Al Franken Keeps Crushing Norm Coleman

[marmar]

via AlterNet's PEEK:



Al Franken Keeps Crushing Norm Coleman

Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly at 4:19 PM on April 7, 2009.

"I think it's time for (Coleman) to give up this fight."



The good news for former Sen. Norm Coleman (R) is that his lawsuit was able to get some additional ballots counted in Minnesota. The bad news for Coleman is that most of those voters backed Al Franken.

Democrat Al Franken today extended his lead over Republican Norm Coleman in Minnesota's U.S. Senate election, after the counting of about 350 formerly rejected absentee ballots this morning.

Franken captured 198 of the ballots, while Coleman took 111. The ballots added 87 votes to Franken's recount lead, enlarging his margin over Coleman to 312.

The result makes it even more likely that, barring an unforeseen circumstance, Franken will prevail in the election lawsuit that Coleman filed in January to contest the Democrat's 225-vote recount lead. The three-judge panel presiding over the case has not said when it will issue a final decision.

Of course, once the three-judge panel delivers yet another blow to Coleman, the Republicans attorneys have already begun work on an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. From there, with support from the national party, Coleman's legal team is likely to keep this going through the federal courts, too.

That is, unless the political consequences become untenable. The National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru, a leading conservative voice, responded to today's news by saying, "I think it's time for to give up this fight."

I agree, but more importantly, if other conservatives start reaching the same conclusion, it will create an unwelcome political dynamic for Coleman. The Republican has enjoyed considerable patience as he's dragged this process out, especially since he vowed in November to drop out, in the interests of public healing, if he trailed Franken in the vote totals. In light of this general tolerance, Coleman has felt practically no pressure -- from the media, from Democrats, from voters -- to face facts and get out of the way. Just the opposite; he's felt emboldened to keep going.

But that's why I find Ponnuru's comment interesting -- it suggests even patience among Coleman's ideological allies is wearing thin.

The media's coverage is likely to play a big role. Eric Boehlert made the case the other day that Coleman is clearly a "sore loser," but news outlets have been reluctant to say so. Any chance that might change now?

If the media were to treat Coleman now the way political reporters treated, say, Al Gore in 2000, Republicans' willingness to drag this process out indefinitely would almost certainly disappear.


http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/135583/al_franken_keeps_crushing_norm_coleman/

[xchrom]

1. from alternets lips to god's ears. nt

[Patsy Stone]

2. Hey Norm... Here's your hat; what's your hurry?

[Thrill]

3. Reid shouldn't wait for the Supreme Court. Its time to seat Al. Grow a set

[marmar]

4. "Grow a set"

Reid? I wouldn't bet my life savings on it.

[GP6971]

8. I wouldn't

bet any loose change let alone any savings that Reid would seat him.

[WI_DEM]

14. He should wait for the State Supreme Court to rule, but not the U.S. Supreme Court

the State Supreme Court will act very quickly. And if they do, even if Coleman says he will take it to the U.S. SC then Reid should seat him.

[skooooo]

5. "crushing him" doesn't seem to be getting Franken's butt in his seat..

...in the Senate. I'm tired of these games.

[Wetzelbill]

6. If this was the other way around

The Republican would have been sitting in that seat from day one, acting like he owned the damn place. And all of these court decisions would be shrieked about day and night by any Republican who had anybody willing to listen to them do it.

[Egalitariat]

7. If it was the other way around, we'd also be shrieking about how every vote should be counted

like the ones that were counted today for the first time -- after Franken's team fighted against counting them.

Nobody looks real good in these situations.

[Wetzelbill]

10. no way

It'd be like Gore and Dems would have rolled over about 3 months ago. The only people pissed might be those of us on DU, but the party would have given up a meaningful fight almost right away.

[Mister Ed]

11. Franken's team did not fight against counting those absentee ballots.

The Franken team's position has been consistent throughout the recount and court battle: all absentee ballots that were legally cast should be counted.

Minnesota law has four distinct criteria for absentee ballots. Franken wanted all ballots that met those criteria counted. Coleman fought against that and lost. Then he tried to cherry-pick from the pool of rejected absentee ballots, and lost that round as well.

[Poiuyt]

9. I wouldn't say that a 312 vote margin is exactly "crushing."

Still, this has been going on too long. The repubs know that Franken won, they're just keeping a Democratic vote out of the Senate as long as they can.

[Fire1]

13. This is obviously the repug strategy and a costly one at

that. But, who cares? They've got deep pockets.

[BattyDem]

12. How many times does the vote count have to favor Franken before he can be seated?

:shrug: