By GottaLaff
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that 52% of Minnesota voters now have an unfavorable opinion of former Sen. Norm Coleman (R) following the protracted recount in last year's Senate race.Stating the obvious. What took everyone so long?
Key finding: 54% of respondents indicated that the way Coleman handled the recount made them less likely to support him in any future campaign.
By GottaLaff
Democrats, for now, show no indication they will try to force the issue in Washington by attempting to seat Al Franken, the comic turned politician who has been declared the winner by 312 votes over incumbent Republican Norm Coleman.
Instead the contest will be allowed to play out in Minnesota where a final resolution at the state level may come in about six or seven weeks. Coleman has asked the state's supreme court to reconsider the ruling from a special judicial panel that declared Franken the winner.
What happens after Minnesota's high court rules sometime in June is less clear. The loser could appeal to federal courts but the state's Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty, would be under pressure to certify a winner as required by state law.
"We are taking this one step at a time and are confident that the Minnesota Supreme Court will rule in our favor," Coleman spokesman Tom Erickson said.
Some-bo-dy has toked up once too often. Memo to Toker Norm: You lost. Get over it. Move on. Give Minnesota full representation in the U.S. Senate. There's a good little patriot.
[David Schultz, a professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota] said if Pawlenty signs the certificate he would hurt his standing among Republicans as he weighs a possible run for president in 2012. Refusing to sign could put him in contempt of court and harm his chances of winning re-election as governor in 2010.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has said there would be all-out war if the Democrats try to seat Franken should he win in the Minnesota court, suggesting that all federal appeals should be exhausted first. [...]
Whoever wins will go to Washington with a poor approval rating and the knowledge that they were elected with a minority of the votes cast.
A recent poll in the Star Tribune newspaper showed Franken with a 43 percent approval rating and Coleman with 38 percent. "Both really only have the support of the base of the two parties," Schultz said.
By GottaLaff
LIVE STREAMING: AL FRANKEN SPEAKING NOW!
Al Franken won, but Toker Norm is doing whatever it takes to prevent #59 from casting his first vote in the U.S. Senate, thus leaving Minnesota without a senator:
Norm Coleman will appeal the decision by a three-judge panel in the Minnesota U.S. Senate recount trial, who ruled in favor of Democrat Al Franken.Where were they in 2000 again? Oh yeah. Defending Bush and excoriating Al Gore."More than 4,400 Minnesotans remain wrongly disenfranchised by this court's order," Ben Ginsberg, legal spokesman for the Coleman for Senate campaign said in a statement. "The court's ruling tonight is consistent with how they've ruled throughout this case but inconsistent with the Minnesota tradition of enfranchising voters."
The judges concluded that Franken had won the November 4 election by a total of 312 votes over Republican Coleman.
"This order ignores the reality of what happened in the counties and cities on Election Day in terms of counting the votes. By its own terms, the court has included votes it has found to be 'illegal' in the contest to remain included in the final counts from Election Day, and equal protection and due process concerns have been ignored," Ginsberg said. "For these reasons, we must appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court so that no voter is left behind."
By GottaLaff
Toker Norm, take a hint, and take a hike:
Al Franken (D) extended his lead over Norm Coleman (D) in the U.S. Senate race, "following the counting of about 350 formerly rejected absentee ballots this morning by a three-judge panel," the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.The "D" after Toker Norm's name is part of the original post. I'm sure they'll correct it soon.
"Unofficially, Franken took 198 of the ballots, while Coleman added 111. The ballots added about 87 to Franken's recount lead, enlarging his margin over Coleman to more than 312."
By GottaLaff
That's not nearly the entire piece, just the last two paragraphs. Go read the rest of this very smart analysis here.My very simple theory is this. Norm Coleman has personal debts (and will continue to grow that debt through additional legal bills) that may very well approach one million dollars. Coleman turns 60 years old this August. There is no way that Coleman can pay off his debts (including that 30-year mortgage for $775,000 that Coleman took out just two years ago) on a Senator's or Governor's salary. And I don't think Coleman plans on paying that mortgage every month until he is 88 years old. Simply put, Coleman needs a very high-paying salary. I'm not an accountant, but, if Coleman wants to enjoy his retirement years and not worry about that massive debt he has accrued, he'll need to start making salary of around half a million dollars a year - which means having conservative power brokers (who are pleased with his efforts to keep another Democrat out of the Senate) hook him up with a lucrative lobbying gig.
There you have Coleman's real end game. It's not to win back his Senate seat or serve the public in any way. Norm Coleman's end game is to intentionally force Minnesotans to be underrepresented in the U.S. Senate for as long as possible through endless appeals of the election result and parlay that into subsequently securing a high paying lobbyist job for a special interest that could care less what the average Minnesota family needs. However cynical this may sound, it is, quite frankly, the most logical conclusion based on Coleman's actions. We'll see.
Maybe they can stop obstructing and let Senator Franken get to work now?
"Ballots that Norm Coleman wants to count took a beating in testimony on Tuesday, while ballots he thinks are illegal were protected by the judges hearing the U.S. Senate trial," the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
"The decision hampers the ability of Coleman, a Republican, to challenge ballots tallied in the final phase of the recount, when DFL Al Franken took a 225-vote lead."
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