Politics Daily

Alec Baldwin, Still Mulling a Run for Office

David Knowles — 2009-07-07T09:50:00+00:00

Filed under: Democrats, Dick Cheney, 2008 Senate

Acclaimed actor Alec Baldwin is no stranger to politics. The star of "30 Rock" and numerous Hollywood films has often voiced his support of Democratic candidates over the years. Back in 2000, for instance, he agreed with director Robert Altman that if George Bush defeated Al Gore, it would be a good time to move to France.

Though he didn't make that move, Baldwin remained a political junkie during the Bush years, and often flirted with the idea of running for office. Now, in the wake of "Saturday Night Live" actor Al Franken's stunning victory in Minnesota, that urge may have gotten a little stronger. Interviewed in Playboy magazine, the following exchange ensued:

PLAYBOY: Will you run for office?

BALDWIN: I'll put it this way. The desire is there; that's one component. The other component is opportunity. A law firm in a liberal Democratic bastion in Ohio state politics sent me a binder with a cover letter that read, "Mr. Baldwin, here's who we represent, the kinds of cases we handle, our credentials in Ohio state politics. We want you to move to Ohio and run for governor. We will launch your career."

PLAYBOY: Could you live in Ohio?

BALDWIN: I have sometimes thought I could move to New Jersey or Connecticut and run. I'd love to run against Joe Lieberman. I have no use for him. But it's all fantasy. I'm a carry-me-out-in-a-box New Yorker. Here, anything can happen.

Whether the man who once described Dick Cheney as a "terrorist" and a "lying, thieving Oil Whore; or a murderer of the U.S. Constitution" has a shot at joining Franken in Congress remains to be seen. He can take comfort, at least, in the realization that pull-no-punches searing rhetoric seemed to work for Al.

What's your read on Baldwin? Does he have a future in politics?

David at Paradigms Lost
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Specter Forgets He's Supposed To Be For Franken Now

Christopher Weber — 2009-05-12T13:19:00+00:00

Filed under: Democrats, 2008 Senate, Gaffes, Media

Newly-minted Democrat Arlen Specter gave a brief interview to Sunday's New York Times Magazine. The Q&A ran the gamut, with questions about Michael Steele ("On Chairman Steele's record, I don't think any reply is necessary"), his mother ("an angel") and his health ("I'm full of vim, vigor and vitality"). Specter gave a too-much-information answer when asked what Bob Dole, with whom he shares a hometown, was like as a young man: "From reliable sources, he did not need Viagra then." Ewwww.

Deborah Solomon also asked Specter about the lack of Jewish members of the GOP:

With your departure from the Republican Party, there are no more Jewish Republicans in the Senate. Do you care about that?

I sure do. There's still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner.

It's a fair answer, since Coleman is indeed Jewish. Except for one small thing: Coleman is a Republican. Specter is, of course, supposed to be endorsing Franken, the Democrat (who's also Jewish).

Sure enough, the Times has since printed a clarification from Specter's camp. Turns out the senator "conclusively misspoke," as he told CQ. "In the swirl of moving from one caucus to another, I have to get used to my new teammates." Better study up on the Dem playbook, senator. These are the kinds of things that might bite you back come election time.

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Norm Coleman's Office Available for Lease

Dylan and Ethan Ris — 2009-05-08T14:45:00+00:00

Filed under: 2008 Senate, Humor

As the Minnesota Senate race continues to drag on between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman, one small clue seems to point to Coleman's resignation to his defeat.

According to the Washington Post's Al Kamen, Coleman has started abandoning his Minnesota offices.

A passerby recently snapped a shot of Norm Coleman's office in St. Paul, Minn., which, it seems, is on the market. A few days ago, Coleman's name was removed from the door, though the Senate office designation remained.

But it's not what you think it is. Since Coleman is no longer a senator, a Hill official told us, "the Senate does not have the authority to maintain state office leases beyond the expiration of a senator's term, and we are awaiting notification of the election results from the state of Minnesota."

You can see the picture here.

It's unclear if Senate ethics rules prohibit Coleman from subletting the office to his wife for use as a retail outlet for her invention, the "Blo & Go."

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Franken Meets with Biden

Adam Kirchner — 2009-05-06T23:49:00+00:00

Filed under: Democrats, Republicans, 2008 Senate, The Cram

Democratic presumptive junior Senator from Minnesota Al Franken met with Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday, one week after five-term Pennsylvanian Senator Arlen Specter switched his party affiliation while in office from Republican to Democrat.

After Minnesota's 2008 senatorial election ballots (from six months ago) were recounted, Franken was ruled to have garnered 312 more votes than one-term incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman out of nearly three million cast. Coleman, who switched his party affiliation while in office to Republican in 1996 while serving as mayor of St. Paul, is appealing the recount results in the state supreme court.

"The election process and recount in Minnesota have lived up to the state's reputation for organization, transparency, and bipartisanship," Biden said in a White House press release. "The officials have been meticulous and every ruling has been unanimous."

Unless Coleman's state and federal supreme court appeals overturn his loss in the original contest to the election results, Franken will join first-term Minnesotan Senator Amy Klobuchar, of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party (read: Democrats), in Washington. In that outcome, Franken would also become the 60th Democratic member of the Senate, alongside the House majority of 256 Democrats to the 178 Republicans, during a Democratic White House administration.

Franken, a 1973 Harvard alumnus, wrote three #1 New York Times Bestsellers: Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, and The Truth (With Jokes).

Former Saturday Night Live writer and actor, Franken, is also known for portraying the farcical, inept motivational speaker character, Stuart Smalley, who would affirm daily that he's "good enough, smart enough, and doggone it: people like [him]." Apparently, 312 more Minnesotans think he's good enough, smart enough, and like him than those who think the same of Coleman, for Senate, at least.

Minnesota's political discretion can be contextualized with another unlikely politician having been voted into office. Former professional wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura beat then-mayor Norm Coleman (yeah, the same guy) in the state's 1998 gubernatorial election, serving from 1999 until 2003. Ventura was inducted into the WWE's hall of fame the year after his term as governor ended.

To recap: Coleman, a career politician, was a Democrat but he changed his mind and became a Republican while serving as mayor of St. Paul. Coleman, a career politician who flipped his party affiliation while in office, lost Minnesota's 1998 gubernatorial election to former professional wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura. Coleman, now a Republican, became a Senator and served one term, alongside another Democrat, only to lose his incumbent election to a comedian, partially because he had switched party affiliation a decade ago. Then, another Senator from another state switched his party affiliation to the one from which Coleman had switched, in effect counterbalancing the switch that Coleman had made a decade ago, a week before the comedian who upset Coleman's incumbency met with the Vice President. Whew.

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Joe Biden, Al Franken Hold a Summit of the Powerless

Dylan and Ethan Ris — 2009-05-06T18:37:00+00:00

Filed under: Senate, Democrats, Joe Biden, 2008 President, 2008 Senate, Humor

You'd be hard-pressed to find two people in Washington with less to do than Vice President Joe Biden and would-be Minnesota Senator Al Franken.

In the weeks and months since November 4th, both men have been thoroughly screwed by our nation's Constitution, albeit each in his own unique way:

* Biden got roped into a job that the Founding Fathers deliberately stripped of any tangible responsibility. (If Barack Obama wants to model his presidency after Lincoln, we can't help but wonder if Biden will similarly model his own tenure after Lincoln's first VP, Hannibal Hamlin, who declared himself "the least important man in Washington" and sulked off to his farm in Maine, never to return.)

* Franken's problems are much simpler. He'd be in the Senate right now, conducting real government business, if only that pesky Constitution didn't provide Norm Coleman with more legal challenges than O.J.'s defense team.

Which brings us to today's events, wherein the two men convened at an undisclosed location (that most vice- presidential of locales) and held a summit of the nation's token and powerless. We're not sure what was discussed, but we assume that Biden wore a mask the entire time, as Franken traveled to Washington by airplane and thus most-assuredly has swine flu.

Determined not to be completely emasculated, we're told Biden and Franken concluded their pow-wow by appropriating $9.86 in federal stimulus money toward some take-out Arby's.

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Where's Specter's Independent Streak? Now He's Anti-Coleman

Liza Porteus Viana — 2009-05-06T12:12:00+00:00

Filed under: Senate, Democrats, Republicans, Barack Obama, 2008 Senate

I've been a big fan of Sen. Arlen Specter's for a long time - mainly because of his independent streak and seemingly disinterest (well, more than others, anyway) in pandering to his party just because that was the politically correct thing to do. I love politicians who buck their party in order to do what they feel is - well, put simply - the right thing to do.

But this makes me shake my head in disappointment.

Just after Specter left the GOP for the Democratic Party, he gave an interview to New York Times Magazine (due out this Sunday), during which he was asked by interviewer Deborah Solomon: "With your departure from the Republican Party, there are no more Jewish Republicans in the Senate. Do you care about that?"

Specter: "I sure do. There's still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare [Republican] Norm Coleman the winner."

Solomon: "Which seems about as likely at this point as Jerry Seinfeld's joining the Senate."

Specter: "Well, it was about as likely as my becoming a Democrat."

Well, apparently between the time that interview took place and now, Specter has had a change of heart and favors party politics over his desire to have a Jewish colleague on the Hill. He said Tuesday that his comment was a mistake.

"In the swirl of moving from one caucus to another, I have to get used to my new teammates," Specter said, reports CQ Politics. "I'm ordinarily pretty correct in what I say. I've made a career of being precise. I conclusively misspoke. ... I'm looking for more Democratic members. Nothing personal."

That doesn't seem like "misspeaking." It seems more likely his new best Dem friends came to him with the math - Al Franken's win would give Democrats a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate - and said "Dude, you cannot say you're supporting Coleman - he's a REPUBLICAN! That's so not cool! You have to support Franken!" What happened to him maintaining some semblance of independence, no matter what he calls himself?

You'd think he'd at least stick to his guns on who he'd like to win Minnesota, especially given that the Dems have knocked him down several ranks to mere freshman status on his committees. On top of this, Specter may have another opponent in his re-election bid next year on top of former Rep. Pat Toomey: former Pennsylvania governor and homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge.

"Governor Ridge is very serious about considering to run, and he is weighing his options," said Bob Asher, the state's Republican national committeeman.

It's no surprise Ridge is trying to get back onto the national political scene. But if he does run, it only makes next year's Senate race even more interesting.

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Jim Bunning Blames Mitch McConnell for His Own Impending Defeat

Dylan and Ethan Ris — 2009-05-06T11:05:00+00:00

Filed under: Senate, Republicans, 2008 Senate, Humor, Polls, Predictions

As Politics Daily's own David Stacey is reporting, Sen. Jim Bunning spent yesterday trashing his fellow Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell, using derogatory terms he normally reserves for the news media.

Bunning called McConnell "selfish" and blamed the minority leader not only for losing 15 GOP Senate seats over the past two elections but also for losing 4 additional seats in the 2010 election, which-- unless Bunning knows something that we don't-- hasn't happened yet.

Quoth the sage of Cooperstown...

Do you realize that under our dynamic leadership of our leader, we have gone from 55 and probably to 40 (Senate seats) in two election cycles, and if the tea leaves that I read are correct, we will wind up with about 36 after this election cycle.

While we're impressed by Bunning's psychic ability to see the future (eat it, James C. Dobson!), we have to wonder which four Senate Republicans he thinks are going down 18 months from now. Because as we consult our trusty polling guide, it looks like the most vulnerable member of the entire body is...

Well how do you like that? Jim Bunning! By a longshot.

But just because Bunning is going to get crushed in 2010 doesn't mean we've heard the last from him. Let's just say if you think Jim Bunning ripping Mitch McConnell in a newspaper is hilarious, just wait until he's doing it on Judge Judy!

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Arlen Specter Tops Pat Toomey in New Poll

David Knowles — 2009-05-04T10:50:00+00:00

Filed under: Democrats, Republicans, Primaries, 2008 Senate, Polls

Arlen Specter is no dummy. He knows how to save his own political hide, and a new poll released by Quinnipiac University shows as much:

A new poll of Pennsylvania voters suggests that the newest Democrat in Congress, Sen. Arlen Specter, would easily beat his old rival, Republican Pat Toomey, in Specter's battle for re-election.

Pennsylvania turned even bluer in the last presidential election, so Specter did, too. It's a simple math problem, really. Toomey, a staunch conservative, doesn't really have a chance at winning this thing, and Specter would have had a hard time, too, if he'd remained a Republican. Specter vs. Toomey has the makings of a landslide, if you trust this first poll since "Benedict Arlen's" defection was announced. 53% say they'd vote for Specter, while just 33% prefer Toomey.

Then again, if , heaven forbid, the GOP were to select a "dirty moderate" (to use Meghan McCain's term) candidate, like, say, Tom Ridge, to run against Specter, the hypothetical gap closes to just three points. So will the GOP get the message that their future may--gasp!--lie with the less virulent among them? Time will tell.

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Rush Limbaugh on Arlen Specter: Take John and Meghan McCain with You!

David Knowles — 2009-04-28T21:37:00+00:00

Filed under: Senate, Republicans, Featured Stories, 2008 Senate

Just how entertaining is the Arlen Specter defection for Democrats to watch? Pretty damned entertaining (is one allowed to curse that way after what the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday?). But if it seems that the overwhelming majority of the country who do not identify themselves as Republicans (79% to be exact) is experiencing a bit too much schadenfreude, one only need look to Rush Limbaugh for a reminder of how the GOP came to find itself in this particular pickle.

Reacting to the "Benedict Arlen" defection today, Limbaugh upped the ante for purging more traitors from the ranks of the hardest of the hardened remnants of the Republican die-hards:

So, the stick-to-your-rusty-guns philosophy persists among many in the incredible shrinking party. To these folks, the problem is not one of philosophy, it's bad PR or something. So they rant and rail against Specter. And while that frustration is understandable (yes, he most certainly did jump ship in order to get re-elected) it still doesn't address the underlying reasons as to why the GOP has shrunk so much over recent years.

What seems strange to me is that Limbaugh and Co. don't seem to realize that purging so-called RINOs (Republicans in name only), means the party will become even less popular than it is now. Talk about lowering a limbo (Limbaugh?) stick.

David at Paradigms Lost
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Polls Find Little Sympathy for Norm Coleman

Dylan and Ethan Ris — 2009-04-27T18:20:00+00:00

Filed under: 2008 Senate, Humor, Polls

Two new polls are out regarding the contested Minnesota Senate race. And apparently National Republican Senate Committee Chairman "Big Bad" John Cornyn (R-TX) was not among those surveyed, since most respondents want Republican Norm Coleman to drop out.

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune...

A new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll has found that 64 percent of those responding believe Coleman, the Republican, should accept the recount trial court's April 13 verdict that Democrat Franken won the race by 312 votes.

Only 28 percent consider last week's appeal by Coleman to the Minnesota Supreme Court "appropriate."

Meanwhile, a poll conducted by Grove Insight Research draws similar conclusions...

The poll, commissioned by Alliance for a Better Minnesota, showed that 59% of surveyed voters believe Coleman should concede to Al Franken, while just 34% believe he should keep his legal challenge going.

A third poll found that 100% of respondents think Coleman is doing a great job and should take his case to the Supreme Court. Those surveyed also unanimously agreed that America's top priority should be outfitting its citizens with wall-mounted blowdryer stands so that they can style their hair with both hands at once-- thus exposing that the poll's only respondent was Coleman's wife, Laurie.

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New Web Page Allows You to Track Norm Coleman's Election Obstructions in Chronological Order

Dylan and Ethan Ris — 2009-04-24T14:40:00+00:00

Filed under: 2008 Senate, Humor, Media, Voting

The Internet is amazing, folks. To prove as much, we want you to imagine something for just a second:

Pretend it's the late '80s or the early '90s and web connectivity is not the everyday given we enjoy today. Now imagine that the Al Franken/Norm Coleman senate election took place back in this pre-web era. Do you realize how hard it would have been to track Coleman's near-constant obstructions to the electoral process?

Now flash forward to today, where we are living in an age of widespread Internet access. In an action befitting this marvelous era, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has launched a web page featuring an interactive timeline of all the Coleman campaign's obstructions-- from goading Franken to concede on election night to his most recent lawsuit, filed just days ago.

Pretty cool, huh? In fact the only person who doesn't stand to benefit from this interactive timeline is Coleman himself, who would prefer that knowledge of the whole recount challenge be limited to the select cadre of himself, his lawyers, and perhaps a couple sympathetic Supreme Court justices.

But Coleman, too, sees benefit from the Internet. He just asks that Minnesotans kindly skip over his timeline of obstruction and focus on more positive things, such making online donations to his legal fund or placing orders for his wife's chintzy hair care products.

Oh, and they also shouldn't read any online editorials from Minnesota newspapers.

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Al Franken Begins Hiring Senate Staff

Dylan and Ethan Ris — 2009-04-20T15:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Senate, Democrats, Republicans, 2008 Senate, Humor, Voting

He still hasn't been certified as Senator from Minnesota, but Democrat Al Franken-- perhaps taking encouragement from his alter ego, Stuart Smalley-- has decided to proceed with senatorial duties.

And while this doesn't mean he's already taking bribes or engaging in sex scandals, he has engaged in a senator's more basic responsibilities, such as hiring a staff...

On the heels of winning his Senate recount trial last week, Minnesota Democrat Al Franken (D) made his first staffing announcement on Monday, naming a long-time staffer to Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) as his state director.

A three-judge panel ruled last week that Franken defeated incumbent Norm Coleman (R) in the 2008 recount - a verdict that the former GOP Senator plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court this week. Although Franken has yet to be certified the winner of the race, his decision to bring on Alana Petersen as state director sends a signal that the Democrat is moving forward.

Although Franken has won every stage of the six-month old election contest with Republican Norm Coleman, he still does not have the certification of Minnesota's Governor Tim Pawlenty, which is required before Franken can proceed to the Senate.

Pawlenty, a Republican, has vowed not to certify Franken until Coleman exercises all available legal options (read: the Supreme Court awards him the seat in a decision written by Antonin Scalia.) This raises the possibility that Franken is hiring his staff in vain, but at the current pace of things, we won't know for sure until late fall.

And while Franken busies himself with staffing decisions, Coleman stays occupied by working for the Republican Jewish Coalition, which we assume is just a conference call between Coleman, David Horowitz and William Kristol.

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Democrats Hounding Norm Coleman to Concede

Dylan and Ethan Ris — 2009-04-16T14:20:00+00:00

Filed under: Democrats, 2008 Senate, Voting

Norm Coleman has already ignored the will of Minnesota voters, the state board of elections and a three-judge oversight panel. It's time to bring in the big guns...

DNC Chairman Tim Kaine!

(We'll pause here for the hush to fall over the crowd.)

Kaine appeared on the ultimate stage of election jurisprudence, "Hardball With Chris Matthews," and told Coleman he must "set aside his ambition" and allow opponent Al Franken to be seated in the U.S. Senate.

A bold statement by Chairman Kaine, and one that's certain to strike fear into the heart of Coleman, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and every other Republican that was watching MSNBC that night.

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MN Senate: Franken Extends Lead Over Coleman to 312

Dave — 2009-04-07T21:40:00+00:00

Filed under: 2008 Senate

Star-Tribune

Republican Norm Coleman's dim prospects for winning the U.S. Senate trial darkened today as several hundred disputed absentee ballots were finally counted and split strongly for his DFL opponent, Al Franken.

Minutes after the ballots were opened for the first time, state elections director Gary Poser counted them, reading off the votes one by one to a hushed courtroom. When he was done, Franken's lead had grown from 225 to 312 votes.

Ouch! Norm Coleman is playing the recount rules right. Fight to keep counting when you're ahead, then fight to stop the counting immediately. The big loss was a couple of weeks ago when the court decided that only these 400 votes would be counted. This slap is just icing on the cake.

But the Republicans are saying they are going to keep fighting for the 4,000 votes that weren't counted. And they have a point since absentee ballots meeting the same criteria were counted in Franken friendly territory, as we've reported previously.

John Cornyn:

"Events today do not address the main issue that remains unresolved: over 4,000 Minnesotans were disenfranchised by this three-judge panel. That's why it's so critical for this process to move forward before the Minnesota Supreme Court and why Senate Republicans fully support Senator Coleman's efforts.

"The message from our side has remained consistent throughout this process: we want this election to resolve itself as quickly, but not at the expense of Minnesota's laws or voters.

"In contrast, the criticisms from the Democrat side as recently as today have expressed the opposite viewpoint. It's blatant hypocrisy that many of the same Democrats who so loudly complained about voter disenfranchisement during the 2000 Florida recount are now willing to compromise this fundamental principle of our democracy when it no longer fits their political agenda. Senate Democrats should stand down, set partisan politics aside, and respect Minnesota's laws and voters."

Next stop, the Minnesota Supreme Court, but before that, I believe we'll have another attempt to get Al Franken certified as the winner and seated.

And someday, the 2008 election might be over. But not today!

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Alaska Republican Party: Mark Begich Must Resign

Dylan and Ethan Ris — 2009-04-02T20:13:00+00:00

Filed under: Senate, 2008 Senate, Investigations, Crime, Sarah Palin

Last night, the U.S. Justice Department moved to drop the corruption charges against former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, based on prosecutorial misconduct. Justice is not suggesting that the evidence was incorrect and that Stevens is innocent, but rather that he was denied due process, and therefore his conviction cannot stand. In other words, a technicality.

Stevens, of course, lost his Senate seat last November to Democrat Mark Begich, amidst all the controversy. So there's only really one place to go from here ...

Senator Begich must resign his seat immediately, and Ted Stevens should be reinstated.

At least that's the opinion of the Alaska Republican Party, which has decided that its political interests certainly trump the will of the voters. And needless to say, Governor Sarah Palin is right on board with them.

The Alaska Republican Party is calling on Democratic Sen. Mark Begich to resign his first-term post as senator, one day after Attorney General Eric Holder cleared former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens of felony charges Wednesday.

"The Alaska Republican Party...believes that current Senator Mark Begich should resign his position to allow for a new, special election, so Alaskans may have the chance to vote for a senator without the improper influence of the corrupt Department of Justice," the Alaska Republican Party's Web site states.

The Alaska GOP mantains a special election "will allow Alaskans to have a real, non-biased, credible process where the most qualified person could win, without the manipulation of the Department of Justice."

We're sorry, but ... WHAT?!? A sitting, fairly elected Senator should step down because the man he defeated was freed on a technicality?

The Alaska GOP is apparently operating on the assumption that Alaskans only voted against Stevens because they though that he was headed straight to jail, rather than because they heard audiotape of him accepting bribes over and over again on the nightly news.

Fortunately, Begich has rejected their thoroughly anti-democratic, unconstitutional suggestion out of hand (as expected).

Anyway, if the GOP wants to play this game ... don't even get us STARTED on former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.

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AG Eric Holder Drops Ted Stevens Charges

Dave — 2009-04-01T08:45:00+00:00

Filed under: 2008 Senate, Scandal, Investigations

NYTimes.com

The U.S. Justice Department has decided to drop all charges against former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens amid charges of prosecutorial misconduct, NPR reported on Wednesday, citing Justice officials.

Stevens was convicted last fall of seven counts of lying on a Senate disclosure form to conceal $250,000 in gifts from an oil industry executive and other friends. Allegations of prosecutorial misconduct have delayed his sentencing.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has decided not to continue to defend the conviction in the face of persistent problems stemming from prosectors' actions, NPR reported on its web site.

Wait, what? This is particularly galling to Republicans. Stevens is charged with concealment. He then brazens it out and risks a sure senate seat for the GOP. He gets convicted just before the election. Stevens loses the election, although it was much closer than anyone imagined a felon.

And now! Now that Alaska's senate seat is Democratic for six years, Eric Holder, says "oops, our bad". Well actually it isn't quite that tidy. Holder wasn't AG when this was going on, they're not admitting that Stevens is clean, and so and so forth. But galling still, very much so.

And if Stevens does turn out to be clean, where does he file to get his senate seat back?

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Now Would Not Be a Good Time for Norm Coleman to Start Acknowledging Court Verdicts

Dylan and Ethan Ris — 2009-04-01T08:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Senate, 2008 Senate, Voting

The three-judge panel charged with overseeing recount challenges in the Norm Coleman/ Al Franken Senate election ruled decisively against Coleman yesterday. The judges announced that only 400 absentee ballots were eligible to be recounted-- Coleman had hoped for 1400. Furthermore, many of the ballots deemed eligible for review come from Franken-leaning counties.

This would be a crushing blow for Coleman save for the fact that he simply doesn't acknowledge court rulings that go against him (and there have been many), choosing instead to keep appealing and appealing until eventually Antonin Scalia just steps in and awards him the office.

Yesterday's verdict did nothing to change Coleman's logic...

Within two hours of the ruling, Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg warned of an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Ginsberg argued that the special court's ruling tolerated differing standards from county to county between the general election and the recount. He said the small universe of remaining ballots makes it difficult for Coleman to erase Franken's current 225-vote lead.

"You never give up hope but it becomes a much longer shot," Ginsberg said. "It's still a mathematical possibility but it's probably akin to you winning your NCAA bracket pool at this point."

It seems unlikely that Minnesota's Supreme Court would suddenly award the race to Coleman, given that essentially every judge, panel and election official has ruled in Franken's favor since the recount began.

And so barring that miracle, Coleman is down to one final hope: Franken, weary from the campaign and litany of court dates, will just be a gentleman and give the seat to Coleman out of the kindness of his own heart.

Which is exactly what Coleman had proposed in the first place!

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Coleman Says He Won't Take Franken to the Supreme Court

Dylan and Ethan Ris — 2009-03-24T15:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Senate, 2008 Senate, Humor, Supreme Court, Voting

Who is this strange robot and what did he do with our original robot, Norm Coleman?

Because all of a sudden, the Minnesota recount took a drastic swing toward sanity. Prior to today, the whole Norm Coleman post-election script had been basically: Sue. Appeal. Lose Even More Votes. Sue. Appeal. Repeat.

And yet this strange creature, who we'll admit sports that trademark Coleman teeth and hair, now says it won't take Al Franken to the Supreme Court if Franken prevails in Minnesota...

Ex-Sen. Norm Coleman (Minn.), at the Capitol on Tuesday to lunch with his former GOP colleagues, said he does not expect to take his election recount battle all the way to the Supreme Court.

"I'm not anticipating being across the street," Coleman said, pointing toward the Supreme Court building as he stood just off the Senate floor. "In the end for me, fundamentally, it's about making sure every vote is counted."...

The outcome of the recount is now rests with a three-judge panel, which is expected to hand down a decision within days.

Perhaps when Coleman (or his impersonator) says he won't be taking the case to the Supreme Court, he means he's just going to forget the whole voting process entirely and continue serving as Senator.

Considering that he was quoted while standing as close as legally possible to the Senate floor without actually entering, Coleman may have just decided that a man of his stature simply doesn't need the Supreme Court at all.

Somewhere, in an undisclosed location, Dick Cheney is beaming.

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Franken/Coleman Closing Arguments Are Done

Dylan and Ethan Ris — 2009-03-13T14:20:00+00:00

Filed under: 2008 Senate

Closing arguments have just wrapped up in Norm Coleman's challenge to Al Franken's 225-vote victory in the Minnesota Senate election. So that means that this race is almost over!

Just kidding. Because regardless of what happens, one of the candidates will file another challenge, and then after that another challenge, and so on until the 2014 election, during which Minnesotans will vote to deport both Coleman and Franken to Guam.

But for today, everyone is pretending that this is the end.

The latest battle in Minnesota's four-month war over who was elected to the Senate is coming to a close. Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken have now both rested their cases in the seven-week-old trial to determine who won the race. Franken leads Coleman with 225 votes out of 2.9 million cast.

Of course, this may not be the final battle. Whoever loses the case has the option of appealing to the state's highest court.

Democrats have been eager to seat Franken because it would mean they have control of 59 votes, one short of the 60 needed to end debate and take an up-or-down votes on controversial measures. Franken, a former "Saturday Night Live" castmate, met with Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill this week to brief them on the status of the case.

We'll be sure to keep you posted on the judges' decision, and why it doesn't matter.

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Coleman to Minnesota Judge: 'Set Aside' Election Results

Christopher Weber — 2009-03-03T18:04:00+00:00

Filed under: Democrats, Republicans, 2008 Senate, Scandal

Recently in his never-ending race against Al Franken for the Senate seat from Minnesota, Norm Coleman has been highlighting what he says are problems with the state's election last November. Now his lawyers are saying those flaws are so serious that the only solution is to "set aside the election." Is Coleman opting for the last resort of kids on playgrounds the world over, and crying "Do over!"?

"Some courts have held that when the number of illegal votes exceeds the margin between the candidates -- and it cannot be determined for which candidate those illegal votes were cast -- the most appropriate remedy is to set aside the election," Langdon wrote in a letter to the court.

Coleman's team rested most of his case Monday in the U.S. Senate election trial after more testimony underscoring problems with the election system. Under questioning from the Republican's lawyers, Minnesota's elections director acknowledged inaccurate data in the registration system that could exclude otherwise qualified people from voting.

Seems like a bold but risky strategy, basically saying -- three months into this mess -- that it's the entire democratic process that's at fault here. That puts Franken's team in the position of defending Democracy itself!

Franken lawyer Marc Elias said the team will begin a case today that will include evidence "about the good job that the state of Minnesota did ... that the hardworking auditors and election night officials did. How the system worked, by and large."

Of course both parties should be worried that the Senate might realize it's doing just fine with only 99 members and maybe it doesn't need another senator from Minnesota after all.

UPDATE: TPM has a letter written to the judge by the Franken camp rebutting Coleman's call to "set aside" the election:

Contestants' alternative and even more untimely suggest--that the election be set aside--fails as well. Not only has this remedy been applied primarily when there is evidence of fraud or systemic irregularities...but this Court lacks the authority to set aside the election. Its jurisdiction is limited to deciding which party received the highest number of legally cast votes, and therefore is entitled to receive the certificate of election... Any other remedy lies within the jurisdiction of the United States Senate.

Read the whole letter here.

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