Franken Wins a Round

Winning 225 votes out of 400 is not enough. Coleman has to win 225 MORE than Franken out of the 400. If Coleman only won 225 out of the 400 he would still be 175 votes behind. That's the real problem, Coleman has to really beat Franken in these four hundred ballots, and that is not likely.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Coleman tries to take this to the Supreme Court. My guess is that the Supreme Court would let the lower court ruling stand.

Having Franken in the Senate is something I'm really looking forward to. I'm tired of the RW saying he's just an "entertainer" or that he should have stuck to comedy. They constantly attack Hollywood and yet where do they think Reagan, Sonny Bono, Fred Thompson and Arnold came from? Apparently Hollywood isn't an acceptable place to come from unless you're a republican. Franken made numerous trips to the war zones to entertain the troops. They never mention that.

And, may I just say, hearing Ben Ginsberg talk about Supreme Court appeals gave me déjà vu goosebumps.
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This just in: Ginsburg privately confesses her desire to retire while a former SNL cast member (Stuart Smalley no less!) is in Congress. Details to follow.

If the situation were reversed, Coleman with the lead and pleading the case before a justice appointed by a Democratic governor, you can guarantee that this issue would have gotten FAR more coverage on cable.
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And that coverage would have consisted of Fox, CNN, and most of MSNBC calling for Franken to stop trying to steal the election. At the very least there would have been hours of handwringing over why the Democrats - all the way up to Obama - are denying Minnesota representation in the Senate, and asking when Franken would "do what is right for Minnesota" and step aside.
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What's sort of odd is that this story has been ignored. There are so many great angles here. First of all, there is the story itself. Secondly, there is the story about how the incredibly weak and worthless Democratic leadership (Reid, Schumer, Durbin) are allowing the Democratic winner of a Senate election to be hung out to dry because Reid is afraid of upsetting the Republicans.

But we won't get any of these stories. Instead, this case will be appealed by the Republicans all the way to the Supreme Court. This will, of course, take years because the Republicans will push for every delaying tactic in the book. They aren't trying to win. They know they can't. They are simply trying to keep a Democrat out of the Senate. And no one in the media will care because EVERYTHING is okay if you are a Republican. (See Bachmann, Michelle calling for revolution against the US government.)

The exception to this, of course, is Jay who - by her own inexplicable admission - receives goose bumps from hearing Ben Ginsberg pledge to abuse the legal system in order to deny a Democrat a Senate seat. My guess is that this odd condition of Jay's makes her unique amongst the world's women. I doubt that anyone else, including Mrs. Ginsberg, receives goose bumps when Ben Ginsberg speaks.
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Then again, most women don't look back as fondly on Bush v. Gore as Jay. And even those who do usually have the good sense not to admit it.

Thank you very much for reporting on this in such detail, Jay Newton-Small.
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I've been trying to follow this story, and you've been quite helpful here.

Good report JNS. Better than most in the legacy media.

And following up on what choska said, an article in the Minnesota Indy asks a good question -

Why is it that Al Gore was called "sore loser" starting less than 10 days after the 2000 election (there were more than 900 mentions in 2000 according to Eric Bohlert), and still carries the tag today in some media circles, while there are no reports of the same tag being applied to Coleman?

What liberal media, again?

Ginsberg has been a clown from the day he was brought on as a mouth piece, He has NO legal standing in Minnesota.
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At some point when this is all over there will be a great story about Coleman's legal team, they have been almost comically inept.
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SZ, and others, if you are really interested in following the story http://theuptake.org/ have been the Nate Silver of this long process.

I think one of the reasons this hasn't gotten too much coverage (yet) is that Minnesotan really do have a great deal of faith in the process, clearly laid out in state statute, for dealing with elections this close. The right wing noice machine can huff and puff about elections being "stolen," but the folks in MN are willing to just sit back and let the court do its work. Once they finish that work, however, you'll start to hear some serious howling if Coleman (as appears likely) refuses to accept defeat.

As for the three-judge panel that heard the case and ruled today, one was appointed by a republican, one by a democrat, and one by an independent (that would be Jesse Ventura who, for all his faults -- and they are myriad -- did an impressive job in judicial appointments).

Finally, as to the 400 ballots, two things to keep in mind: 1) it was a three-way race, with the independant candidate getting a decent share of the votes, so it's unlikely that any candidate will get 200 of the 400 votes; 2) LOTS of the 400 ballots are from Hennepin County, where Franken did very well.

The panel's legal reasoning is sound, and Coleman has no valid grounds for appeal (not that it will stop him). The only questions are 1) when will he give up, and 2) will Harry Reid wait that long to seat Franken? Based on his comment that he's looking forward to a "final resolution of this case by the Minnesota courts," I'd say he's not going to leave the seat vacant as Coleman pursues this in the federal courts.

addie

Ah, one correction...
You say "Ginsberg said they intend to appeal the unanimous decision by a panel of three judges – once of which was appointed by a Republican governor."
Some may assume than means 2 were appointed by Democrats, but that's not so. One was appointed by a Democrat, one by Ventura I think.

JNS: I did take your comment about goosebumps and the Supreme Court as one of trepidation and not arousal. However an icy finger down one's back or an ice cube down one's back can produce an erotic response. Just saying.

per the update, Harry Reid is the worlds biggest p*ssy!

per the update, Harry Reid is the worlds biggest p*ssy!
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Normally I'd agree on you on general principle SG, but Minnesota law says that a Senator can only be seated when both the Secretary of State and the Governor sign off, and both have stated they won't until the process is complete.
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The more intriguing issue in my mind now is the number of MNSC justices that will have to recuse themselves because of their previous involvements on both sides of this case in the process. I forget where I read it, but there is a possibility because of recusement there may not be a quorum of justices that can meet to make any legal decisions stick. If so, does this automatically go to federal courts or is Coleman pretty much dead in the water after the counts?

Get your minds out of the gutter, folks!
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Sheesh JNS don't act like you don't know all of us by now!

If I understand correctly the only justices who may need to recuse themselves are the Chief Justice Eric Magnuson and G. Barry Anderson who served on the state wide canvassing board.
That leaves 5.

@ choska,

I understand what you're saying about double standards where Republicans are allowed to get away with stuff like armed revolution or talking down the President to foreign leaders (Cheney), however it is my suspicion that there was some funny business in this recount. I heard that the judges presiding over the Franken case were liberal. I think Reid is doing just fine, just playing it cool and biding his time. I think that if the state courts shoot Coleman down, then it will be time to seat Franken and the Senate Dems should say enough is enough.

It's better to take the longview. The Senate has a lot of issues to deal with (the stimulus, bank bailouts, auto bailout, cap and trade, health care, card check, illegal immigration further down the road, the budget). Reid did the right thing not pissing off the pubs while things were still happening in Minnesota.

'...however it is my suspicion that there was some funny business in this recount. I heard that the judges presiding over the Franken case were liberal.'
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So what?

So maybe they fixed the vote.

"I heard that the judges presiding over the Franken case were liberal. "
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I have no idea what that means. There has been no "Franken case". The state mandated recount which had a 5 member canvas board was presided over by the Democratic SoS and judges appointed by different governors, including the Pawlenty,
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The other case you may be referring to is a Coleman case-important distinction as Coleman brought the suit and thus has the burden of proof-and that panel is made up of three judges one appointed by Perpich (D) one by Ventura (i) and one by Pawlenty.

PNNTO: again I wish I could find the durn source but there were also two other justices that were involved in various decisions outside of being on the canvassing board. The result was that if the judges did the honorable thing there would not be a quorum that could hear the case. What I need to do is figure out where in the heck I found that out!

however it is my suspicion that there was some funny business in this recount.
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That and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee at Denny's. This recount by most reports has been open and transparent since November 5th. Do you have some other information that would lead reasonable folks to suspect otherwise?

[...] you were, wondering what was going to become of all those election lawyers, now that it appears there may be an end to the recount saga in Minnesota. Could it get much closer than this one?: A mere 65 votes [...]

"There has been no "Franken case"."

You're arguing semantics.

"This recount by most reports has been open and transparent since November 5th. Do you have some other information that would lead reasonable folks to suspect otherwise?"
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Sure, but you said only reasonable folks would be interested in it, so I'll wait till one asks me for it. What "reports" are you referring to that say that the recount has been open and transparent?