GOP dead set against 59th Dem

[onehandle]

Source: Politico

Having just seen what President Barack Obama can do with 58 Democrats in the Senate, Republicans are more determined than ever to keep him from getting a 59th. Especially if the 59th is Al Franken. Franken, the former comedian, leads Republican Norm Coleman by 225 votes in a “Groundhog Day” of an election that dawned more than three months ago and shows no signs of ending soon.

Which is exactly how Senate Republicans want it. The National Republican Senatorial Committee held a ritzy fundraiser for Coleman in Washington this week, helping him raise the money he needs to keep his legal challenges alive through a trial and then a lengthy legal process if he loses.

How long should Coleman hold out? “However long it takes,” says Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who chairs the NRSC. “I encourage him to see it through the end,” Cornyn said Thursday. “He feels like he owes it to the voters of Minnesota and his colleagues here. He realizes how important retaining that seat is to us.”

The Democrats know how important the seat is — and they accuse the GOP of prolonging Coleman’s legal fight just to keep it empty.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18832.html

[mucifer]

1. I thought coleman was running out of options.

He keeps losing his battles in court.

[Dennis Donovan]

28. On Thursday, the court smacked down most of what Coleman was seeking:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/in-new-opinion-minnesota-election-court-seriously-damages-colemans-chances.php

The Minnesota election court has just handed down a very important ruling that will determine the entire course of the rest of this trial -- and it's very bad news for Norm Coleman, cutting off multiple avenues he was pursuing in order to get more votes for himself thrown into the count.

Yesterday the court heard arguments regarding the campaigns' positions on 19 categories of rejected absentee ballot envelopes, and whether the voters should be cut sufficient slack as to allow the ballot in. The court has now handed down a ruling on 13 of those categories -- and it's an emphatic No.

Coleman has currently been allowed to argue for the inclusion of about 4,800 ballots, which were selected from the total pool of over 11,000 rejected votes and just so happen to come largely from his own strongholds. What this ruling means is that he is going to have to significantly chop that list down for the remainder of this trial.

This is not the final word on this question -- Coleman will almost certainly appeal it -- but it's been a very rough day.

The court rejected Coleman's contention that swaths of citizens have been unjustly denied their votes: "The court is confident that although it may discover certain additional ballots that were legally cast under relevant law, there is no systemic problem of disenfranchisement in the state's election system, including in its absentee-balloting procedures."

[cherish44]

56. He won't stop

He's getting mucho funding from the GOP machine to continue the fight...

[Sarah Ibarruri]

71. Eventually he's going to come up to a dead end and that will be that nt

[bottomtheweaver]

2. This is what I thought they would do to Obama.

I was delighted when they didn't, but they probably could have.

[Time for change]

44. They would have done it if they could have

But I don't see how they could have done that. Obama won by 8 and a half million votes, and McCain would have had to successfully challenge 9 states in order to overturn the election, and most of those states were not at all close. That's very different than a 225 vote lead in one state.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. This is a perversion of democracy if you ask me.

[babylonsister]

4. I agree. Seat Franken already. It's getting ridiculous. nt

[Divine Discontent]

9. perfect & simple way to describe it! this has gone on WAYYYYYY too long - the election was WHEN?

what a travesty to the voters of MN, who deserve to have their senator fighting for them - they should have decided this by the 20th of Jan.

Shame on the utterly shameful Coleman. I know it's hard to concede - but, I won't speak for Franken, but even I, upsetting as it would be, would have conceded by the inauguration, knowing that the seat was empty and it was taxing the other senate office in my state, and oh, the simple fact that the election was 3 1/2 months ago!

[Posteritatis]

14. I'd still rather see this done carefully rather than quickly

Things tend not to turn out well, and I don't just mean "our guy winning," when electoral controversies are rushed. Franken's more or less got this in the bag, and the state has rules for how to manage this. They may not move as fast as people want, but it's just a drawn-out formality that he's going to get the seat at this point, barring anything really, really unexpected.

When the legal procedures are finished here, Franken's going to win, the Republicans are going to look like obstructionist tools a little moreso than they already do, and the rest of the country's going to see a case of a close election where people took a good, long, damned hard look at every. Single. Ballot. It'll be a long time before anyone in the state can say "it's only one vote, what does it matter?" without getting a slap in the head, too.

Sure, it's not satisfyingly instantaneous, but it looks like a win to me.

[TheEuclideanOne]

23. Yes, I agree.

Let's hope that coleman can't drag it out for too long, but it is better for whatever legal challenges are outstanding to play out. Sure, we want to get that seat as early as possible, but in some ways it is like being the next person in line at the bank. It sucks to have to wait, but it feels so much better if you are the next person. You can even let 2 or 3 customers go ahead of you because you are still the next one in line.

If he legitimately has no chance at all and their only tactic is to just delay like somebody who doesn't pay the rent, but knows how to "not get thrown out of an apartment" then I hope that we are doing are best to make sure that there is a political price to pay and that he is shown for what he is.

[JackRiddler]

36. Yes. Let it play out... in contrast to Florida 2000!

[Beetwasher]

48. If Coleman Can Drag This Out For Six Years, He Will

I'm not sure of all the ins and outs here legally speaking, but Coleman will keep filing suits ad infinitum to keep Franken from being seated. Is there a point where he will be forced to stop doing that or can he keep filing frivolous lawsuits until the six year term is up? I honestly don't know, but if there's any way in the universe that it's possible, Coleman will do it.

[Posteritatis]

53. I was under the impression that that forced-to-stop point is approaching

Sooner or later you run out of claims that a judge won't immediately call bullshit on, and since he's been feeding the courts a steady stream for four months now I imagine he's probably struggling to find new avenuse to take by now. He's more or less been reduced to "Franken can't win because he's a Democrat!" these days, which your typical court isn't going to have terribly much patience for.

On the other hand, I'd love to see Coleman declared a vexatious litigant. That'd be awesome.

[GinaMaria]

66. Rushed? It's February. The election was over 4 months ago.

Rushed was the 2000 presidential election. The people of Minn. are under represented in the senate. Enough of this crap. Maybe the citizens of Minn should only pay a portion of their taxes since they are not fully represented. This is out of control. This has become about what's best for Coleman not what's best for Minn.

[FatDave]

45. Isn't everything the repubplicans do a perversion of democracy?

Think about it. They're practically the perversion of democracy party.

[onehandle]

51. It's all they got. nt

[BlooInBloo]

5. (shrug) That's nice. They aren't able to prevent it.

[stopbush]

6. Funny, because Minnesota voted FOR a 59th Dem

[wroberts189]

7. They are deathly afraid

They will have to keep every single pub in lockstep.

And they got 3 they already lost on the vote. Franken will be seated.


good luck pubbies ..you are in a world of hurt but nobody notices just how bad it is.

soon they will.

[LibDemAlways]

8. This is the same party that vilified Al Gore for

asking for the Florida recount. Scumbag hypocrites all. And shameless too.

[Divine Discontent]

10. Rec your comment! hypocrisy is embarrassing and the GOP is stained in it!

they're more and more like those sham preachers on TV who distort the sanctity of Christ to the believers, in a scheme to make money. The GOP only wants to keep the people down, because their corporate masters who fund their campaigns and give them shit like it that way. They're laughable when they talk about doing the right thing, or, as you stated, when they cry foul for something someone else does, only to turn around and do it even more haphazardly than the first person!

[Thor_MN]

33. Norm is steeped in Hypocrisy on this election.

When the initial count ended in a slight edge for Coleman, but small enough that law required a manual recount, he called on Franken to concede, saying it was best for the state. When the recount started he was against counting any absentee ballots that were not counted on election night. Now it's is only argument that more rejected absentee ballots be counted. The rethugees have been yammering about more voter ID, showing photo ID, etc. Now he is whining about voters being disenfranchised if they didn't follow the legal requirements for the absentee ballots. He is demanding that more rejected absentee ballots be counted, but only in the cherry picked areas that favor him. From virtually every angle, this election contest is the very definition of hypocrisy.

[RamblingRose]

37. Is there video of Coleman calling on Al to concede? I say let's get it out there. nt

[caseymoz]

73. My thought exactly. Repubs are running afoul of the Constitution, though.

The final clause of Article 5 pertaining to Amendment of the Constitution says clearly that the States can't be deprived of equal representation in the Senate (without their consent). The clause might pertain to Constitutional Amendment, but if an Amendment to the Constitution can't do this, doesn't it impl7y that lesser measures like a lawsuit can't do so either? When the victory is narrow but clear?

I wonder why nobody else has noticed this?

If only Franken had won decisively. There has to be an end to this, though. Sometime that Coleman will run out of options, but I could see him carrying on the fight even after Franken is seated, and Repubs will likely filibuster to prevent it.

[Mister Ed]

77. I believe Al has put that question to the Minnesota State Supreme Court

Last I heard, they were deliberating on it. That was a week ago.

[Old and In the Way]

11. I think they are making a PR mistake.

They are looking like the sore losers that they are. No class. If they think people in MN and elsewhere think they are doing us a favor, they better think again. There could be a backlash by the voters of MN and may further diminish the Republican brand nationally. But, hey, keep spending money you don't have on this exercise in futility.

[izquierdista]

17. Repubs ALWAYS have money

They get it from their billionaire donors, who have thousands of minimum wage, non-union workers working for them.

[dmr]

79. Does he have to report that money?

Since he's still in 'campaign' mode by fighting for his incumbency, are his legal donations considered as campaign funds?

Or, since legal donations help Coleman continue his frivolous lawsuit, is that money considered income for Coleman?

So, are legal donations reportable? Are they taxable?

I've always had to pay my own legal fees.

What's to stop Coleman from taking this to SCOTUS when he loses? Though I think that would be a bad (stupid) idea.

I think it's not just Franklin the GOP doesn't want, I think it's even much deeper. What was Coleman involved in where he has to get back to DC - at any cost - to carry out?

[Bonn1997]

80. There won't be any national damage

On the national level, the Dems are foolishly ignoring this story rather than showing the public how the Reps are blocking the will of the Minnesotans.

[diane in sf]

12. Gee, shouldn't the Repugs "just get over it?"

[Historic NY]

13. Remember people Politico is a Repuke owned publication

[No Elephants]

15. Key word = "fundraiser." Donate to Al!

https://secure.alfranken.com/page/contribute

A contribution to Al to keep fighting Coleman in court would be money well spent. Al will even help keep his fellow Democrats honest. Please give, even if it's ten bucks.

[DUlover2909]

18. I gave him another $25 from Texas. I love Al Franken.

:)

[SeattleVet]

16. Doesn't the Constitution specify 2 senators from each state?

Why do the repukes hate America and Minnesota so much that they are keeping them from having the constitutionally-mandated 2 senators?

Anti-Constitution bastards, every one of them.

:evilgrin:

[BrklynLiberal]

61. I wonder if the Minn legislature can do something...or some sort of

class-action suit in behalf of the people of Minn.

[DUlover2909]

19. You know the GOP is dredging the bottom of the barrel when Cornyn is their spokes-idiot.

F-U Cornyn. I voted for Rick Noriega. STFU!

[cyclezealot]

24. Sure Cornyn is the bottom dreg.. They can get worse.?

Research US Rep. Sessions- Tx. - The GOP campaign chair in the House.. He referred to the House GOP conference at the "Tailban." Republicans don't always lie.

[DUlover2909]

25. Yeah I heard all about that. Simply pathetic are those GOP bafoons.

[cyclezealot]

29. Don't forget Cantor.

He's been bad mouthing bank bail out money on Faux TV.. Yet, his wife received bank bail out money thanks to bank bonus'. But his wife ended up the recipient of bailout cash.

[bigbrother05]

40. Are there any worse than Inhofe? nt

[lostnfound]

30. I wonder if more of the more moderate R's will tire of the Taliban tactics

Not on the Franken issue, which isn't on THEIR plate, but as time goes on, in vote after vote. The "Taliban" won't be able keep the Rs in lockstep forever, will they? Now that they aren't in the majority?

[Jack Rabbit]

57. Oh, yeas they can get worse

Much worse . . .

The Raw Feed


And in the past, they've been much, much worse . . .


Desedo

[AyanRand Is Dead]

20. The Corporatist are on full obstructionist mode. nt

[tularetom]

21. Wanna see petty vindictive childishness at its worst?

Wait until Franken is seated in the Senate. If you think the rethugs looked bad by snubbing Obama's invitation to the WH, they'll look a lot worse when they refuse to even acknowledge Franken's presence in the chamber. They'll turn away when he speaks to them, they'll refuse to shake hands with him, they'll probably even pass little notes back and forth ridiculing his haircut or his suit or what the fuck ever.

And they'll look like crap in the process. And the people's opinion of them will sink even further.

And "Politico" will not even notice.

[Matilda]

31. Sorry, I missed that.

What invitation was that?

[JVS]

41. What will be really funny is when Franken starts insulting them.

[DFW]

22. Cornyn is just the latest in a long series of embarrassments to Texas

Our Senators, our governor, my personal Congressman, who gerrymandered onto us by DeLay,
forcing out the very effective and dedicated Martin Frost. Pete Sessions is a stain on
Dallas, and on Texas.

But don't forget--we also have dedicated Democrats like Matt and Dolly Angle and young
workers like Aimee Boone working their asses off for improvement and enlightenment in
Texas politics. It's a steep uphill battle, and Matt's Lone Star Project needs all the
help it can get, but it's there, and it's not about to fade away.

[Optical.Catalyst]

26. The Impotent Republicans show once again the only thing they have is to be Obstructionists

The Republicans are defining themselves with the Modus Operandi of obstructing the operation of the Federal Government. They are interfering with the proper function of the Government for purely political reasons.

[Joe Steel]

27. We expect this kind of stuff from Republicans.

The Republicans are defining themselves with the Modus Operandi of obstructing the operation of the Federal Government. They are interfering with the proper function of the Government for purely political reasons.

We expect this kind of stuff from Republicans. What bothers me is Obama's willingness to deal with them. He should ignore them. They're never going to cooperate and they'll exploit any involvement the Democrats give them.

[DCKit]

54. Obama knew what they were going to do. He just made sure they did it as publicly as possible.

The complete lack of subtlety was intentional. He telegraphed his every move directly to The People, and the Republics - (R)-Morans - fell for it. Now even their base is being assaulted with the fact that they're small-minded, sore loserman assholes with no agenda, few ideas, no ideals and no loyalty to the people or the Constitution.

The Republics are so outclassed by our President, it's not even funny... OK, it is, but let's keep the Schadenfreude to a minimum.

[TheCowsCameHome]

32. May the GOP rot in Hell

I want to see these bastards out of power for at least a generation.

[RBInMaine]

34. PISS ON THE GOP ! THEY ARE FASCISTS !!

[Orrex]

35. I'm sure that Repubs would be just as supportive of Franken if the situation were reversed

Since, you know, it's all about protecting the sanctity of the voters' wishes. Or something.

[TahitiNut]

49. I doubt even Bill Bennett would consider "altruism" a Republican virtue.

:dunce:

[annabanana]

38. Franken could probably use some of our bucks . .

https://secure.alfranken.com/page/contribute/EM2008

[Magleetis]

39. Whats to stop the repugs

from appealing this all the way to the SCOTUS? I also don't understand why the courts are taking their time. This needs to be settled ASAP.

[Botany]

42. After Bush v Gore and Ohio 2004 ...

the repugs do not have a leg to stand on ...... it is time to seat Al.

[tomp]

43. please watch the hypocrisy.

if this were a dem behind by 225 votes would anyone be telling him to throw in the towel. don't think so. the standard is: count all the (legal) votes (up to mathematical elimination) before declaring a winner, period.

for the record: hate coleman with a passion.

[Beetwasher]

46. I Honestly Believe Coleman Is Going To Try Keep It Up For SIX YEARS!

If he can, he will.

[cherish44]

55. Oh no doubt

He'll be funded to fight this tooth and nail as long as it's allowed. Hopefully someone say STOP and seat Franken and soon... It's not fair to the state of Minnesota to not have two senators (although they somewhat brought it on themselves for voting for the POS Coleman to begin with. How could this even happen in a good blue state like Minnesota? Was it they don't like Franken or are the morans taking over there?)

[mucifer]

47. Is the MN press getting angry at the GOP? Just curious.

[Odin2005]

50. Republicans hate Democracy. What else is new?

[crikkett]

52. Won't Coleman have to pay Franken's court costs?

:shrug: isn't that how it works?

[Life Long Dem]

58. And Lieberman makes 60!!

:woohoo::bounce:

[dysfunctional press]

59. doesn't the senate itself have the power to stop this bullshit?

if it weren't for the fact that we have a complete eunuch as senate majority leader, that is.

[veganlush]

62. I'm with you, man...

...If the tables were turned, the rushpubelickens would be seating their guy by now. Reid should be putting pressure on the powers that be.. or they'll drag it on 'til it's advantage coleman, then all of a sudden, they'll rush to seat 'em.:grr: :nuke: :banghead:

[BrklynLiberal]

60. The people of Minn should rise up and demand an end to this BS!!

They are not being adequately represented in Congress as long as there is only one Senator from Minn.

[Raine]

63. ReTHUGS are scared sh*tless

and they should be! :mad:

[sutz12]

64. GOP dead .......now isn't that better?

:)

[NC_Nurse]

65. Maybe they should have run better campaigns...based on IDEAS and not just

empty rhetoric. I don't remember hearing one concrete proposal from the Pubs besides the stoopid
"drill, baby, drill" line. Too fuckin' bad for them.

[libodem]

67. God, you could only hope

he'll take a ride in a small plane, on a snowy day.

[Stinky The Clown]

68. POLITICO IS NOT A RELIABLE NOOZ ORG. THEY ARE RW PROPAGANDA

Please find some other source for that story.

Do NOT give Politico the traffic. They are your enemy.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5044943

[Seldona]

69. Bingo.

Politico sucks.

[Piewhacket]

70. WE ...NEED .... FRANK.. EN.... WE ...NEED .... FRANK.. EN

Go Go Franken yous our man
kick Coleman's butt, we know you can,
so kick his ass just one last time,
and take your seat as 59!
yeaaaaaaa....

[farmboxer]

72. Repubs stacking poll! AOL poll needs help ASAP!

Repubs will do anything to destroy Obama & Dem party! They are out for blood! Always full of hate they are!~

[ooglymoogly]

74. The senate has the power to seat him. The pugs would

have done so by now. Seat him already.

[lenegal]

75. I hate every last evil Republican. All of them are evil fucks.

The only way to get power is to shove their way into it? Sick twisted assholes. Give it up already, Coleman.

[AlbertCat]

76. He realizes how important retaining that seat is to us.”

And doesn't care who the people of Minnesota elected. After all, he's a Repug.

[Oldtimeralso]

78. Why Doesn't Reid Swear Him In?

Didn't halfturd do that with a neocon rep? I thought the Burris-Blago scandal brought out the point that the Senate can choose or refuse a member.

[onehandle]

81. Because Al hasn't been certified by MN. nt

[TankLV]

82. Don't forget our "esteemed" (feh) "Landslide" Harry Reid got in by just 125 or so votes his first

time!!!

He was at first ahead by only a 50 or so and asked for a recount, which put him even MORE ahead in the final tally...

SEAT FRANKEN ALREADY!!!

These goddamn repukes are a fucking disgrace to HUMANITY...