Coleman has ten days after the final ECC ruling to file an intent to appeal with the MN Supreme Court. And then 15 days after filing to submit the formal appeal documents. Then the MN Supreme Court decides whether or not to take up the appeal.

So ugh, expect another month of delay by Sore Loser Coleman.

Yupper. The UpTake’s Noah Kunin thinks that Norm might actually lodge his appeal in a timely fashion for a change, but I don’t think so. A few months ago, back when Norm could still claim to be independent of the RNC and not a total puppet of the national GOP, I thought that he might be reasonable. Not now. His orders are to stonewall for as long as he can.

Are we there yet?

(giggling at the pic)

Yep. Party first, country last!

We’re workin’ on it, El. My current guess is sometime early next month. Meanwhile, do check out the full Peeps pic.

Holy crow, there are over 300 of them!!

So lemme see…counting that last batch of absentee votes [87 net gain for Franken out of 387] turned out to go 61.2% (237) to 38.7% (150) in Frankens favor? Seems that the votes held out were disproportionately Franken votes. That says more about the fraudulent challenges by the Coleman camp (and perhaps a Republican bias by MN officials rather than the other way around) rather than the fairness of the election towards Coleman.

I’m with Ramesh.

And you won’t hear me say that too often!

Minnesota has set a high standard of fair process – that both sides can have faith in. This is in contrast to the damage done over the last 8 years by Bush-Cheney.

Considering how the GOP stole this seat for Norm with their whining and caterwauling about the Wellstone memorial, this slow torturous path suits Coleman quite well, I think.

In an earlier thread, I was advocating for the Golden Condom Award, to be presented to the pol who has done the most thorough job of screwing the people in any given hour/day/week/month. I continue to believe that has merit.

Now I see a companion to the GCA, i.e., the crying towel which the Normster is being encouraged to “throw in.” Bear in mind that his finances are in a dire state. It is possible he cannot afford to part with one of his towels, which would explain his failure to throw it in.

I believe we can help him with that . . . .

Prize winner: most profound use of Peeps in art!

Is there any way Senator-elect Franken could speed this up? DailyKOS has a scenario like that posted, but I’m not sure how it would work unless the ECC doesn’t order the election certificate be given to him or some such.

Why are elections such a disgrace in this country? This sort of thing is inexcusable and really discourages people from voting.

What will it take for a real HAVA to make some REAL progress in getting elections to work.

But something I have been clamoring for for years would have a HUGE impact on this nonsense

TERM LIMITS

You do your term and if you want to remain in government you run for a different office or seek an appointed one.

OT: “We’re shocked,” said Gary Schneeberger, a spokesman for Focus on the Family.

Focus on the Family Employee Snared in Online Sex Sting

Yeah, Gary, so are we… like, TOTALLY.

emptywheel at the top of the front again!
America Strikes Back at Pirates … with Unions!!

A limit in the number of terms allowed per individual hasn’t worked in California, all it has given us is a bunch of people that have no idea how to fight back against the moneyed interests that control the government. At least with people that had been in office for 10 or more years, we had a fighting chance. Now, we have no chance.

I think even some Democrats, and you know who I mean, are not looking forward to Franken in the Senate. He’s a total progressive and, hopefully, people are watching the antics of the Blue Dawgs and will boot them out in ‘10

A week after sponsoring estate tax relief, Lincoln announces opposition to EFCA “in its current form”
A number of Senators are engaged in a hard-fought race to emerge as the chamber’s most conservative Democrat. In the running are such Senators as Mary Landrieu and Bill Nelson, perhaps even Mark Warner, Max Baucus and Michael Bennet. But the race looks to be coming down to three Democrats: Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh and Blanche Lincoln.

don’t overlook Mark Begich

Thanks – I only looked at the court pic = and that was hysterical enough. Following your hint, I clicked through a few – my fave is “Riding with my Peep,” a few previous to the Election Court peeps. The peep is riding a horse w/ the reins in his/her/its mouth. :0

LOL! Me, too, Teddy – and it’s not something I would ever have thought would happen.

If Norm is starting to look foolish even to those guys – you know it’s bad.

The best kind of term limit is to not re-elect the @%^&*. Easy to do, too.

OMFG, PW!!!
Tim Pawlenty spinning like a Maytag Washer on Rachel Maddow’s show. Pretending Equal Protection etc, etc, are actually live issues and that this is close. Crock of shit!
So, anyway, Normie doesn’t look foolish to Timmy.
Sheeeeesh.
FunnyDiva

Sander,

Legislative term limits haven’t worked anywhere they’ve been tried. For better or worse, we have lobbyists as an unelected fourth branch of government.

What happens with term limits is that about the time an elected official understands how the system works, they are out. Lobbyists don’t have term limits, and they do understand how the system works.

Changing offices means changing systems — the House and the Senate operate under different rules, and the power centers are different. Every government is slightly different, and the power centers are somewhat different. Until an elected official understands where the power centers are and how to work within those centers, they aren’t terribly effective.

For example, here in New Mexico the President Pro-tempore of the State Senate is a much more powerful official than the title suggests. The Pro-tem controls Senate committee appointments and conference committee appointments. The pro-tem also controls a large chunk of the capital outlay budget. These powers are largely a residual effect of the efforts of Manny Aragon. It’s possible that the power gathered in that office will dissipate, but it isn’t a given. A lot depends on the officials holding the office now (and in the future).

These are the sorts of things that determine how a government entity works. They are historical contingencies, and so they can’t be predicted. With term limits the people who understand the history are the lobbyists. It’s a lobbyist’s job to use that information in the service of their masters.

At least with professional pols, we can sometimes convince them that opposing their lobbyist buddies is a good idea. Term limits remove that possibility by ensuring that all of the voting members are transient.

Term limits in the executive branch are somewhat different. I’m not convinced any longer that they’re a great idea. Think about 2000 if the election was Dubya vs. the Big Dog. Most everyone I know believes that Clinton would have cleaned Bushie’s clock. Clinton is a much better campaigner than Gore on Al’s best day, and way better than Bush on every day.

We’re going to be in a similar situation with Obama. If he’s as effective a President as I hope he will be, he’ll be much too young to retire when he’s term-limited out. Additionally, the two-term limit on Presidents makes them lame ducks after the third year of their first term, win or lose. Without term limits, there is the threat that the President will run again. With that threat, Congress has to take them more seriously.

Term limits were a good idea that doesn’t work in practice. It’s possible that term limits might work with public financing of elections. Remove legal bribery from lobbyists, and maybe you can remove enough power from lobbyists to help the citizenry.