and not “what’s best for the state of Minnesota,” it’s a pretty compelling argument for why he shouldn’t be senator.

I love that Esme Murphy is calling this “Minnesota Held Hostage”: http://cbslocalblogs.prospero.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?webtag=WCCO_esmeblog

I think of the situation reversed. If Franken was in coleman’s position right now, how many of you would just be yelling for Franken to concede if there was a chance that he could still win?

That’s not the reverse of this situation. The reverse is how many of us would support Franken clogging this up in court even if he had no chance to win. And I wouldn’t support him on that.

I got my assertion that we will pay for the court costs from the March 24th Daily Glean on MinnPost

even if he had no chance to win.

are you privvy to all the uncounted ballots max?  225 votes is miniscule.

and if you are, please tell me if my absentee vote counted.

@Cubbie: of the 400ish ballots being (re-)counted, Coleman needs about 75% of them to go his way to pull off a 225 vote swing.

Which uncounted ballots are you talking about? The 400 that he would have to get 313 to win — statistically impossible, and, anyway, they will be counted — or some other uncounted votes that were tossed out for not being eligable and there is no way the courts are going to allow them to be counted?

And, you know, you can look up if your vote was counted online. If you feel it was unfairly tossed out, Coleman was actually desperate to find you for this last round in the court.

that number has been whittled down to 400 throughout the process. is a coleman victory as it stands today unlikely? of course. doesn’t mean he should just give up though.

Yes it does. Minnesota needs a senator, not years of court cases based in the impossiblity of a victory. Coleman told Franken if he were in his shoes, he would stand down for the good of the state. I’d love to see him put his money where his mouth was.

And, you know, you can look up if your vote was counted online.

i don’t think that’s true.  the city of mpls told me the only way to do that was to go thru each ballot by hand as it’s not public information.

The question you need to ask is “What good is this fight doing?” If the only answer you can come up with is “it keeps Franken out of the Senate” then it IS time to give it up. Coleman has no realistic chance of winning. He should live with THIS court decision at the very least rather than drag it onto waste the Minnesota’s supreme court’s time.

If it were Franken, I would say the same damn thing, and Franken has presented a far better case than Coleman.

it’s only an “impossibility of victory” as a result of this process. i agree there’s limits as to how far he should take it. i would not be a fan of this going to the federal level.

geez, you prolly thought it was over when the germans bombed pearl harbor.

Here you go, Cubbie.

http://www.colemanforsenate.com/rejected-absentee-ballots

The Germans?

Forget it, he’s on a roll.

thanks max. i’m not on the list, so at least i did something right.

Wait … you’re arguing for Coleman to keep fighting because of “unlikely to win” rather than someone saying: “Impossible”? Okay.

Wait … the Germans?

Here’s a splanation Cat.

Yeah, everyone knows it was aliens that started the American involvement in WWII.

You got the movie reference right, cubbie. Points to max for the followup.

Well done, sirs.

!

Thanks, Dougnuts. Totally missed it.
*sobs uncontrollably*

@aliecat: Cat is Still Cat would say “China” … and that answer would not be too far from the truth, either! (The US scrap metal and petroleum embargo on Japan was what precipitated the Japanese decision to devise the Northern and Southern attack strategies for oil. They chose “South.”)

P.S. The embargo was placed on Japan because of its 1937 invasion of China.

@aliecat: Cat is Still Cat would say “China” … and that answer would not be too far from the truth, either!

Yay! I win. Now give me my prize!

I offer this unique view of the Coleman/Franken contest, via MNIndy. If this doesn’t win the annual PiPress Peeps Contest, there is no justice in this world.

jpbob, that’s a good one. Seems like a lot of people have a lot of free time these days (reference to the boy scout videos on the other thread).