Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pulling for a power grab with both hands. He plans to circumvent the democratic and legal process by declaring Al Franken the winner despite that 2,000 votes are uncounted and a number of legal challenges are waiting to be hatched.
Sen. John Cornyn, the new chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, plainly stated that the Republicans are united and will fight any attempt by Reid or any majority party power grab that would sit Franken as the winner without official word from the Canvassing Board decision.
“I can assure you there will be no way that people on our side of the aisle would agree to seat any senator provisionally or otherwise unless there is a valid election certificate and all legal issues with regard to who got the most votes is finally decided,” Cornyn told reporters during a conference call Friday.
Believe that the Democrats have plenty of tricks up their sleeves.
Pending the counting of hundreds of unopened absentee ballots, Democrat Al Franken holds a 49-vote lead over incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, whose term expires at noon EST Saturday.
Minnesota’s other senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, has said the man with the most votes after the recount concludes should be seated while legal matters play out. Franken hasn’t discussed his intentions.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
Uh, someone explain this......
OlympicLeprechaun Saturday, January 3rd at 7:54AM EST (link)Coleman wins on Election Day
Coleman wins the first recount
Coleman wins the second recount
And on and on and on…..UNTIL
Hundreds of ballots magically show up, ALL for Franken
Franken thus pulls ahead
So its multiple recounts favoting Coleman, ONE for Franken
And Franken somehow claims victory? What the #$&%!
If this is allowed to occur, then we have officially joined the ranks of a Third World banana republic.
Apparently, Minnesotans are OK with it
smagar (Diary) Saturday, January 3rd at 11:06PM EST (link)The Coleman camp chose to participate in the process. Now, unless they can prove gross malfeasance pretty quickly (the Senate is sworn in on Monday), he
s in a huge PR bind.
From what I can tell, there’s no groundswell of outrage among Minnesotans over this. They seem OK with it.
Alright then…Franken will ride this wave of indifference into the Senate. Reid can claim that Franken has such a strong vote lead that no challenge is likely to unseat him…so, why not seat him?
States get to choose their Senators. Californians are OK with Barbara Boxer, so why are we surprised that Minnesotans would seat Al Franken?
“Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?” (Macaulay)
There's nothing Minnesotans can do about it
zuiko (Diary) Saturday, January 3rd at 11:22PM EST (link)The whole thing is up to the awful state courts. Even 4 of 5 of the canvassing board are state judges. They are totally unaccountable. They do run for reelection here, but in nonpartisan sham elections where nobody ever runs against them and the incumbents never lose in those rare cases when someone does anyway.
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. – Milton Friedman
Uh
Yil Saturday, January 3rd at 11:29PM EST (link)I don’t think you understand anything about how this recount was conducted. The FIRST recount was essentially finished up today and ended with Franken up 225 or so. The only reason Coleman appeared ahead until the end was because the contested ballots couldn’t be counted and Coleman had more challenged ballots than Franken. There were no “magically” appearing ballots at the end, just lots of rejections of Coleman challenged ballots that resulted in Franken votes finally being counted.
Given that Coleman’s campaign essentially agreed with every step in the recount he doesn’t have a good position to argue that it wasn’t conducted fairly. He does of course have a lawsuit or two still pending but they are unlikely to help at this point however they are decided given the +225 vote lead now.
A little here a little there?
DONTREADONME (Diary) Sunday, January 4th at 2:00AM EST (link)1st where did the +225 come from, seeing I am not from MN? 2nd Yil, you are a hard nut to crack, given your infrequent touch and go visiting of redstate I am finding it hard to imagine you are here with good intentions. Especially after veiwing your comments that you post infrequently. In addition, most of the time your information comes from a mysterious source which is only you and no link to the information you pass along. So forgive me, if I believe you are secretly calling for an Al Franken victory.
just wait until Franken finds out
David Hinz (Diary) Saturday, January 3rd at 9:09AM EST (link)that you are not allowed to use profanity on the floor of the Senate.
the man will be absolutely speechless.
The Minority Report — The HinzSight Report — TMRB.tv — MFOB “Miss Tagart, do you know the hallmark of the second-rater? It’s resentment of another man’s achievement.”
Let's not have another Louisiana...
Aakash Sunday, January 4th at 2:34AM EST (link)I’ve recently been thinking about what happened in Lousiana in 1996, with the Mary Landrieu/Woody Jenkins vote fraud controversy.
I hadn’t even remembered that Mary Landrieu was up for re-election this past fall, until election night, when I saw that she was in a tight race, against Republican John Kennedy.
If it wasn’t for the Obama coattail effect, and the situation with the Republicans & Democrats this year, “Senator” Landrieu might have been defeated. It certainly sucks that U.S. Senate terms are six years… If the founders had envisioned that they would be popularly elected in statewide races, they might not have made the terms that long.
What happened in Louisiana in 1996, and possibly in South Dakota in 2002, and in California and elsewhere, cannot be allowed to take place in Minnesota.
Do not let the Democrat steal other congressional seat!!