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Chapter 3: How Franken's attorneys outmaneuvered Coleman's team to secure the Senate seat.
St. Paul Pioneer Press ^ | 9/19/2009 | Dave Orrick

Posted on 09/21/2009 9:11:28 AM PDT by mojito

Tony Trimble couldn't catch a break.

As one of the lead attorneys for Sen. Norm Coleman following Election Day, he hadn't stopped working in months.

And as he watched the Republican's lead over Democrat Al Franken slip steadily and then finally vanish in the largest recount in American history, he marveled at how everything seemed to be breaking Franken's way. Clerical corrections, countless one- and two-vote shifts from sloppily filled-out ballots, major judicial rulings. They all added to Franken's vote quarry.

In the closing days of the recount, Trimble watched, dumbstruck, as 933 rejected absentee ballots — once the domain of Republicans — were opened and counted. "Franken ... Franken ... Coleman ... Franken."

"I felt like I was in the middle of the desert," said Trimble, a stalwart Republican whose knowledge of election law traced to his childhood in Walker, Minn., where his parents were active in the party and his mother was an election judge during the 2008 election. A colleague concluded Trimble was "traumatized" by the event.

In truth, not every break had gone to Franken, but so many had that it made the difference.

For Marc Elias, a Franken attorney and D.C. heavyweight who had fought to get those ballots opened, what had transpired was merely the manifestation of a post-election philosophy he espouses: "The will of the electorate is going to come out one way or the other."

To Trimble and many Republicans, the Democrats had outfoxed,out-argued, and out-dataed them.

(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Politics/Elections; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: 111th; alfranken; franken; lawyers; mn2008; normcoleman
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To: mojito

bump


21 posted on 09/21/2009 9:45:28 AM PDT by VOA
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To: mojito

NO one need wonder why Keith Ellison and Betty McGollum always support what ACORN wants and always oppose voter ID in voting...


22 posted on 09/21/2009 9:47:51 AM PDT by WOBBLY BOB (ACORN:American Corruption for Obama Right Now)
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To: mojito

They started staying up till 4AM plotting this since the day SCOTUS ruled against AlGore. Such is life when you eat/breathe/sleep/live politics, 24x7x365


23 posted on 09/21/2009 9:54:34 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: evad

Which, IMO, is why they were so angry. They KNEW that they had cheated. The only way we could have won, in their opinion, was to have cheated better.

That’s what P’d them off.


24 posted on 09/21/2009 9:59:12 AM PDT by chesley ("Hate" -- You wouldn't understand; it's a leftist thing)
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To: mojito
I can't get the whole article to come up.
But from what I can see, it looks like Coleman simply hired the wrong lawyer.

("...his mother was an election judge during the 2008 election. A colleague concluded Trimble was "traumatized" by the event." How much experience does this guy have anyway?)

25 posted on 09/21/2009 10:01:12 AM PDT by norton
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To: albie
I’m sick and tired of being outmanuevered by libs. When do we start outmanuevering these asshats!?

As soon as we get a gob of zillionaires like Soros et.al. to buy the elections for us. /s

Seriously, the Republican party has elites who are pleased to see the Democrat elites take over everything since their goals are identical. Unfortunately, we, conservatives, surrendered long ago before we knew we were in a war or who was the enemy.

26 posted on 09/21/2009 10:03:49 AM PDT by penowa
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To: Da Coyote
"However, if it’s done on a national level, there will be a revolt. And not a pretty one."

In your dreams -'they' are not referred to as The Sheeple for nothing!

27 posted on 09/21/2009 10:04:43 AM PDT by I am Richard Brandon
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To: Jeff Chandler
The real Ken Starr
28 posted on 09/21/2009 10:06:49 AM PDT by Nephi ( Who is Jane Burgermeister? Clue: youtube)
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To: Jeff Chandler
Democrats are wolves. Republicans are lambs.

Democrats are criminals. Republicans are not.

29 posted on 09/21/2009 10:07:37 AM PDT by I am Richard Brandon
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To: stubb

“They kept recounting and recounting until they got the answer they wanted. Then the recounts ended.”

Exactly. And they would have done it in Gore/Florida 2000 if the SCOTUS hadnt shut it down.


30 posted on 09/21/2009 10:19:29 AM PDT by WOSG (OPERATION RESTORE AMERICAN FREEDOM - NOVEMBER, 2010 - DO YOUR PART!)
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To: mojito

Couldn’t Pawlenty have put an end to this before the ‘Rat fraud machine got fully cranked up?


31 posted on 09/21/2009 10:21:20 AM PDT by bassmaner (Hey commies: I am a white male, and I am guilty of NOTHING! Sell your 'white guilt' elsewhere.)
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To: Jeff Chandler

Democrats appoint justices while they are in office, and Republicans allow their justices to be blocked.

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE COURTS.


32 posted on 09/21/2009 10:23:14 AM PDT by RinaseaofDs
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To: mojito
My first big disappointment with President Bush was that he didn't push very, very hard for electoral reform after defeating Al Gore. Based on their recent rhetoric, it would have been hard for the Democrats to oppose ballot reform, ID reform, recall practice reform -- the whole thing.

Voter rolls should be verified, voter ID should be required, ink should be applied to a finger, and primaries should be closed to non-party members.

The fact that neither party really wants the system to be airtight makes me weep for my country.

33 posted on 09/21/2009 10:26:11 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Play the Race Card -- lose the game.)
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To: stubb
Thank you for bringing up the 2004 Washington Gubernatorial debacle. It should serve as a textbook example of how to steal an election.

Remember the words of Hugh Hewitt: "If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat"; The necessary corollary is that if it is close you WILL lose unless you stop their cheating.

34 posted on 09/21/2009 10:49:10 AM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: Nephi
The real Ken Starr

Well that explains a lot. It was evident to anyone except partisan Democrats that Starr was not displaying the kind of killer instinct a competent prosecutor would.

35 posted on 09/21/2009 10:56:10 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler ("People are idiots." -Thomas A. Caswell)
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To: mojito
The difference is that we have values and want to win fairly. They just want to grab power "by any means necessary". We're looking for rules to follow so we do it right, and their attitude is:

Rules? In a knife fight?

We need to fight fairly but as dirty as needed to get the outcome that reflects the election results, and we need to do the paperwork PERFECTLY so we don't mess it up. The GOP should have specialists whose only job is to make sure these recounts reflect honest results, with no data "lost" by the other side.

36 posted on 09/21/2009 12:06:55 PM PDT by TurtleUp ("Socialist mandates are not a tax"??? Obama, YOU LIE!)
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To: evad

In the 2000 election I was a Poll Watcher in Houston, Texas. We needed at least 100 Poll Watchers to cover all of the suspicious precincts; there were only two of us.

Read my report which I posted as my Opus on Vote Fraud. In that election I prevented at least 100 fraudulent votes, mostly people who went from one polling place to the next voting multiple times. 100 fraudulent votes was about 12% of the votes cast that day at my assigned precinct. It does not count the fraudulent votes that slipped past me.

Based on my experience in several elections, at least 5% and possibly 10% of all votes cast in presidential elections are fraudulent. That means that Republicans must win by over 10% to beat the fraud.

Now, not only will the dims cover up the fraud, they will not FINANCE IT WITH YOUR TAX DOLLARS!

Conservatives are incredibly naive if they think fraud is not important.


37 posted on 09/21/2009 12:38:50 PM PDT by darth
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To: Jeff Chandler
the Starr "investigation" was a mere show.....the real Clinton crimes will never come to light....as probably agreed too....

as far as the Minn sham, rats are shysters we all know that....until pubs start fighting as hard and as devious they will lose...

I am tired of our people being the "good" people and losing...

the "good" people better wise up....

there is no crime in fighting to save America from the evil creeps now running it...infact, its a GREAT and GOOD thing to do so....

the lesson also ought to be to voters....keep voting your stinking third party and you will get the Freakin every time....

so enjoy your Freak Minn...

38 posted on 09/21/2009 1:14:02 PM PDT by cherry
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To: SmokingJoe

Bush won because he had RAT attorneys.....LOL


39 posted on 09/21/2009 1:15:11 PM PDT by cherry
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To: stubb

“They kept recounting and recounting until they got the answer they wanted. Then the recounts ended.”

They’ve made no secret of using that strategy, and have employed it for decades.


40 posted on 09/21/2009 2:18:49 PM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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