What's the hold-up in Minnesota - tell us who won!!!

[LynneSin]

Seriously, you already charged Coleman $95k and the tidbits we got from the court case showed you weren't really buying Coleman's complaint.

My only guess is perhaps Coleman/Pawlenty are negotiating with team Franken to find a way to end this mess with the republicans and especially Coleman & Pawlenty, saving face.

Coleman right now is political dirt who probably couldn't run for dog catcher of some po-dunk Minnesotan remote village and Pawlenty wants to seem presidential to the right-wing nut jobs. So I would guess they want to find a way to end this with them looking like 'winners' even if Franken wins (which he should).

[Wapsie B]

1. I still say that Franken's term needs to be 6 years from the day he is seated.

This Coleman challenge is a farce. Nice dirty tricks ploy by the gop to deny Obama one more Democrat in the Senate but this needs to end. And the gop needs to be penalized for it.

[LynneSin]

2. I agree but Franken needs to take the high road

He's going to head in there with a very low approval rating. I would suspect that in some ways Franken is going to work with Coleman to help him save face because it will show that Franken is not a vindictive person (even if Coleman was).

[Orsino]

16. He'll be in a great position to highlight the corruption that kept him out...

...and which robbed Minnesota of half their US Senate representation for months. That's the framing that needs to be hit again and again.

[Old Codger]

3. Mostly

The idea that coleman could not win an election should be mostly correct, in most places that would be true, but you are talking about a place that has re-elected Bachman, she is absolutely batshit crazy and the manage to elect her, I don't think they would have too much trouble accepting ole normy again, next to her he seems normal.

[LynneSin]

6. But Bachman lives in a district that favors her getting re-elected

you can't compare that to a state-wide race where the nut-jobs get to vote in the same election as the people who know how to think!

[wyldwolf]

4. they're still trying to figure out how to give it to Coleman

[Doctor_J]

5. I am sticking with my prediction that Franken will never be seated

If Harry Reid wasn't such a sniveling appeaser, this would have been taken care of months ago. As is stands, the GOP now realizes that no one will ever make them obey the law.

[Mz Pip]

7. I certainly believe that the GOP will

drag this out for as long as possible and that will include taking this to the SCOTUS. Coleman will file an appeal at the very last minute to make sure that the case won't even be heard until next year.

THat's how they operate.

Now why the people of MN aren't expressing outrage over this is another story. Don't they care that they only have one senator?

Mz Pip

[Doctor_J]

9. they should have rioted some time in December

Now it is way too late. And no, most of them don't care, as long as their TV turns on every night. Most probably couldn't tell you how many Senators they're supposed to have.

[lindisfarne]

12. Minnesotans do care -but they also believe in the rule of law. The courts have been

very good at examining the issues thoroughly and fairly. Unfortunately, MN law is written so that this can happen.

Pawlenty has announced he won't run for another term which means he may refuse to sign the election certificate if the case is appealed to the SC. We'll see - he also has presidential ambitions so he may decide that would be too costly.

Pawlenty is a very atypical MN republican. Historically, while MN republicans have had different ideas on fiscal issues than the DFL, they have been highly intelligent folks who understood the folly of cutting social programs like schools and even health care programs.

I heard a MN Public Radio program about a year ago which had on both Carlson and Quie (both Repubs; Quie was governor in 1980s; Carlson - 1990s). I didn't at first realize who was talking and started paying closer attention when it struck me that very intelligent, well-informed, and well-thought-out comments were being made (more intelligent than some Democratic politicians these days). Although there are many areas to disagree with them philosophically, one could not say that these Republicans had not seriously thought about the issues and the impact of their decisions on the people of the state.

Education takes up a huge percentage of any state's budget, and until about 15 years ago, MN really upheld education. Ventura & Pawlenty have done a lot of damage (although it did begin a bit with Carlson).

[goclark]

8. The longer they "wait" to seat franken the better it is for the Thugs

They have planned it this way. :puke:

[SpartanDem]

10. There is no hold up this isn't an episode of Law and Order

Where things are wrapped up in neat little package after an hour even in case where it is evident that the court is favoring one side.


Former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Jim Gilbert told MPR's Morning Edition he's not surprised by the delay, but expects the judges will issue their ruling by July 4.

"I thought it would take them between 30 and 60 days to do the final opinion," Gilbert said.

On June 1, the date of the hearing, the justices all met immediately afterward in conference, and that's the date that they voted their preference.

"But then the real writing process starts after that," he said. "To draft the opinion and to circulate that and to make sure all the research is done correctly. So it does take a little time."

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/06/15/gilbert_franken_coleman/

[Vinca]

11. This is truly nuts.

Soon there will be children born who were conceived after the election.

[Cleita]

13. One of Franken's attorneys was just on Stephanie Miller. He says they

are cautiously optimistic, which doesn't say much, but they think it will be resolved this week. I know crumbs, but this is where the situation stands. There are storm clouds from the RW in the Senate who have threatened to go to the US Supreme Court to prevent him from being seated, but the lawyer feels it won't go anywhere because the election was legal in every way.

[Pool Hall Ace]

14. I was looking for an anti-Norm Coleman bumper sticker on Cafe Press.

Not easy to find at all. Plenty of anti-Franken, however, including one that says, "'Thou shall not steal' applies to jackass moron's like yourself too!" And yes, I kept the Freeper punctuation in there.

I've never been to the state, but I don't understand what's going on in Minnesota at all.

[AlinPA]

15. This is horribly slow, but it won't compare to how slowly the process of

appealing to the US SC will move. They can appeal over whether or not Pawlenty can be forced to sign certification, or Coleman can appeal over the final decision in MN. Even if the US SC rejects it, it will be many months just to get to that point.

[Hutzpa]

17. There are two things at play here;

1) The Democrats in Minnesota have run out of idea and could not figure a way to out smart
the Republicans.

2) They (Democrats in Senate and Minnesotan) are not convinced Al will play ball once he gets
in the Senate, they (Senate Dems-most of them anyways) are some what working with the Republicans
in using this as a way to slow Obama down, knowing fully once Al takes his seat, Obama gets his
overwhelming majority, which is not good.

That said I don't see any reasonable reason as to why Senate Dems could not throw up force in putting
pressure on the Minnesotan Courts to end this charade.

It reminds me of 2000 when Bush stole the election and the Democrats relied heavily on Warren Christoper to challenge the courts and he caved in.