Whenever Al Frankenloser is mentioned, this photo is required content IMHO.
Posted on 11/29/2008 8:50:17 AM PST by rhema
The setback at the Canvassing Board has forced Al Franken to face the fact that he didn’t get enough valid votes to beat Norm Coleman in Minnesota’s Senate Race. With the rejection of his bid to get the panel to add in thousands of rejected absentee ballots, there seems little chance that the remaining 15% of ballots left in the recount will produce the kind of change that 85% has not. What’s a surly, self-absorbed DFL candidate to do?
Sue:
Minnesota’s U.S. Senate showdown is veering down a path toward the courts and possibly the Senate itself after a panel’s ruling on rejected absentee ballots dealt a blow to Democrat Al Franken’s chances.
For the first time, his campaign on Wednesday openly discussed mounting challenges after the hand recount involving Franken and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman concludes. That includes the possibility of drawing the Senate into the fracas.
The state Canvassing Board denied Franken’s request to factor absentee ballots rejected by poll workers into the recount. He sought to overturn the exclusions in cases where ballots were invalidated over signature problems or other voter errors. Coleman’s campaign maintained the board lacked power to revisit those ballots.
Going to court was always inevitable. Gone are the days when the loser of a close election would have the class to accept a tough loss and wish the winner well. The recount is automatic in this case, and a good idea, but the notion that courts should determine winners and losers is antithetical to democracy.
More worrisome is this statement from Harry Reid:
The board’s decision drew a response from the Senate’s top Democrat, Majority Leader Harry Reid, who called it a “cause for great concern.”
“As the process moves forward, Minnesota authorities must ensure that no voter is disenfranchised,” Reid said in a statement. “A citizen’s right to have his or her vote counted is fundamental in our democracy.”
The Senate does have the authority to determine the winner of any Senate election, as does House for its elections, but they rarely use that power. Reid’s comment threatens the efforts of Minnesota to provide a non-partisan, fair, and legitimate election. In fact, it sounds like an extortion attempt to push state officials into a particular decision that would violate the law in order to produce a specific partisan result.
We have laws on the books to ensure that voter fraud and manipulation regarding absentee ballots gets avoided to the extent possible. (We don’t have such laws with voter registration, which is another issue entirely.) Each citizen who casts his votes according to the law has the right to have them counted, and that is fundamental to our democracy, but the citizen has the responsibility to cast them properly according to the law. Citizens who fail to do so lose the ability to have their vote count in that election.
Any action by the Senate to render this election to Franken on that basis would have the effect of undermining the rule of law. That will be completely unacceptable to Minnesotans, as it should be to all states. Expect Minnesotans to take action if Reid pursues that path.
The Constitution was written to govern civilized people. The second the senate majority figures it can contest every election it doesn’t like, our republic is done for.
Can we launch a petition demanding that Harry Reid be removed from his leadership position based upon this unconstitution ignorant statement? I could see a petition being delievered with millions of signatures the day the Congress gets back to let them know that the dems being in the majority might be a short one?
Whenever Al Frankenloser is mentioned, this photo is required content IMHO.
“If Reid refused to seat Coleman...”
That Nevada punk won’t even try it. He’s just making noise on behalf of Franken’s lawsuit. Trying to make it seem legit.
Folks that know Minnesota law have said those bad absentee ballots won’t stick in court anyway.
Coleman has hired a superb election lawyer just in case and signaled he will not lay down to the Franken puss.
And I’m confident that the results will now hold. And you know what, it couldn’t happen to a better guy. For Franken to lose like this is sweet poetry.
He’ll go down crying and classless the whole way. It’s exactly who he is and he so deserves it.
www.powerline.com - best local insights on the Senate seat election.
They’ll steal it in the Senate, 58 - 41.
I don’t understand. How can the US Senate involve itself in a State’s election? Seems to me Minn would be the ones to decide this through its court system.
Garrison Keilor now lives in Wisconsin.
We need both this and the one in Georgia. We have more than enough RINO Fifth column Republicans who will join hands with Obama and break our filibusters.
The senate has rarely used the act of refusing to sit elected senators...the last time I can recall that this came up...was right after the civil war. For several years...it was a common tactic to simply refuse to sit the fairly elected senator.
Other than refusing to sit a guy...thats all that Reid can offer to do. I would imagine that a good twenty senators of the current senate would basically go on “strike” and refuse to cooperate with any senate hearings or votes. It would attract unnecessary attention to Reid and he’d likely appear foolish if this was the tactic.
I think in this case....where absentee ballots were loosely thrown to the public...you see what happens. I don’t think anyone other GI’s or hospital-bound folks...ought to have the absentee ballots. Its simply too difficult for most folks to grasp and use.
That is simply not true. Both Coleman and Franken got about 41% with the balance going to another candidate. In fact about 60% of the vote went to other than Franken.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The Franken wuss is going to blow a fuse soon. Someone lock the kook up for his own good.
McConnell will tell Reid and the White House to expect zero cooperation from the GOP if the will of MN voters is not respected. I imagine that Obama will step in and tell Reid he is making the RATS look bad by refusing to recognize the duly elected senator and Reid will grudgingly agree to seat Coleman.
If it is a real and legitimate loss, fine.
In the case of Bob Dornan in California some years ago, it was plain that Sanchez stole the election.
The GOP refused to fight against the obvious voter fraud.
If it was a RINO or a liberal republican they probably would have.
I used percentages against the two candidates that where that close.I was hoping the people had more sense. I’m from NY state,so I really can’t cast stones.
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I would hope not.
Were this to become fact, I’d say it were time to overthrow this govt.
In the end, that’s the only thing to stop them.
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