[luv2ndamend]

I'm Shocked!!!

[xcamel]

he needs a “MiniMe” ?

[maggief]

"GOP Furious" ... Time to reach across that aisle again?!

[Vicki]

Well why not say Franken will be seated when you know you are going to “find” the votes necessary. The fix is in.

[Corporate Law]

Reid is a crooked SOB, why would anyone expect not to seat the thief?

[VigilantAmerican]

If the GOP had any cujones we’d storm the damn palace.

[television is just wrong]

maybe the GOP will stop making nice nice with the Democrats?

[chris_bdba]

Yep time to fund his opponate and give Harry the Daschle treatment!

Why will he seat a whte man who cheated and not the legitimate black senator? Tht’s racist!

[EBH]

Part of me is so disgusted with the GOP as to my first thought was, “So what? Call me when the conservative party gets furious.”

Until the party returns to the platform...it is all show and noise.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I imagine Dingy Harry wants someone else in the Senate who also wears diapers like he does. What a pig.

[Buck W.]

I suspect that Reid himself won’t be seated in ‘11, and he knows it.

[FMBass]

GOP “furious”?

Is that something like the UN generating a strongly worded condemnation?

[pissant]

Good. That is what the ball-less GOP gets for putting up with the democrat corruption all these years.

[MplsSteve]

WELCOME TO FREE REPUBLIC’S MINNESOTA PING LIST!

120 MEMBERS AND GROWING...!

FREEPMAIL ME IF YOU WANT ON OR OFF THIS LIST!

[wedwo]

[mkjessup]

Dingy Harry and his racist ‘Rats demonstrate that Roland Burris is the wrong color, and send him to the back of the bus, but the psychotic white guy Al Franken can step to the front of the line.

Pass the sheets Bobby Byrd, looks like you’re finally going to have a working majority as the Senate’s Grand Kleagle.

[Political Junkie Too]

This is another case study in why we should repeal the 17th amendment.

The problem with popular election of Senators is many:

• The Senate was supposed to represent the institutions of the several States, not the People. The State legislatures should pick their own representation in Congress.
• The House represents the People. Popular election of Senators reduces this chamber to a "super House."
• Popular election of Senators breaks the link between the States and the federal government, because once the Senators fool the People (who don't pay attention the way a statehouse would), these Senators no longer represent the state's interests, but their own and their party's interests.
• State legislature appointment of Senators would reinforce the ties between local elections and federal elections. If you want to change the choice your state legislature makes, vote for different people to the state legislature, and they would appoint different people to the Senate. This ensures that the Senator has the interests of the people of their state foremost in their minds, and elevates the importance of local elections.
• Eliminating 33 of the most expensive elections that occur every two years would be a giant step towards getting big money out of politics.

The original Constitutional scheme attempted to create a balance of power between big states and small, and also between the states and the federal government.

• The nation's chief executive and his backup were elected by the states. This is because the president was supposed to arbitrate issues between the states, and between the United States and foreign powers.
• The states were supposed to be the governments of most direct contact with the People, which is why the 9th and 10th amendments say that powers not enumerated in the Constitution belong to the several States, and to the People. State Constitutions, state legislatures, state courts, and county/city governments were to direct daily life.
• The states, as sovereign governments, each had two agents (senators) to represent them in congress for six-year terms. This was supposed to isolate the Senate from the whims of the People.
• The people elected their own representatives to serve in the U.S. House for two-year terms. This was to ensure that the House reflected the desires of the People.
• By popularly electing the Senate, we have seen a flip in roles between the two chambers of Congress. The House, through gerrymandering, has become the isolated chamber; the Senate has become the chamber most swayed by the whims of the People.

The balance of power, and checks on federal power, that this approach created is now all but non-existent.

• What we have instead is a disconnect between the states and the federal government, which treats the states more as regional adjuncts of itself than as sovereign entities.
• We also have professional politicians almost for life. This is particularly true in the senate. More and more, senators see themselves as mini-presidents; national figures rather than agents for their states and a check on federal power.

Which brings us to the question of "qualifications to be a Senator" that has recently been in the news with Caroline Kennedy.

• Currently, Senators are expected to toe the party line and vote as a bloc on national issues of interest to campaign donors who champion nationl social issue rather than particular state issues.
• A Senator who was appointed by a state legislature wouldn't be beholden to this financial constituency because the need for campaign funding (and thus the obligation to deliver) would be eliminated with the elimination of Senate elections.
• The qualifications to be Senator would be based on how well that person understands the needs of the state (probably by serving in the state legislature when appointed), and how well that person is expected to perform in the Senate (delivering results back to the state). Caroline Kennedy might be a "name" in the Senate, but will she really be able to deliver for New York?

And finally, we have the question of recounts. We've seen it in presidential elections, gubernatorial elections, and now in Senate elections.

• The reason I believe you cannot trust recounts is that during the initial count people are just trying to do their civic duty and get the counts to the Secretaries of State in a timely matter.
• With recounts, you know what you need to overcome in order to win.
• Eliminate Senate elections and you eliminate this problem.

-PJ

[MuttTheHoople]

Oooooh, what’s the GOP gonna do? Synchronize their periods?

[teletech]

Did ANYONE expect Reid to do anything else?

[Salvation]

Franken isn’t even elected yet!

Dirty Harry’s at it again, I see.

[VideoDoctor]

GOP Furious

The GOP is always something OTHER than ACTION