Yeah, I did not get that either, but from what I gather the Senate will have the authority to NOT seat Coleman.
I’m not sure who does this? My guess would be the full Senate. Dn’t know what is needed to deny the seat 51 votes?
There had been discussion that if Stevens had won in Alaska that the GOP’s member of the Senate would have refused to seat him, therefore he would be forced to resign.
There were a couple of cases in recent decades where the Democrat-controlled Congress refused to seat Republicans who had won extremely close victories and gave the seat to the Democrat. I don't know if they can get away with it in this case without a filibuster-proof majority (and even the RINOs would presumably vote with their own party on an issue like this), and they need both this seat and the one in Georgia to get to the magic number of 60.
What would stop them, I guess, is if the people of Minnesota were convinced that Coleman had won.
None that I know of, but I'm not no fancy pants lawyer neither. The Constitution leaves the election of senators up to the States. I don't see anything giving them the authority to override state law. I think they're blowing smoke.