Pawlenty may certify Franken if battle drags out

[kpete]

Source: The Hill

Pawlenty may certify Franken if battle drags out
By Silla Brush
Posted: 06/28/09 12:59 PM

Minnesota Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty said that he would consider certifying the Senate election of Democrat Al Franken if federal courts don't act speedily should lawyers for Norm Coleman file an appeal.

On CNN's "State of the Union," Pawlenty said that he is awaiting a ruling "any day" from the Minnesota Supreme Court and that he would follow the court's guidance.

Asked whether he would certify the election if lawyers for Coleman file an appeal that could go to the U.S. Supreme Court, Pawlenty said that he would follow any injunction or stay. But he did appear to signal that there was some urgency to the situation and did want to see the issue, uncertain now for eight months, finally resolved.

"I'm prepared to sign it as soon as they give the green light," Pawlenty said of state court guidance. "A federal court could stay or put a limit on or stop the effect of the state court ruling. If they chose, if they do that, I would certainly follow their direction. But if that doesn't happen promptly or drags out for any period of time, then we need to move ahead with signing this, particularly if I'm ordered to do that by the state court."

Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/pawlenty-may-certify-franken-if-battle-drags-out-2009-06-28.html

[Bluzmann57]

1. Not to sound cynical

Well maybe a little, but anyway, seeing is believing. The people of Minnesota deserve two Senators just like every other state in the USA. Seat Franken.

[Old Codger]

3. The people of Minnesota

deserve a electoral system that doesn't leave so much room to mess with it..

[HowHasItComeToThis]

12. YES

[elocs]

16. When other states' electoral process is as good as MN, please feel free to come and criticize them.

This was an historically close state election and MN has a legal system that was equally open to both candidates. Nobody "messed" with anything there and the ballots were paper and could be recounted. MN is NOT Florida or Ohio.

[merwin]

19. And yet over 6 months later MN still has only 1 senator.

Paper ballots aren't worth the paper they're printed on unless the appeals process works efficiently as well as effectively. What if this had been a congressional rep instead of a senator? 1/4 of his term would be over already.

How is that a good electoral process?

What if it were the presidential election? Is 6 months REALLY good enough? And from what the article seems to be saying, it could be at least another month before it's certified.

The recount and appeals process only took a couple of months to come up with Franken as the definitive winner of the election, no matter which way it's sliced. The rest of the appeals process has been complete nonsense, almost to the point of being comedic if it weren't so damn frustrating. There was no reason for the supreme court of MN to even take on this issue.

[elocs]

31. From what I hear, Minnesotans are proud of their electoral system

and even if this has taken time it has been done right. In nearly every single case here at DU it has been those not from MN who have ranted about this process, a judicial process that was equally open to both candidates. In this country you have the right to appeal your case to as high a court as will hear it. Had the recount had Coleman ahead you would have heard screaming bloody murder here how the election was stolen and that Franken should keep taking it to as high a court as necessary to get the Senate seat.

Perhaps you would like to discover who it is that determines who get seated as a senator in the U.S. Senate because SCOTUS knows: the U.S. Senate.

[merwin]

38. Not necessarily true. The Senate can seat him, but it's up for a fight if the election

has not been officially certified.

[Doctor_J]

37. as good? the system that's "so good" has left then with 1/2 representation

and will probably leave them that way for 6 funking years. Yeah, maybe all the states should adopt that.

[Posteritatis]

45. Or they could save time and adopt Floridian election practices

That worked out really well last time, right?

[Old Codger]

42. I agree

I am from Minn. And most states need to overhaul the laws, actually they should be uniform throughout the USA, I know Minn is not florida or ohio... I will "re-state", the people of the united states need electoral laws that are fair and equal rules/laws governing US elections, they state can and should make their own laws/rules on their state elections but they need to take into account the fact that this has an effect on the whole country not just the individual states. No need to be so defensive there:)I had no intention to denigrate my home state. In fact I saw one ballot that is among the ones colman wantx to have included and Iknow the lady who cast that vote and it is not for him.. if they went back and counted again and included all of the ballots he would probably lose by a larger margin than he already has.

P.S since you are from Wisconsin I will thank you for standing up for Minn. :)

[No Elephants]

25. When you learn of such a system, pls let Minnesota, Florida and the federal government know.

[griloco]

17. after this

i think they deserve 3.
what's big eddie doin'?

[damntexdem]

39. Well, Pawlenty is asking for a court to put a stay on his action.

'Hey, Norm, be sure to have your lawyers ask the fed court for a stay, so I won't have to certify Franken's victory.'

Norm has already had pawlenty of time, and much, much more.

[Demeter]

2. Tenacity, Thy Name is Pawlenty

The man is a fool, and a sore loser.

[AndyTiedye]

4. Pawlenty Will Certify Franken…

…when the cows come home…


…pigs fly…


…Hell freezes over…


…and the Republican Party has no more money to pay lawyers.

[elocs]

32. Clever, but Pawlenty will certify Franken as the winner if the MN Supreme Court orders it

and it is widely believed they will do exactly that. Pawlenty will have the political cover he needs to certify Franken as the winner. It will happen.

[AndyTiedye]

40. I Hope You are Right

But it seems obvious that Pwelenty is playing for a role in a future Repig administration.
They owe him big-time now, and will owe him more the longer he can drag this thing out.

It is not just a delaying tactic either, the US Supreme Court could always do another Bush v. Gore. :grr:

(edit to fix run-on sentence)

[Big Orange Jeff]

5. Sounds to me like he's sending a barely coded message to the SCOTUS...

"Scalia, you there? Thomas? Roberts? Okay, the conference call is working, so here's the deal. I expect the SCOMN to order me to certify this thing any day. I'll announce that I'm going to do so within the next few days, which will give you time to issue an emergency stay - with which I'll have to comply. We'll run the clock out on this thing because, obviously, you guys have WAY to much on your collective plates right now."

[AlinPA]

10. Sounds right. It's going to SCOTUS.

[dysfunctional press]

15. i don't think that it will.

it's not really their jurisdiction.

[merwin]

20. Neither was Bush v Gore, but look how that turned out.

n/t

[HowHasItComeToThis]

13. THE REPUBLICANS WILL DO ANYTHING THEY CAN TO KEEP POWER

[Doctor_J]

6. IF this battle drags out?!?

:wtf:

[ixion]

24. my response exactly

I mean, it's damn near been a year. At what point is it considered "dragging out" :eyes:

[pacalo]

46. I was going to post the same response. Duh -- there's no longer an "if".

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. It's only been 8 months. There's 5 years, 4 months left.

I mean why rush into this thing?

What a sick joke this mess has become.

[MasonJar]

8. If I were from Minnesota, I'd be so mad by now. They need to change their

election procedures so this cannot happen to them again or else the rest of us will stop caring. If Pawlenty wants any votes outside or inside Minnesota besides the deluded, he'd better get his act in gear and certify this election asap. What is taking their Supreme Court so long? They must know that this is crucial for their state. Aren't they mostly PUGs? If so, that is probably the answer.

[glinda]

14. I am from MN. We usually have a great system but not with Coleman involved we don't. This

whole thing is blatantly the Repugs holding it up any way they can. Puke-a-plenty is feigning "co-operation". Do not mistake it at all... this is one mean man. Of course America will think he is average joe when he runs for Prez. He is an ass. BTW, I do believe we have a very good Supreme Court. They may be looking this over pretty carefully in how they word the final decision. I have a crush on Justice Alan Page.

[merwin]

22. The laws need to be revised to either limit the amount of time the appeals process

can take (we have the right to a speedy trial, right? Why not a speedy election process?) or limit the appeals process. The current laws conceivably allow for an entire congressional term to elapse before the final decision is made.

[glinda]

34. Perhaps so. I do not recall that we have ever had this issue before. It was never this nasty.

[peacetalksforall]

9. Who knows if that creature is telling the truth. He does know that he is not

popular with many. At least he didn't run away to another womane.

What I want to know is what happened on a Wednesday-Thursday-Friday nearly a month ago. All the rumors said that the Court was ready to announce. The rumors were flying. The rumors were that they had ruled in favor of Franken. What we heard is that the Colemant lawyers were very unhappy that they hadn't been advised. Then the rumors died - overnight.

[RedCloud]

11. Franken should just go to the Senate, plead his case and let them do their stuff.

Why should someone wait just because? Have the votes changed recently? Still trending away from Coleman?

He should just go to the Senate since he has won and not let any more Republican foot dragging stop him. It seems that the governor and the courts are in operation cunctator.

[merwin]

23. The senate could seat him. They're just too chickenshit to do it.

Sometimes I wonder when they'll grow a spine, or at least grow up and make some tough decisions that might make some people upset.

Democrats must start making decisions that piss a few people off (namely their corporate donors). If they don't start doing what they promised and grow a damn spine, no progress is going to be made, we're not going to stay in power for very long, and the republicans are going to rise to power again with that much more ammo to use against us.

Let's see... piss off a few rich people, or collectively work together to make the country a better place. They're so worried about who they will offend and not realizing that if they collectively band together, they can pass our entire agenda and still have time left over to fix a few more things. As it stands, we've not gotten anywhere with the financial crisis (aside from giving more to the rich), we've screwed up the plan for public health care, and have pretty much poisoned all of the bills that have passed this term.

I just hope our reps get a clue before it's too late.

[No Elephants]

26. Exactly. If Republicans were in control, they would have seated Coleman the day after the election

[Doctor_J]

35. Yes, harry needs to be sent to the back bench

he is so weak as to be completely useless

[No Elephants]

43. Not gonna happen. For some reason, the Dem Senators want Reid.

[Zorra]

41. Yeah, Ol' "Give 'em Head" Harry Reid might write some stern letters

to Pawlenty.

That'll show 'em.

But you're right, anything is worth a try at this point

[No Elephants]

44. Franken went to the Senate months ago. A few months later, he went to Biden.

Franken's 11/2008 visit to Senate

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2008/11/16/franken-washington-meet-democratic-senators/


Franken's 2/2009 visit to Senate

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/mr-franken-comes-to-washington.html


Franken's 5/2009 meeting with Biden

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/05/06/franken-meets-with-biden-as-minnesota-race-drags-on/


IMO, Franken was asking for help and got none.

[winyanstaz]

18. So what is he waiting for?

The time to seat Franken is waaaaay overdue. Do it now.

[No Elephants]

28. Hell to freeze over?

[davidpdx]

21. Pawlenty is talking out both sides of his ass again,,,,

and the funny thing is he doesn't even smell when he does it. Nothing has changed really, hopefully the MN Supreme Court will force the certification on him.

[No Elephants]

27. Translation: Message from Pawlenty to Coleman's lawyers. If the Minnesota Supremes decide against

Coleman, be sure to ask the federal court for a stay AND an injunction. I cannot hold off public opinion much longer. And, with Sanford out of the picture, my chances at national office are looking better by the day, even though I am nothing special. So, don't leave me hanging without an excuse."

[Vidar]

29. "If?"

[aquart]

30. Pawlenty feeling pressure from somewhere?

He's telling the state court to order him to do it.

[sutz12]

33. The SCOTUS recess is almost upon us...

If they issue a stay, it will be another 3 months before they even start to consider this.

:shrug:

[Doctor_J]

36. the people of MN really dropped the ball on this

they should have shut the state down after the first recount until this horseshit stopped.

[Arkana]

47. Oh, gee, thanks, Governor Dickbutt!

I'm so glad that you'll lower yourself to actually DOING YOUR FUCKING JOB AND GIVING THE PEOPLE OF MINNE-FUCKING-SOTA THE REPRESENTATION THEY DESERVE.