Nick Coleman: Time to end charade in Senate race

[IndianaGreen]

Nick Coleman: Time to end charade in Senate race

If the court rules against Norm Coleman, then it's over. It's got to be.

By NICK COLEMAN, Star Tribune

Last update: June 14, 2009 - 7:42 AM

After the 2008 Senate race ended in a virtual tie last November, I wrote that Minnesotans had tossed a coin that landed on its edge: Many voters, it still seems to me, voted against Norm Coleman or Al Franken, not for them.

That standing coin is finally about to fall with a decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court that is expected any day. Most observers expect the court to reject Republican Coleman's objections to the arduous recount process that ended with the Democrat being declared the winner. I hope so, because this charade must end soon.

And the old Norm Coleman -- the late 2008 version -- would have agreed.

When I asked him, the morning after the election, if he would drop any election challenge if a mandatory recount showed him trailing Franken, he said yes, as long as a recount was "done the Minnesota Way." If by "Minnesota Way," he meant a recount done with excruciating diligence and total bipartisan participation, we have had the Minnesota Way in spades, a Minnesota Way that has taxed our patience and made us look at times like slow-witted fools but which has come to the end of the road: Norm is odd man out. And, in Minnesota, that means it's time for him to go away.

I am not one of those liberals who have a visceral dislike for Coleman (as I have averred before, we are not related). But unless the state high court drops a bombshell, the former Sen. Coleman will remain former. And talk of appealing the court's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, or of Presidential Wannabe Tim Pawlenty refusing to sign an election certificate, is foolishness. What happens in St. Paul should stay in St. Paul.

http://www.startribune.com/local/47958116.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUeyD8_o8cyaiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

[tularetom]

1. Well one would certainly hope so

For all the whining Coleman and his surrogates in the Republican senate delegation have been doing, it could go on for years.

And the Dems (including the senator-elect) seem awfully timid about pursuing the matter.

As of today 7.3% of Sen. Franken's term has elapsed and he has yet to set foot in the Senate chambers.

Nobody looks good here.

[Doctor_J]

2. I'm sure Norm has almost nothign to to with it at this point

the RNC is in control of the media and the courts. They are driving this and I predict (still) that Franken will never take a seat in the USS.

Frankly, the MN Dem voters should have rioted some time in December. When 2009 came and no one was complaining, the Repukes knew at that point that no one was ever going to make them obey the law. It's too late now to do anything

Hopefully the Dems learned something, and next year will refuse to concede ANY Senate race that's won by a Repuke. If it means we have a 58-33 majority, tough shit. Bullies do not respond to politeness and grace. They respond to punches in the teeth.

[IndianaGreen]

3. I agree with you that you don't appease bullies, which tends to embolden them

We should be kicking GOP ass. Franken should have been seated already. Piss on bipartisanship!