Althouse: Franken...

April 13, 2009

Franken...

... wins.

69 comments:

Peter V. Bella said...: Oh my! What will Harry Reid do? Another comedian being allowed in the Senate? I thought only Harry Reid and Roland Burris were the only two clowns allowed.; 4/13/09, 9:56 PM
KCFleming said...: If you look hard enough, you can find sufficient votes.

Another ACORN victory.; 4/13/09, 10:07 PM
garage mahal said...: Again?; 4/13/09, 10:09 PM
AlphaLiberal said...: All the votes have been counted and, this time, recounted.

It's time for Norm Coleman to get out of the way and let Senator-Elect Franken be seated.

But, no, the hypocritical Republicans will argue the opposite of what they did in 2000 and deley delay delay to keep another Dem vote from being seated.

It's a real slap in the face to Minnesota.; 4/13/09, 10:14 PM
KCFleming said...: Go ahead and seat him.

ACORN runs the nation, and selects the candidates.

Just seat all the goddamned socialists and get it over with.

Immanentize the eschaton.; 4/13/09, 10:19 PM
Eli Blake said...: This however will put Tim Pawlenty on the hot seat.

He will now be asked to sign the papers certifying Franken the winner.

If he signs then he risks alienating some of the hard-core Republican base who would rather see years of appeals than another Democrat in the Senate. And if he plans to run for President in 2012 then he can't afford to be known in the GOP primaries as the guy who sent Al Franken to the Senate.

If he doesn't sign then he risks alienating a lot of Minnesota voters (even Republican voters) who have reached the conclusion a long time ago that Franken is the winner and don't want to see this go on forever and forever. And if he wants to run for President then a loss in his gubernatorial re-election bid next year would be toxic.

So this is likely to present Tim Pawlenty with the classic lose-lose dilemma.; 4/13/09, 10:20 PM
Revenant said...: It has been clear for a long time that Franken would eventually win. I'm glad the Republicans dragged it through the courts -- can't let the Democrats be the only folks to do that, after all -- but the outcome wasn't in much doubt.

One positive outcome of this is that it will make it hard for Democrats to keep a straight face when mocking Rush Limbaugh's influence in the party. One cannot credibly whine that talk radio has too much influence while celebrating the election of a talk radio host to the US Senate. :); 4/13/09, 10:20 PM
AlphaLiberal said...: Let's hear it from Senator-Elect Franken:

"It has been more than five months since Election Day, and more than three months since the winner of this election was supposed to be sworn in to go to work for the people of Minnesota. This long delay in the seating of Minnesota's second U.S. Senator has come at a time when our state badly needs help from Washington."; 4/13/09, 10:21 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: ACORN runs the nation, and selects the candidates.Wait until they get the billions Obama promised them. Then they will be a real force to be reckoned with. Now the criminals will be in power. Oh, wait, the criminals are in power; Democrats.; 4/13/09, 10:23 PM
garage mahal said...: ACORN has gone from a virtually unknown commodity a year ago to running the free world. Talk about breaking onto the scene.; 4/13/09, 10:23 PM
Michael Haz said...: Between Franken in Minnesota and Gov. Granholm in Michigan, it is increasing accurate to say that it's always windy in Wisconsin because Minnesota blows and Michigan sucks.; 4/13/09, 10:24 PM
Revenant said...: So this is likely to present Tim Pawlenty with the classic lose-lose dilemma.That assumes that Republicans at the national level will blame him for Franken's presence in the Senate. There's no reason to expect that they will.; 4/13/09, 10:25 PM
Revenant said...: ACORN has gone from a virtually unknown commodity a year ago.

While I'm willing to believe that you were ignorant of their existence until a year ago, their role as electoral fraudsters was widely discussed in the blogosphere before and during the 2006 election.; 4/13/09, 10:30 PM
Anonymous said...: The governor of Minnesota is probably obligated to sign. I can't imagine there's a lot of choice involved. We are, after all, a nation of laws, not men.

But, Eli, since you've never really understood the basic tenets of democracy, I guess it's only natural that you would make the assessment you did. A good try, really, given your limitations.; 4/13/09, 10:33 PM
Roadkill said...: As a native Minnesotan, I must say that I have had no problem with the recounts and legal challenges stemming from the Coleman-Franken election.

Over the past three months, the US Senate delegation from Minnesota has done only half the damage it might have done had a clear winner been declared last November.; 4/13/09, 10:34 PM
cryptical said...: Once again the Democrats don't want to count all the votes. 4800 voters disenfranchised...

Well, if it gets to the Federal level Bush v Gore will come into play again. It's not equal protection if you just count the votes from the Democrat precincts.; 4/13/09, 10:38 PM
chuckR said...: Jesse Ventura.

Al Franken.

What the hell are they putting in the lutefisk?; 4/13/09, 10:40 PM
Anonymous said...: Another noble statesman takes his vaunted place within the greatest deliberative body in the world.

Well, actually, a comedian takes his place among the biggest bunch of jokers this nation’s ever assembled.

How fitting. Orwellian in its meaning. They deserve each other in every respect.; 4/13/09, 10:43 PM
AlphaLiberal said...: The Coleman string of lawsuits really demonstrates that modern Republicans don't give a rat's ass about respecting the democratic process.; 4/13/09, 10:44 PM
Anonymous said...: The Gore string of lawsuits really demonstrates that modern Democrats don't give a rat's ass about respecting the democratic process.; 4/13/09, 10:45 PM
Bob said...: Well, let's see if the useless bastard can keep the job. He only won because of a 3rd party spoiler, perhaps six years from now there won't be a spoiler to siphon off votes; and perhaps people will be ready for a change after six years of Franken's brand of hostile partisanship.; 4/13/09, 10:48 PM
Zachary Sire said...: Hey, maybe there should be a teabagging party to protest Al Franken!; 4/13/09, 10:50 PM
Wince said...: First, isn't it strange that the margin of victory is never specified? Did they count the votes or didn't they?

Second, I've never heard a lower court ruling described as "telling" higher courts that an appellant has no case. Can anyone think of an example in the entire history of American jurisprudence?

Certification of Franken will almost certainly be delayed or derailed by an appeal that Coleman has vowed to file in the Minnesota Supreme Court.

But experts who read the panel's 68-page ruling say it effectively attacks some of the very arguments that Coleman would use on appeal.

University of Minnesota political science Prof. Lawrence Jacobs called the ruling "a judicial slapdown."

The panel, Jacobs said, is telling appellate courts down the road that Coleman doesn't have a case.

"This is judicial speak for 'nothing here,' and it is most definitely aimed at the appeals process. It's a signal that they are supremely unimpressed by the Coleman case."; 4/13/09, 10:50 PM
Anonymous said...: Wherein Zach demonstrates that he completely misunderstands what the Tea Party protests are, or are about.

I don't think this is because you are stupid, Zach. I think it's because you are lazy and your worldview is juvenile.; 4/13/09, 10:54 PM
DaLawGiver said...: Hey, maybe there should be a teabagging party to protest Al Franken!Great idea, I'd pay good money to see you and some of your buddies teabag Franken!; 4/13/09, 10:55 PM
Eli Blake said...: Let's not forget that the only reason why Norm Coleman got into the Senate in the first place (recalling that he was down six points to Wellstone in polls a week prior to the 2002 election) was because

1. Wellstone's plane crashed,

2. The Minnesota Democrats stupidly assumed that a black candidate couldn't win and passed over Alan Page to choose a warmed over Fritz Mondale as a replacement candidate,

and 3. The Minnesota Democrats overreached and turned the funeral into a political rally at the wrong time and place.

So Coleman had six years in the Senate because of one stroke of bad luck and two stupid decisions by the Minnesota Democratic Party.

Now things are back to where they should be.; 4/13/09, 10:56 PM
Anonymous said...: But Eli, what about the governor signing the document he in all likelihood is required by law to sign?

Don't tell me you are just going to drop that argument simply because it is absurd and ridiculous. Come on, man. Tell us more.; 4/13/09, 10:57 PM
Big Mike said...: What's one more clown among 100?; 4/13/09, 10:58 PM
Invisible Man said...: ACORN has gone from a virtually unknown commodity a year ago to running the free world. Talk about breaking onto the scene.I was more frightened of its first iteration as S.P.E.C.T.R.E..; 4/13/09, 10:58 PM
Eli Blake said...: Coleman also has to consider his own political future.

Remember that Dino Rossi dragged it through the courts until most voters in Washington (who unlike most of us who post on this blog are not all that fixated on politics) were sick of him.

So when he ran four years later in a rematch they handed Gregoire a big win, no recount necessary.; 4/13/09, 10:58 PM
Eli Blake said...: Seven Machos:

He may sign it, but I guarantee you when he does he will be trashed as a traitor by the hard core 'drag it out forever' crowd on the right.

Don't forget that just last week Senator Cornyn (R-TX) suggested that he plans to bog the whole thing down in a lengthy sequence of federal appeals that will take 'years.'

Likely six years, to be exact.; 4/13/09, 11:00 PM
Anonymous said...: My sense of these comments is that leftists came in just certain that conservatives were going to be all aflame about this outcome. After all, you must figure, you would be flagellating yourselves and making outrageous and threatening statement and otherwise whipping yourselves into a boiling froth.

But, really, we don't care so much.

And that must grate on you. Because, after all, resentiment is your only real philosophical currency.; 4/13/09, 11:03 PM
Eli Blake said...: Invisible Man:

Ironically, doctrinaire conservatives are afraid of Specter in the Senate too.; 4/13/09, 11:11 PM
Anonymous said...: What's ironic about that, Eli?; 4/13/09, 11:13 PM
Eli Blake said...: I guess your sense of irony has been demagnetized.

I was comparing I.M.'s comment in which he invoked S.P.E.C.T.R.E. to Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA, one of the Republican moderates who always drives conservatives up the wall.

It's getting late, good night.; 4/13/09, 11:19 PM
Anonymous said...: But that's not ironic.; 4/13/09, 11:20 PM
rcocean said...: Minnesota the home of 2 Vice-Presidents, Eugene McCarthy and Charles Lindberg is now officially a state of clowns, Don't ya know.

Pauley Shore for Governor!; 4/13/09, 11:20 PM
Unknown said...: I'm cool with Pawlenty signing the order. I mean, Franken is going to make Harry Reid look positively uncharismatic; I'm not looking forward to that. But hey, that's the breaks. It is so incredibly weird, though, that we've had so many of these super-tight elections.; 4/13/09, 11:52 PM
Patm said...: Senator Al Franken. That's all you need to know about the state of American Governance.

A clown and a putz and an aggressively dishonest player.

America is really over. Senator Al Franken is its taps.; 4/13/09, 11:56 PM
traditionalguy said...: The sad part is not that Franken is a Dem, but that the United States Senate has lost so much prestige. Evan if Franken was a Repub, this would be a dark day. Franken is a clown.; 4/13/09, 11:58 PM
Diamondhead said...: "Another noble statesman takes his vaunted place within the greatest deliberative body in the world."

Can we retire that term now? Well, come to think of it, the only people I ever seem to hear describing the Senate that way (with a straight face) are Senators. I guess one more buffoon - even if he IS the greatest buffoon to ever achieve the office of Senator (and he is) - won't lower the average too much.; 4/14/09, 12:03 AM
JSF said...: The "workhorses" in the Senate are known for crossing Party lines for getting things done.

Is there any proof that Al Franken can?

And does any Democrat doubt that the GOP read the books he wrote insulting them?

And a good time will be had by all!; 4/14/09, 12:14 AM
Mr. Forward said...: I welcome the new face of the Democrat Party. Especially the large red rubber nose.; 4/14/09, 12:22 AM
Daryl said...: Count every vote . . . twice, if it's in a group of ballots thought to favor Dems; 4/14/09, 12:35 AM
Eric said...: I'm actually looking forward to having in office yet another wealthy Democrat we can point to who cheats on his own taxes but wants the rest of us to pay more. If once is happenstance, and twice is coincidence, what is, like, the twenty fifth time?; 4/14/09, 12:36 AM
Zachary Sire said...: Wherein Zach demonstrates that he completely misunderstands what the Tea Party protests are, or are about.Ha. Yeah, because the teabagging parties are really "about" something.; 4/14/09, 1:25 AM
Revenant said...: Yeah, because the teabagging parties are really "about" something..

Well yes, they are.; 4/14/09, 1:43 AM
Anonymous said...: Zach -- Of course they are about something. They are about limiting government and ending deficit spending.

It's the same animating principle that brought about Ross Perot, which gave rise to 1994. So have fun making fun of it. Certainly, you may as well get your jollies in now while 2010 seems so far away.; 4/14/09, 2:10 AM
Emily Carson said...: ending deficit spendingHmmm.... we HAD that not so many years ago.

Oh, wait a second. That was when we had divided government. Clinton wouldn't let the GOP cut taxes and the Congress wouldn't authorize any new spending.

Since then we've had all Republicans and then all Democrats, and look where we are now.

Since we can't get rid of Obama until 2012 the best path to fixing this is to vote Republican until at least one chamber of Congress flips.; 4/14/09, 2:33 AM
rhhardin said...: Close elections going to the most corrupt party isn't actually a problem for democracy. It just means that you need 53% to toss the rascals out instead of 50%.

That's not a big deal. At 50%, after all, it just means that democracy doesn't care at all which way the electioon goes.

Even at 53% it doesn't care a whole lot which way it goes.; 4/14/09, 5:14 AM
Moose said...: I dunno - its about time.

They havent had a clown in office in Minnesota since Ventura, and I kinda miss that.

I think Al (think Katie Segal, folks) suits Minnesota just fine...; 4/14/09, 5:19 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Couldn't happen to a better state.

My condolences to any conservatives living there.; 4/14/09, 5:26 AM
Unknown said...: After all these years, Franken might be finally worth laughing at. Pass the popcorn.; 4/14/09, 6:26 AM
KCFleming said...: I'm from Minnesota, and I say to hell with Minnesota.

Like most intelligent adults, I'll move on retirement to a low tax state (hi SoDak!), and say goodbye to the ACORN-vote-stealing, teachers-union-bullying, nonsmoking-everywhere-unless-it's-pot, no-transfat-but-yes-transgender, business-killing, above average when it comes to meddling in your private lives fascist nanny-staters.

Come to Minnesota, where we'll tell you what you're allowed to eat and drive!
Coming soon: Uniforms!But I'm eyeing Australia and Ireland.; 4/14/09, 6:30 AM
MadisonMan said...: I will say this about Senator Franken: Expectations are low. I don't think he can go anywhere but up.; 4/14/09, 7:33 AM
AllenS said...: I'm not sure how to look it up, but when the recount was noted on this blog, I said something to the effect, that Coleman should give it up immediately. There was no way that Franken was going to lose. Enough votes were going to be found.; 4/14/09, 7:37 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: I never realized that the Comedy Hall of Fame was the US Senate. Learn something new everyday.; 4/14/09, 8:40 AM
Justin said...: EDH said...

Second, I've never heard a lower court ruling described as "telling" higher courts that an appellant has no case. Can anyone think of an example in the entire history of American jurisprudence?Lower courts do this all the time. Sometimes, it's a way of rebuking a litigant for wasting their time with a frivolous lawsuit - cutting them off at the pass, so to speak. One can argue, of course, that Coleman's lawsuit was not frivolous, but these judges (who, if I'm not mistaken, are elected) apparently viewed it that way.; 4/14/09, 8:45 AM
Wince said...: Don't you rebuke a litigant, you know, by rebuking the litigant?

I'd still like to see the example of a lower court "telling" a higher court on what it should do.; 4/14/09, 8:54 AM
Diamondhead said...: "I never realized that the Comedy Hall of Fame was the US Senate."

If it was, Franken sure as hell wouldn't be there.; 4/14/09, 9:00 AM
Frodo Potter said...: I agree with what Emily Carson said at 2:33 a.m.; 4/14/09, 10:23 AM
Justin said...: I'd still like to see the example of a lower court "telling" a higher court on what it should do.It isn't exactly "telling"; more like suggesting. A recent example is the affirmative action case that the Supreme Court will hear next month: the dissenting justices in the Court of Appeals took the unusual step of declaring the case worthy of Supreme Court review, suggesting to SCOTUS that it should grant cert. Usually, the Courts of Appeals express no views on that subject, because it really isn't any of their business.; 4/14/09, 10:44 AM
Justin said...: I don't mean to suggest that pontificating on the merits of an appeal (or cert petition) is appropriate: it isn't. But it's not altogether out of the ordinary, and I think (from a legal realist perspective) that when trial judges have strong views about a case one way or another (as in Coleman's case, which they apparently viewed as without merit), they sometimes feel that the losing party should be shouldered with a little extra baggage at the appellate level.; 4/14/09, 10:48 AM
Matt said...: Expect Coleman to keep fighting the dishonorable fight. BTW I see some people saying this is an ACORN victory. Is there some proof out there that shows false names were registered and then those false names actually voted? Just curious. Cause I think it's a sour grapes argument.; 4/14/09, 11:45 AM
hdhouse said...: Soooo let's get a sense of this. Two guys campaign like crazy all over the state for what seems like a full year, the voters vote, its close, the republicans loose, not by much, but they do loose and now Franken isn't worthy.

Whey you fools say that what you are really saying is that the majority of Minnesotans are idiots and jerks with no minds...so your quarrel isn't with Franken, it is with the Minnesota voters...right?

So we can reduce some of your arguments to "anyone who doesn't vote the way you think they should is a fool"...doesn't that about sum it up?; 4/14/09, 12:56 PM
hdhouse said...: Peter V. Bella said...
"I thought only Harry Reid and Roland Burris were the only two clowns allowed."

ohhh Peter, as long as you are around there will always be that extra, odd clown.; 4/14/09, 12:57 PM
Diamondhead said...: "what you are really saying is that the majority of Minnesotans are idiots and jerks with no minds...so your quarrel isn't with Franken, it is with the Minnesota voters...right?"

Yeah, "Minnesota voters" are idiots and jerks by a margin of about 200.; 4/14/09, 1:53 PM
Sofa King said...: Whey you fools say that what you are really saying is that the majority of Minnesotans are idiots and jerks with no minds...Whey you say!

This is hardly news if you live in Wisconsin.; 4/14/09, 4:24 PM
Revenant said...: Whey you fools say that what you are really saying is that the majority of Minnesotans are idiots and jerks with no mindsLet's just say I can't think of many reasons why an intelligent person would want to live there. :); 4/14/09, 5:56 PM