Groan: Angry clown actually picks up votes in latest Minnesota recount
posted at 5:30 pm on April 7, 2009 by Allahpundit
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It won’t be long now until the Al Franken Decade begins in earnest.
Franken captured 198 of the ballots, while Coleman took 111. The ballots added 87 votes to Franken’s recount lead, enlarging his margin over Coleman to 312.
The result makes it even more likely that, barring an unforeseen circumstance, Franken will prevail in the election lawsuit that Coleman filed in January to contest the Democrat’s 225-vote recount lead. The three-judge panel presiding over the case has not said when it will issue a final decision.
Coleman will appeal the case to the Minnesota Supreme Court, his lawyer Ben Ginsberg said after today’s proceedings. One of the grounds for the appeal will be unequal treatment of the ballots, Ginsberg said.
Ramesh at the Corner says it’s time for Coleman to throw in the towel. Is it? Three months ago I said he might as well claw all the way to the bitter end, but we’re near the bitter end now and at some point the costs of clawing will exceed the benefits. From what I can tell of this byzantine case, his last legal challenge in state court is essentially an equal protection argument modeled on Bush v. Gore. If that fails then he has to decide whether to start over in federal court, as the Senate GOP leadership wants him to do. I’m pessimistic:
[Legal experts] want to see a final decision from those same trial court judges on Coleman’s claim that the state’s absentee ballot counting process, which differed county-to-county, violated his constitutional right to equal protection — even though he, Franken and their lawyers agreed to standards used in the recount…
However, no matter how remote his chances for success, a Coleman request for high court review could serve to delay for months the seating of a second Minnesota senator, Hasen says.
Unless it’s an emergency, the court does not consider petitions during its summer break, from the end of June to the beginning of October. GOP Senate leaders have threatened to block any attempt to seat Franken if he’s declared the winner by state courts, pending any ongoing appeal by Coleman.
If this drags on without any realistic chance of victory, the Democrats get red meat for their narrative of the GOP as an obstructionist “party of no” and the likelihood of a months-long reprisal court challenge from the left (in Tedisco’s House race, maybe?) will rise. There are consequences potentially for Coleman, too: If and when Pawlenty moves on bigger things, he might want to run for governor, in which case a gracious concession even at this late date could polish his image.
On the other hand, we’re talking about Al Franken here. Time to quit or not?
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How the Hell does this happen? Is Coleman that bad to allow such a freak to defeat him?
Benjamin9 on April 8, 2009 at 6:12 AM
this just cements my rock bottom respect for the clowns in washington. thanks minnisota… now go to timeout and think about what you have done? (seriously… do you people look at yourselves and feel embarassed? you should.)
BadBrad on April 8, 2009 at 6:35 AM
How can this happen? Easy, Norm Coleman is a centrist RINO but as usual we’ll take him just because he’ll don the Republican hat. I don’t care about his future politics. What I do care about is stopping freaking silly a$$ quitter Republicans from giving away elections.
Yeah I can see how pulling a 100 votes that go all to one person out of the trunk of my car and having more votes than voters in a precinct can be consider equality of treatment and a valid identifiably confirmed win for the originally annouced loser of this game. Of course Norm will lose. Why shouldn’t he? And why should Republicans want to drag out this inevitability and stand on principal if the centrist guy can become Governor of the state?
Dumba$$es!!
Sultry Beauty on April 8, 2009 at 6:41 AM
ACORN was successful in Minnesota, the Secy of State is an ACORN tool and there was trouble with the Repub brand name there. The problem is that republican counties played by the rules whereas democraps the ends, getting elected at all costs, justify the means, count and manufacture whatever ballots you can, change the rules when other results can’t be undone and then crow about fairness and voter inclusion.
eaglewingz08 on April 8, 2009 at 6:46 AM
We are not talking about Coleman’s equal protection rights. We are talking about the rights of the voters. Since when can the stupid decisions of Coleman’s dumb lawyers compromise the constitutional rights of thousands of Minn. voters?
tommylotto on April 8, 2009 at 10:52 AM
To be more clear the board made a mistake in accepting the stipulation of the parties to accept those ballots unless it was prepared to use the same standard in all counties. The board should have left that decision to the challenge. The board complicated things by not segregating those ballots — making it impossible to undue their error.
Coleman was a dumbass to allow himself to get pushed around. He should have been a stickler about allowing any ballots in during the recount and when it looked like ballots from Dem counties were going to come in, he should have immediately insisted that the same categories of ballots from other counties also be counted. Coleman et al. were dumb and weak. So, the inclination is to say it is his own fault, but that is not the issue with the equal protection argument. The rights of the VOTERS were violated — by the board with the connivance of Coleman. Just because Coleman agreed to it does not mean rights were not violated. However an interesting legal issue is whether this violation can be raised by Coleman — a participant in the violation. It is sort of like the murderer of his parents asking for mercy as an orphan. Maybe the challenge needs to be brought by one of the absentee voters whose ballot was disallowed.
tommylotto on April 8, 2009 at 11:11 AM
In Minnesota 44% of the population will vote for anything that has the Democrat describing it. Republicans will get 35% of the vote. Of the remaining 21% a small percentage will go to various parties but the largest portion will vote for the Independent Party if there is a viable candidate and there was. Throw in that Senator Coleman is not popular enough to attract the Independents and the Independents aren’t astute enough to know that their votes will simply allow the Democrats to elect whatever they choose to run. If it is close at all then Acorn and other shenanigan creating groups will give the Democrats the advantage. Throw in a mismanaged early voting system for the first time this year and it is the perfect storm. Republicans can win in Minnesota but the candidates have to be outstanding personalities that can articulate issues in a likeable manner. Norm doesn’t fit this profile. So we get a clown. This isn’t our first clown. I don’t remember a single election year in my lifetime when we haven’t elected at least one high profile clown to some office State or Federal.
rsl775 on April 8, 2009 at 11:16 AM
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