One of the amusing things of the past few weeks has been watching Norm Coleman’s Hundred-Lawyer Horde do turnabouts on the legal arguments which they’d been heatedly pushing for most of the previous two months.
Consider his shifting stance on rejected absentee ballots: In November, his people said that there weren’t any that were wrongly-rejected, and thus none of them should be counted. Then they said they’d allow wrongly-rejected, or "fifth pile", absentee ballots to be counted — but only the ones they wanted counted. Now they’re saying that they want the three-judge panel overseeing his recount challenge to count all 12,000-odd rejected absentee ballots, wrongly rejected or not. (How stupid is this? Even the Republicans running the Powerline blog are attacking this move. That’s how stupid it is.)
As TJ Halva at VoteForAmerica points out, the legal flip-floppings and ballot cherry-pickings are not exactly helping the Coleman team’s case. Neither are cutesy little Leeeroyyyy Jenkinnnssss moves such as issuing a subpoena for Gary Poser, one of Mark Ritchie’s staffers, apparently done to imply that Ritchie — whose conduct has been praised by persons all over the political spectrum — was somehow doing icky partisan voodoo against the brave and noble Norm Coleman.
Norm’s Senate career is done. Even the Senate Republicans recognize this: It’s why the Dems will have a three-seat advantage in Senatorial committees. All Norm’s really doing at this point with his flip-flops and flailings and beyond Hail-Marys (well, besides giving money and media coverage to Fritz Knaak, Tony Trimble and now Joe Friedberg) is poisoning the well of public opinion against him to the point where he may not be able to revive his political career at all — say, by a run against State AG Lori Swanson, who has grown increasingly unpopular, in 2010. Considering that he was Rove and Cheney’s own fair-haired boy, the guy they made the Republican Party of Minnesota accept as their Senatorial candidate over Tim Pawlenty in 2002, that’s quite a comedown.
Today, if we’re very, very lucky, we might see this whole mess shut down: There is a Motion to Dismiss the whole Coleman contest of the recount, and that will be taken up at 2:30 this afternoon by the three-judge panel, or Election Contest Court as it is officially known. If the ECC rules for this motion (oh please oh please oh please!), Norm can pick up his marbles and go home, and Al can finally get his Senate seat. If we’re not lucky, this could go on for another few weeks.
UPDATE: Well, the Motion to Dismiss is in limbo — the panel didn’t grant it, but they didn’t throw it out, either. That’s actually a good sign, as I thought for sure they would have bounced it. Instead they said they will "consider our decision". Which to me means that Coleman’s counter-motion, the one for summary judgment (essentially "gimme everything I want now") scheduled for tomorrow, has even less of a chance than I thought it did.
Keep the fingers crossed — this could be over in another week. . . .
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Hey, PW — thanks for keeping this story alive.
Had to say that I hope this lovely bit o’ snark…
…didn’t hurt too much to type!
And another thing. What’s in it for Norm? My sense watching him is that his heart definitely isn’t in it. (In fact, I think he looks TERRIBLE — maybe losing weight, just really kind of haggard.) I agree he’s going along with this effort being put forth by Repub bosses. But his future isn’t pretty with the FBI nosing around his home improvement budget, his wife’s bonuses, etc. Seems to me he’d probably rather slink under some rock and hope it goes down easier if he’s a less visible target.
What are your thoughts? Why is he going along with all of this?
And what’s the story with Lori Swanson? I’ve seen you mention her declining popularity before and haven’t heard any specifics. Just curious.
Money. I bet if Norm’s a good dog, he get’s upcoming legal bills taken care of.
Boxturtle (With politicians, it’s all about asscover, power, and money)
Given the all-over-the-map aspect of their “legal arguments” this can’t be all that good for these guys’ legal careers, even with the publicity. It is showing that either:
A) They are id10ts for all the legal flip-flopping or
B) They have no control over their client and unable to get him to listen to sound advice so are acquiescing with his gibberish.
Either way, it just wouldn’t be actions that would recommend them to me for their legal skills.
He wants a “do-over”. It’s not fair that he lost, so keep voting until he wins.
Yeah, these guys fit right in with their Repub clients: Incompetence rules. I’ve found it a bit breathtaking just how bumbling they’ve been.
PW — I compulsively check several times a day to see if there is anything new on this maddening post-election fiasco! So glad you have been posting your updates. Why, I am not sure, except I had hoped Al would run, he did and listening to his radio show, I knew he was going to be one of the good ones! So! sure hope some sanity prevails soon.
Do you think some of the leeway the courts have taken or permitted was to set a clear precident for the next time this happens? Maybe cut it short a little sooner next time? So anyway I DO thank you heaps!
Thanks PW.
digg
Can you imagine if this election was held 4 years ago? This would have been settled in November with Coleman the winner.
Senator Franken!
Norm Coleman has money owned to people we don’t even know about, I bet.
planes falll from the sky
Republics cannot be happy that Norm is trying to keep them from realizing their dream of being the Permanent Minority Party. Even Norm must realize that they have worked so hard to get there.
OK…I’ve got the answer to this entire thing: Let Coleman and Franken suit up and go to the mats and wrestle it out. First guy to get pinned loses. (of course, it doesn’t hurt that Franken wrestled in high school AND college and probably outweighs Coleman at the moment) I think people would pay to see this.
The Coleman campaign’s flailing about reminds me of a child on the floor kicking the ground with a bright red face throwing the mother of all temper tantrums. It is time for the courts to spank their butt, put them in their car seats and send them home.
PW !
‘Senator Franken” has a nice ring to it !
I’m still kinda shocked by the long and lengthy process. You would think that Coleman would concede already.
Honestly, it’s been months….on the bright side, it provides for some good Daily Show-esque news reports: http://tv1.com/playlists/163
PW,
Thanks for the update, I have tried to follow this in the news, but you know the newspaper, if it does not favor a Republican, forget it.
Thanks for the updating, PW!
Coleman’s reduced to relying on Ben “Red Skull” Ginsberg to plead his case to the media in Mpls…so this is all about the p.r., not the court. Yet another Republic Epic Fail ’cause they think they can repeat Florida 2000 tactics for the p.r. value of the 2010 elections. Not gonna work.
Coleman’s reduced to talking to the rightwing radio dinosaurs like Hennen in (Fargo-Moorhead) Dilworth, who’s best known for eliciting Chee-knee’s waterboarding hoo-rah.
Maybe Coleman can borrow Mickey Rourke’s dog. [with no insult meant to Mickey Rourke who just got a best actor Oscar nomination–you to, Mickey!–nor his dog]
ooops, that’s you go, Mickey!
Ot, but the adverts are partially covering this post. Is it just me?
I thought Norm was under investigation. I haven’t heard a thing about that lately.
The F5 refresh fixed it.
OT Henry Paulson is on his way to the John Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies where he will be part of the Forum on Constructive Capitalism. Nothing says constructive capitalism like putting the whole financial system in the crapper.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/2…../index.htm
The irony is no doubt lost on him. Still this goes to show how so many of the nation’s “advanced” schools for foreign policy and economics have been taken over and filled up with Republican deadheads.
Apparently, absolute power doesn’t only make people absolutely corrupt, it also makes them absolutely stupid!
I still can’t get over the fact that the resistance happened right in front of their noses online and they didn’t get what was happening until it was too late! Good thing for US too, or Bush may have shut down the “internets” he seemed to be heading in China’s direction anyway with the attacks on Net Neutrality.
Coleman is toast among other things………
Beginning to sound like it’s all over but the shouting:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo…..rk-out.php
Oooh! Thanks, Waccamaw!
Leroy Jenkins FTW!
Prediction: when all is said and done, Coleman won’t even be able to win a seat in the state senate, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Thanks for keeping us updated on this race. I am really interested in how this shakes out. We need every vote we can get in the Senate.
Well that visit to Washington by Normy was not to lobby for his Senate seat back…it was to offer his email list of political supporters for a job with the Neo-Con, pro-Likud “Republican Jewish Coalition”, the group which viciously attacked Obama last fall with ads associating him with terrorists and playing up hi supposed “Muslim” ties.
According to the RJC’s executive director, Matt Brooks, Coleman will serve as a “consultant and strategic advisor,” fundraising for the organization. “He’s got some down time on his hands, to really help us.” Brooks said that he hoped Coleman would boost the group’s fundraising by tapping into his own network of donors. The RJC also lobbies Congress, which makes Coleman’s employment with the group ethically questionable, as he still is asserting he is the Senator-elect.
Obama won better than three quarters of the Jewish vote in November, one of the largest support bases for the candidate outside of African-Americans. This despite the virulent RJC campaign. Still Brooks said he didn’t think RJC failed. “We had an impact on forcing him to make that visit to Israel, and I think we forced him to take much more clear pro-Israel positions,” he said.
Hmm! So by attacking someone as a terrorist sympathizer one is actually just trying to get one to visit their country and be nice to you? Strange way to make friends, I’d say.