It now appears that Norm Coleman's quest to overtake Al Franken is doomed and it appears that at some point in the future the lovely and talented Franken will have a seat in the Senate.
I've excoriated Franken multiple times, so there's no point in rehashing his myriad flaws. It's difficult to see how his presence in the Senate would diminish the body any further than it is already. He's certainly no more corrupt than Christopher Dodd, nor more odious than Richard Durbin, Chuck Schumer or Harry Reid. The World's Greatest Deliberative Body has been a nest of vipers for a long time now and Franken will fit right in.
Nor does it do much good to rehash the reasons why Coleman is going to lose. I'd simply refer you to Scott Johnson at Powerline, who has chronicled the debacle quite ably. Norm Coleman is an honorable man and will be replaced by a thoroughly dishonorable man. Sometimes that is how things happen.
The task ahead for conservatives is to turn our attention to Minnesota's other senator, Amy Klobuchar, scourge of pool drains. She will be up for re-election in 2012 and will almost certainly run on the same slate as President Obama. Everyone assumes that she will be difficult to beat. I'm not so sure.
17 comments:
Oh, I see from the list of politicians posted, how a "nest of vipers" is formed! You just have to be a Democrat to have your "flaws" exocoriated here. I didn't know membership in the Republican party was all that was required to be considered an honorable politician.
Feel free to nominate your own vipers, Amanda! Lots to choose from!
You just have to be a Democrat to have your "flaws" exocoriated here.
Not necessarily the case. Just the likes of Dodd, Reid and Schumer.
I didn't know membership in the Republican party was all that was required to be considered an honorable politician.
It's not, Ms. Mitchell. See: Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins
i've gotten to know many minnesotans through blogging.
i like them all. buncha nice folks you guys and gals are.
but who you just sent to senate has got to be a joke.
you really are kidding,right?
is it all just part of your good-natured humor?
just a way to say you're too busy just being good folks to take politics too seriously?
If I was writing a blog that focused heavily on politics, perhaps I would gather up my own vest of vipers and excoriate them. (I like that sentence.) As I'm not, I continue to relate my perceptions of other's POVs on this blog (and I like this blog) and others. Incidentally, I don't have the energy to write a political blog, so I appreciate the fact that others do.
Gino, it's three counties who vote overwhelmingly Democrat: Ramsey, Hennepin and St. Louis. Unfortunately, there are enough people living in those areas to ramrod Democrats through.
And lets not forget, 58% of the electorate DID NOT vote for Frankenputz. People in this state will learn the hard way like we did when Ventura was elected in '98.
Gino,
I'd like to think that Minnesotans have a better sense of humor than that, but apparently not. And Brad is correct: Hennepin (Minneapolis), Ramsey (St. Paul) and St. Louis (Duluth) are heavily DFL. The rest of the state, not so much. Washington state is much the same: outside of Seattle, the rest of the state votes like Utah. But there's a whole lot of people in Seattle.
Amanda,
Fair enough. And truth be told, I write about politics more than I'd like to.
we have the same thing here in CA.
the whole state is run by los angeles and frisco regions.
outside of that, its different.
like OR: portland runs the whole state. outside of portland, its all militia members and lumberjacks.
Hey,
I understand the whining and the gnashing of teeth on your side right now, but where are you guys going with the "heavily DFL counties" meme? Are you suggesting a re-write of the constitution? Maybe you could have only land owners vote. Or only people with large tracts of land. Maybe you could limit voting to those who live outside of urban areas. Honestly, get a grip.
Land mass doesn't vote. Get over it.
Rich
Rich,
Long time no hear!
The "heavily DFL counties" thing has a meaning well beyond land masses. And it goes to the rules by which absentee ballots are handled in those jurisdictions. Read the link to the Powerline piece, which talks about what has happened.
Coleman ran a bad campaign and his lawyers screwed the pooch in the recount process. So he will lose in the end. And the signal good thing about this whole saga is that Minnesotans should now understand that our vaunted "fairness" in elections is just as bad, if not worse, than Florida. There are different standards in each county for how these things are handled and that is not acceptable.
By the way, the other cracks (about land owners) are beneath you. Way beneath you.
Mark,
that was done with tongue in cheek...kind of at least. I was also going to suggest Corn Laws and the gold standard. I figured Sara Palin could deliver a Cross of Gold speech at the convention in 4 years.
You must never receive the continuous cycle of emails explaining how 90% of the country, based on land mass, votes Republican. I have. And they are usually replete with graphs and maps showing most of the country painted red, frequently broken out by county. So when a bunch of you guys start complaining about 3 counties in a state, excuse me if I get a little sceptical about your motives.
Rich
The Cross of Gold was your party, Rich. :)
I'd be skeptical if I believed that land masses voted. But they don't. People do. And the problem here is that the voting rules in Hennepin, Ramsey and St. Louis counties are different than they are in the rest of the state. And that is because of the leadership in the counties in question and how they choose to interpret the law. And it is well-established that votes that were rejected in some of the suburban counties were counted in Hennepin, Ramsey and St. Louis counties. And the reason Norm is screwed is because, even though this is known and acknowledged by everyone who is paying attention to the process, there is no available remedy to cure the problem. Once the votes are in, there's no way to separate them from the rest. Norm's team has been trying to loosen the standards of the other counties to approximate the standards that were in play in the metropolitan counties, but he's been effectively stymied.
Riddle me this, good sir – what would life in Cook County be like if you replaced the current leadership with the county supervisors of, say, Macoupin County or Jo Daveiss County? Do you think those folks have different standards?
I'm pretty sure that I've been consistent in saying this, by the way – we can't unring the bell. But what we can do in Minnesota, and must do, is ensure that the same standards are in place statewide on a going forward basis. Surely you wouldn't be skeptical about that, right?
Mark,
Bryant was a very committed Democrat, but that was a very different Democratic Party.
I do get your point, and have followed the recount pretty closely. I am all for standards, but my experience tells me that the losing side in an election this close always feels that they got screwed. And statistically, there's probabbly about a 49.9% chance that they did.
The bottom line is that, in an election where millions of votes are cast, on different machines, employing different counting mechanisms and slightly different standards, there simply is no path to 100% accuracy. Throw in absentee balloting and early voting, and you just increased the chance for error dramatically. But our voting laws are such that local jurisdictions get to call the shots, and there is no national or state standards.
New York state just had a Congressional race that is jsut as close a squeaker as your Senatorial race. Both sides are declaring, with certainty, that they will win, while the gap between the current leader and challenger grew dramatically tighter yesterday. I have no idea who will win there, but I can predict with certainty that the ultimate loser will have at least three plausible reasons why they lost.
It is what it is. I doubt that changes.
Rich
But our voting laws are such that local jurisdictions get to call the shots, and there is no national or state standards.
True dat. And that's why Franken will ultimately win. But I do think a statewide standard could be imposed, especially in Minnesota.
If things don't change that way, look for the Republicans in the suburban counties to be a little more, shall we say laissez-faire about maintaining standards. Don't know if that represents progress or not, unless you're talking about winning the race to the bottom, though.
So it goes.
since the issue is ballot marking placement, the GOP in the rural areas could start counting all markings as GOP markings, its just that some markings have wandered off course.
Corruption is corruption whether your candidates wins because of it, or if your candidate loses because it. One day, you will be the victim or corruption. Tables turn...
As far as Franken goes, he's lauging at the duped Minneostans that voted him in. Another Hollywood Carpetbagger gets to use his home state roots to push Hollywood values. We know that 58% of Minnesotans don't agree with those values, here's guessing that the a sizable amount of the 42% who did are going to soon be feeling buyers remorse. At least we can talk solace that perhaps the most polite people in America have voted in the saltiest most ribald senator.
Rich!
You comment all the time, and you leave your name.
GET A BLOGGER ID!!!
There, I said it.
It's not that big of a deal. The internet doesn't take up any room. It's just space, baby.
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