Last Friday morning, I reported that the state canvassing board had avoided making a ruling that would commit them to reviewing the thousands of rejected absentee ballots in the November 4 election. This action is cowardly in the extreme, being done largely because the board members are afraid of being mobbed by mindless hordes of local right-wing radio listeners. The local lawyers I know say that the board does indeed have the right to rule on the ballots — and that everyone knows full well that the right thing to do is to reexamine those ballots as part of the full recount (since that is what a full recount is about, non?) In fact, officials in Itasca County have already gone ahead and decided, without waiting for the canvassing board to stop being so damned scared of the GOP Noise Machine, that they are going to go ahead and reopen their recount because of three wrongly-rejected ballots in their county.
Pressure is mounting on the canvassing board’s members to grow spines. Harry Reid himself has weighed in on the situation, calling the canvassing board’s members’ abdication of their authority "a cause for great concern," which at least one analyst, Washington University political scientist Steven Smith, thinks is a sign that Reid will be readying a US Senate probe into the recount. SoS Mark Ritchie was doing pretty much the same thing when he told the board Wednesday, after they ruled not to rule, that if they continued to abdicate their authority, they were setting up a situation where the only relief for rejected-ballot voters was in the courts — and that this would lead to a collapse of the state courts system under the weight of court cases by screwed voters.
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Harry Reid with his “great concern” tripe pisses me off. If he’s so ‘concerned’ why doesn’t he do something about it instead of just whining in his usual ineffective way? I wouldn’t count on the probe. Harry ain’t good at probes. After-the-fact actions usually amount to nothing more than a lot of ass-covering anyway. If Harry is ‘greatly concerned’ he needs to get off the dime and get on the stick right now — before the water flows over the dam.
Less of: Chickens-r-Us! More of: Have Spine Will Travel!
This is a pre-emptive action, Kitt. He’s warning the board that they can’t escape the blame for their cowardice.
reid’s concern simultaneously gives me hope and makes me afraid DEMS in Senate will do nothing.
I mean, that is their pattern, right?
talk talk talk and go along with the goopers.
what are the practical steps open to the senate? they have the ability to reject or are there other measures?
We will never know who actually won this contest.
The instruments at our disposal for counting votes are simply too blunt to measure the difference in this election.
As such, I have a lot of sympathy for the state canvassing board. They have been charged with doing the impossible.
This election is a tie: the differences between the two campaigns are too narrow to reliably measure. I believe we (I’m in Minnesota) should have another election.
the senate is the judge of its own membership. It can reject the result from a state. they do it rarely, but they have that absolute right.
the solution, albatross at 8, is never a new election.
well, i don’t consider counting ALL the votes merely blunt. if not adequate then perhaps another election.
Did you know that Firedoglake is fiercely progressive! A compliment, of course, and said by Brad Friedman in the Guardian.uk.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm…..-democrats
i bet it takes 60 votes and sonme spine. we got neither. court is the answer, then.
Woohoo!!! FDL has gone international!!!! Everyone here..TAKE A BOW!!!
Digg
Jane quoted at Guardian online:
“In response, Jane Hamsher of the fiercely progressive Firedoglake shot back to her readers: ‘This is about telling you that you mean nothing. … No matter what Joe Lieberman does, the people who are protecting him hate you much more than they hate him.’”
and “At Americablog, another hugely popular and aggressive supporter of the Democratic party throughout the election cycle, an angry John Aravosis responded..”
Oh, I think it’s sooo much better to be fiercely progressive than just popular and aggressive, don’t you?
You gotta admire the way Jane minces words. “g”
there are some things in the US Senate that arent subject to filibuster. membership votes may be one of those.
No, this is about reviewing rejected absentee ballots. What’s impossible about that?
If the Senate gets involved, I don’t anticipate a favorable outcome for Frankin. They are all about protecting incumbents, lest it be one of their asses on the line next time.
oops…guess that I should have done that. My only excuse is that I need sleep. Been commenting at Attackerman’s ‘I done felt’… with the results of hours of reading India news sites.
India had their 911, alright. Made/let it happen the gov’t did.
This is going to end up in court- no matter who is declared the winner.
Stirling Newberry up at the Mothership
Every act of corruption in the electoral system is the deliberate and considered act of an individual or individuals.
Whether it be small- slipping a 26th ballot into sorted groups of 25 or interpreting dirt smudges on a ballot as overvote or not reading the intent of a voter because they marked one vote for a candidate but also wrote-in (without marking a vote) a name (or words) or misspelling a name in the signature book, etc. Or massive like the elaborate computer ou-of-state relay created by Ohio SoS Blackwell or Florida SoS Harris allowing an unproffessional ballot design as well as other infamous Rovian crimes against the people.
In 2008, the Rovians laid low because, perhaps because of their hapless national top ticket but, I suspect also, because of the deposition taken on October 30th in the Ohio 2004 election case. Investigate for the courts. But wait until the new responsible US Attorneys are in place.
I think Steven Smith has no idea who Harry Reid is. A harsh letter with a follow-up floor groveling, yes. A senate probe with actual repercussions? When pigs fly, or Dem congresscritters grow spines. Whichever occurs first (my money is on the pigs).
Having lived through approx. 4 billion hideously negative ads during the Olympics, it is my sincere hope that this recount drag on into February, and that neither Franken or Coleman enjoys any solid bowel movements during this recount.
Both men ran shamelessly negative ads that have done much to destroy what little respect Minnesotans had left for their political parties. Whether you watched cable or broadcast TV the ads pounded home cynical messages that were depressing and anger inducing, and did so with mindnumbing relentlessness.
While I would prefer a Democrat to hold Paul Wellstone’s seat, a Franken loss would fall directly on the shoulders of the Netroots who flooded Minnesota with early donations over a year in advance of our primary, resulting in a decent candidate withdrawing from the race (Mike Ciresi).
The Netroots handpicked Al Franken, and in retrospect it’s obvious that given all of Coleman’s personal scandals almost any candidate could have won other than Al, a writer/entertainer whose f-bombs and soft core pornographic writings proved to be as distasteful to Minnesotans as Norm Coleman’s sleaze.
I don’t think a bloggers conference would help, but it would be nice to see the online community develop a code of ethics, one which specifically prohibits organized online support for candidates who have not yet won their primary.
Without the Netroots help we’d be at 59 right now thanks to either Senator-elect Mike Ciresi or Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. But because the Netroots immaturely jumped into a race in which Al Franken was clearly the most conservative and pro-war Democratic candidate, Minnesota progressives lost their chance to elect an anti-war senator. Now, no matter what happens Minnesota will have a Senator who supported George Bush’s lying march to war.
I’m sorry. I can’t let that be the last word.
This comment not only makes no sense whatsoever, it is almost completely, categorically, and maliciously false.
Well, I guess a NY blogger telling a Minnesota blogger what makes sense and what doesn’t in Minnesota politics is pretty much what I’m talking about.
Go ahead and take the last word, but try addressing my points instead of dismissing them.
I live in Minnesota so you betcha I’ll be taking a few issues with your contentions:
I liked Al’s quote in one of the debates which was something to the effect, “We’re running ads about Norm’s record, which just happens to be pretty negative.” Youtube on George Galloway and you’ll see the only distinction Normy managed to make for himself in six years, so I’m in perfect agreement with that concept. Norm’s record sucks and pointing it out is not pretty, but necessary. Sorry that’s not Minnesota nice…grow up why doncha?
Um, yeah, maybe you’d be wanting to rethink that one a little bit…ya think? ‘Cause that isn’t clear to me.
And Ciresi or Pallmeyer? That’s the kind of Mike Hatch style, milquetoast candidate that specifically DOESN’T win in Minnesota. Perhaps you’ve noticed? Hell, why not bring back Skippy Humphrey!
Well, those are your opinions and I gave you mine. But it’s pretty indisputable among Minnesotans that Dean Barkley’s votes were from voters who rejected both Norm and Al. I think either Jack or Mike would have cut into Barkley’s count pretty heavily, but that’s just my opinion. Norm stayed alive because of his PORN PORN PORN ads about Al. In fact, not one negative ad from Coleman’s camp could have been run about Ciresi or Nelson-Pallmeyer. Not one. This year boring would have been good.
But since you brought it up, Al was in fact the most conservative of the three Democratic candidates. I don’t know how you could think otherwise. Neither Ciresi or Nelson-Pallmeyer ever spoke out in support of the war as Al did. Al got no early support from the Peace community at all. Al and Mike were pro-nuke, Jack wasn’t. In fact, I don’t recall a single issue on which Franken was more progressive than both the other candidates.
But I’m NOT angry with Al. He worked hard. I question his judgment and wonder how much ground he lost over the summer by being quiet and raising money instead of meeting non-DFLers. And frankly, the outsiders the DSCC forced on him saved his campaign because he was driving it into the ditch. The early attack ads on Norm were laughably trivial. A sweet deal on rent to live in someone’s DC basement? That’s a campaign issue?
The problem was with the Netroots jumpstarting his campaign in friggin’ August of 2007. By the time June rolled around most activists were already starting to drag. I live in Midway less than a mile from all the headquarters. Al’s? Not so busy in the closing months. Obama’s? Even on Saturday afternoons there were lines going down the block of people wanting to volunteer or buy posters/bumper stickers.
This race was ours to win, but non-Minnesotans gave to Al — not as individuals — but as the Netroots official candidate. I’ve been blogging in Minnesota as long as Phoenix Woman and I know the players. I never found one single Minnesotan who had been contacted by the Netroots prior to the online endorsement. Not one. This was a decision made by non-Minnesotans and it was WRONG.
If the Netroots want to be a power, they simply cannot interfere with the primary process in individual states. Minnesota bloggers, sure. But the nature of politics guarantees that there will be ruffled feathers when outsiders try to call the tune.