*I had a quick piece up at RedState yesterday on Ron Kirk’s tax troubles. Kirk is actually not one of the more egregious offenders like Geithner, Daschle or Charlie Rangel, but when you start talking about a third of Obama’s……

If there is a new election, some Obama voters may get buyer’s remorse and go for the GOP.

This would provide Minnesota with full Senate representation, and it wouldn’t be long before the state legislature scheduled a special election.

Oh… and Pawlenty should warn Reid not to interfere in this process.

That was exactly what I was thinking. Democrats will only come out in cold weather to protest Global Warming. Where as the Republicans will vote to keep the Senate from becoming Filibuster proof. Turns out Republicans pay attention to who is running Congress and stuff, SEE: How Obama Got Elected;)

Seat Frankin.

Mark30339 on March 2, 2009 at 3:04 PM

Even safer, require a win by a statistically significant amount.

say 0.5% or maybe 1%

MarkTheGreat on March 2, 2009 at 3:17 PM

A further improvement I would be to add “none of the above” to the ballots, and if it win a new election with an entirely new set of candidates.

aaahhhhh. . . nah – you know, i won’t. it just doesn’t seem fair.

And the rip off republicans

I amn sick to death of both of your sorry asses

EVER heard of EXCELL??

Cant you IDOTS
a. count out how many valid registered voters there were
b. count how many valid votes you recied
c. account for every one
d. count them (again using excell)
e. figure out the winner?

Absolute FRIGGIN MORONS..

Without Obama on the ticket, the Obama-voting blacks will stay home.

Voila! Win for Coleman, just like the re-vote down south happened with the Republican large-margin win.

Just my thoughts.

As long as they don’t give it to D.C.

Minnesota better watch out or you guys are going to have the Carter Center monitoring all of your future elections.
myrenovations on March 2, 2009 at 2:49 PM

The bottom line is that in all likelihood, Coleman is going to be pressured into conceding the election. He’s behind on the recount and he’s ended up having to do quite a lot of legal maneuvering to try and claw that back. The public is patient, but you can’t have that Senate seat sit vacant for a year, nor can you have the U.S. Supreme Court deciding the election. And because Franken is the “declared” winner as the result of the f—ed up recount, the pressure will naturally fall to Coleman to resign.

But I think that Coleman and the Minnesota GOP need to leverage this to change Minnesota law. If I was Coleman, I wouldn’t resign until they change the law to provide for run-off elections for all future elections. Then, the Minnesota GOP can spend the next 5 years talking about how Franken is illegitimate.

Two good things come of this mess.

Mr. D on March 2, 2009 at 3:31 PM

He shoots, he scores!

1) SoS Mark Ritchie won’t be able to make an argument that he was an improvement over previous management in his position; and

2) The dearly-held local notion that Minnesota was somehow different and better than other states in re: political corruption is now completely blown away. Power politics, of the sort that Franken perpetrated in the recount, works just as well here as it does in Chicago. The only difference is that we get more angsty about it.

The long term solution is that more states need to adopt GA’s rule requiring a runoff when no candidate wins a majority.

Mark30339 on March 2, 2009 at 3:04 PM

Even safer, require a win by a statistically significant amount.

say 0.5% or maybe 1%

Sure, Florida holds the title for screwing up elections, … but you’re gaining on us, quickly.

JRDFLA on March 2, 2009 at 3:00 PM

Oh! I think Florida is out of the doghouse at this point.

Florida 2000 was ugly but there was forward momentum from the very beginning and the President was seated on time in late January. MN has seemingly no clue how to even proceed from this point. There isn’t even clear legal issues to be resolved as to what constitutes a valid ballot or how to resolve challenges to disputed ballots. There is talk about a SCOTUS case but even that is discussed in vague terms.

Fact of the matter is that the system in MN (and probably other states that are acting just as smug as MN was when this all started) is broken. While the lizard people are probably out of it, Coleman and Franken really have equally legitimate legal positions without anybody in authority to definitively resolve the inconsitencies in how the returns were tabulated. If Pawlenty is correct that MN can’t hold a special election, this is headed to the SCOTUS at some indefinite position in the future whenever the state gets done futzing around with the problems.