MINNESOTA SENATE DEBACLE GOES ON

Norm Coleman received a blunt rejection from the judicial panel set up to here his contest of the election recount. Where to now?
by Charlie Leck

Following the recount, following the election, Norman Coleman, as is his legal right, contested the recount results. A special judicial panel was set up by the State Supreme Court to hear Coleman’s objections.

Following the recount, Coleman trailed by about 125 votes. Follow the special panel’s look at the votes Coleman wanted added to the tally, the former Senator trailed by more than 300 votes. Now he will take his case to the State Supreme Court and argue that even more votes should have been counted.

And, Minnesota goes on and on without one of its Senate seats filled.

I am going to opine here that Norm Coleman has seriously – and perhaps fatally – hurt his chances for ever again running for political office here in Minnesota; however, I first want to tell you that the best place to follow this saga about the MINNESOTA RECOUNT is in our alternative, on-line news source, MinnPost. There, Eric Black (EricBlackInk) and other reporters have done a much better job than our local newspaper in presenting the facts, keeping them up-to-date and in analyzing what’s going on with this entire debacle. If you follow Minnesota news, you should know about MinnPost.

Here’s a summary of the decision presented by Jay Weiner, one of the MinnPost reporters.

“The judges, with definitive and deliberate language, said Coleman, who has been a U.S. senator for six years, didn’t come close to proving that, among other things: thousands of Minnesotans who cast absentee ballots were disenfranchised, that some ballots were counted twice or that the “equal protection” rights of Minnesota voters were violated.

Unanimous rulings all go against Coleman
Indeed, the judges listed 157 different “findings of fact,” and nary a one seemed to be
in Coleman’s favor.”

Talk About a Close Race – A Photo Finish at the Wire
According to the judicial panel, Franken won by 329 votes out of 2.5 million votes cast. Wow!
1,212,629 for Franken
1,212,317 for Coleman

COLEMAN IS FINISHED IN MINNESOTA
I don’t think Norm Coleman could get elected dog-catcher after this awful performance. He’s dragged this recount out way beyond the necessary point. Minnesotans will remember this if they are ever called on to vote for Coleman again. Only the die-hard right wingers will rally behind him. With rational, thinking folks, he’s done!

Norm has expressed strong interest in running for Governor. I think he can now forget that idea. Norm, take a job in a consulting firm and get on with your life. You have plenty of political cronies who are willing to set you up.

Norm will again find happiness in hanging out at Galivan’s Bar and toying with all the ladies who stop in there, looking to be toyed with.