(It's tempting to fall back on "you lost, get over it." But as ericf notes, does that really get us anywhere? - promoted by Joe Bodell)
I've heard Franken speak enough about Wellstone's death to be sure that it was this that propelled him the get active beyond satire. In fact, not just Wellstone's death, but the lies the right told about the memorial service, which Franken wrote about in Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and talked about on his radio show, propelled Franken to run. If Republicans would just have acted like human beings, like Wellstone's opponent Rudy Boschwitz did, and recognize the political speech was just a grieving friend saying things he shouldn't have, and offered condolences instead of deceptive spin, Franken's win probably wouldn't have happened, because he probably wouldn't have run.
That's where the intensity of this race came from, the lies, the phony outrage, and the "he's dead, get over it" bumper stickers. Frankly, they motivated many DFLers to step up and try to fill part of our Wellstone-sized hole.
I'm not sure we realized how big a hole Wellstone would leave behind until it was there, and we discovered we couldn't just have Walter Mondale jump in to fill it. While we were mourning, Republicans brought out the meanness and used public misunderstandings to spread lies that lead to a political empty jacket defeating Mondale for the seat Wellstone looked likely to retain. We felt like the floor fell out from under us, but the Republicans handed us the motivation to rebuild, and do more than win the seat Wellstone had occupied.
Today I went to cover the Coleman concession speech. The gentleman came up to me and asked who I was videoing for. I said "The Uptake". Where upon, the person asked me to leave the private property to the sidewalk. Another Uptake reporter was also blocked. No other person was asked to leave that I observed. I even saw The Big E. So I went doorknocking. A neighbor let me video from the back yard. You can see my vantage point. I did not really have the equipment to zoom in close enough, but I didn't let anyone stop me from videoing what I could,
So it is really obvious that politicians do use access leverage to control the content of news.
Patience is wearing very thin. While the process was laid out in Minnesota law, basically everyone thinks the Supreme Court should rule. Not only should the Supreme Court rule, but the ruling should include a mandate that the election certificate be signed. Since every part of this process and the law has been under strong scrutiny, the ruling is obvious.
Various folks have said that Thursday is the favorite day for the Minnesota supreme court to rule.
Tonight, 30 people showed up for a revote rally on the capital steps, the same day as the MN Supreme court hearing. This collage of pictures show all that was happening. The next picture is my standard long distance shot.
As I was taking pictures, covering the event, a speaker started to tell a story about a Grace Kelly call. Where upon I turned around and said "Here I am!" There was a long pause. Then a change of topic. See my talent for discombobulating folks extends to all types!
Later, I had a long enjoyable discussion with Casey, the organizer. I took a long quote from Casey, which I am too tired to transcribe. Basically Casey and the revote crowd do not have enough trust in government or news reporting to believe that actually every possible avenue was explored in the courts quite transparently. So the deeper story here is trust. I think that these people do sense that they are being lied to. The difference is that they no longer check out the DFL or the other points of view. Having the only reporter type come from the opposite side of ideological side of the universe was a bit of a shock to them.
Due to technical difficulties, I was not able to hear the entire presentations before the Minnesota Supreme Court. What I did hear was really tough questioning. For example, one justice asked why did the Coleman team say there was widespread problems when the Coleman team did not even present evidence from a majority of the 87 counties on the subject? The answer of use extrapolation seemed very weak. While the Coleman case was asking for substantial compliance, the court still was pressing the statutory law requires mandatory compliance. One justice pointed out arguments that could have been made but were not made. There were more questions directed at Coleman's side, as well as the questions seemed tougher.
The greatest surprise was when Coleman's lawyer, Joe Friedburg, actually said, "There is no fraud in Minnesota!".
Apparently there is more big money than grassroots opposition to seating Senator Al Franken. The final Minnesota Supreme Court hearing will be Monday morning with live telecast by Uptake. The opposition rally is brought to you by same people who brought you "teabagging" and the tea bag parties, asking for a "revote". The problem is that they have three people signed up plus one, who might be able to come.
Update: The gentleman who is running this rally finally returned my call. He expects hundreds of people to come. He says than "fair" is more important than which candidate won. His list of evidence comes more from debunked accusations than in evidence presented in court. He claims even debunked accusations (ballots in trunk and shredding by SOS) will taint the process because some people will always believe the accusations, no matter how much court time was spent and how transparent the process was. The last part of the case is based on last Thursday's Minnesota Majority lawsuit that 400,000 voter records have not yet been updated across state. At a time, of cutting budgets and an extra recount process, election officials around the state are behind on paperwork. The group is asking for a revote, with the belief that that Barkley would not be on the ballot and that more Barkley votes will go for Coleman than Franken. Also, he did not know that Republican Governor Pawlenty had just vetoed a bill improving election administration process.
"There's still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner. (The Page)
It's been about a week since formerly Republican Arlen Specter defected to the Democratic Party. Senator Arlen Specter also promised to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act which allows workers, not employers, to choose how and when to form a union; enforces real penalties for employers who break the law; and ensures that those who've chosen a union can actually secure a contract.
So what does Specter think being a Democrat means? What do you think?
The simple Minnesota patience of Senator Franken has done more to ensure future fair elections than any other single act has done. By the Coleman case being so extremely poor, it establishes a new social standard that election results can be waited for.
It was the previously "we need the results right now" standard that allowed George Bush to become a President Bush when a full fair recount was never done in Florida. In Florida, many voters were not allowed to vote because they were taken off of voter rolls "accidentally" by an independent company. Add difficult ballots in Democratic areas and even voter intimidation. A friend who moved to Florida says that it is much worse than the media reports. Even she fears to go public with what she has seen. Similar problems exist in Ohio and other places.
Equal protection and application of law will benefit all Democratic candidates much more than Republican candidates.
Last night, Nick Coleman regaled the audience with both Norm Coleman and Tim Pawlenty stories, including juicy new tidbits, that had people laughing. Writing cannot do justice to perfectly timed sarcastic wit, but I will try to give you a flavor. Nick Coleman could honestly say that he was on the "cutting edge" of newspaper journalism. The whole embarrassment of a Republican National Convention raid yielding boxes of vegan pamphlets, could have been avoided by simply having any postal inspector exercise his or her right to open any US Postal box and examine the contents before the boxes were even delivered! Nick Coleman used to live near Norm Coleman, apparently he used to walk the dog by Norm Coleman's house - for as long as it takes! No one asked if Nick Coleman rides a bicycle or if he likes to buy eggs in large quantities.
I am predicting that the Republicans paying for Norm Coleman's legal defense will "guide" Norm Coleman to graciously conceding, when the Election Contest Court rules in the next week. And if that does not happen, then that is great news for Democrats. Here is why:
Norm Coleman is bad news for the image of the Republican party. The Nasser Kazeminy court trial has to move forward with the complete airing of the accusation that Norm Coleman's wife was paid without providing work for that pay. This is bound to lead to stories about how Norman Coleman does not live with his wife and frequently parties. This is also bound to lead to a re-examination of Norm Coleman close relationships with lobbyists including accepting free trips, low cost rent with frequently free utilities, gifts of clothes and frequent campaign contributors. With Norm Coleman as a national Republican hero, there could national traction on Norm Coleman/lobbyist connections! A Star Tribune teaser of stories to come:
The former finance chief of a Texas company controlled by Nasser Kazeminy, a close friend of former Sen. Norm Coleman, said in a deposition last week that Kazeminy ordered $100,000 in fees be paid to a Minneapolis insurance agency where Coleman's wife was employed....Two lawsuits were filed against Deep Marine -- one by McKim and one by a group of minority shareholders. In them, Kazeminy was accused of funneling payments to Hays to benefit the Colemans, as well as other alleged financial wrongdoing.
Live coverage and picture today come courtesy of the Uptake, with 2758 watching. The possible universe went from 400 to 387 because some votes were already counted. Then the court decided that 36 ballots were still not valid leaving 351. There was incredible quiet and tension in the room when these votes were counted for there were still enough votes to change the final election count. "Franken, Franken, Franken, Other, Coleman" was the tempo of the counting! In the final official count, Franken was ahead by 312!
You want your Senator seated, right! Then take action, contact the governor and the secretary of state!
SOS Elections Telephone : Metro Area 651-215-1440; Greater MN 1-877-600-VOTE (8683)
Email: secretary.state@state.mn.us
And then you might consider signing a petition or calling your favorite news media! Every bit of pressure helps.
Thomas J Marlowe celebrates this occasion by poem, reprinted with permission
Pawlenty ponders in St. Paul,
He wants this all to end.
He hopes a bullet to forfend,
To save his chance to rule us all,
To sign the paper to put Al in
Bow to the right and let Norm win
He searches for the proper spin.
The justices sit on the court,
They look to end the race.
The pleadings come and come apace,
Response will come both swift and short,
And find the rules were followed well,
That there's a snowball's chance in Hell,
And Norm Coleman has no case to sell.
Senator Al Franken! Senator Al Franken! Senator Al Franken! Senator Al Franken! Senator Al Franken! Senator Al Franken! Senator Al Franken!
Update: All the votes that can be legally counted are now counted. Many articles have quoted legal professors saying that Norm Coleman has no case. So really all that is left is the spin!
Spin from Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg:
"What happened today in the sphere of this election is really inconsequential. There's a much larger universe of ballots that should be opened."
Spin from Franken attorney Marc Elias said:
"The problem that Senator Coleman has is he lost fair and square. He lost because more people voted for Al Franken than voted for Norm Coleman. No amount of lawyering or sophisticated legal arguments is going to change that."
Newest Drinking Game: Drink whenever a Republican says "Friday the 13th".
Today 400 ballots are being delivered to the secretary of state for opening and possible counting. We are all wondering how those votes will break. I met a blogger from Texas, Tomtech who has been intensively tracking each ballot. Tomtech says:
The 400 count list has 85 envelopes unique to Coleman's list of 1359 absentee ballots, another 21 which were also on Franken's list, plus another 12 envelopes from earlier lists for a total of 118 envelopes.
This means that if the Coleman team did the proper research that there are possibly 118 known Coleman votes in those 400 votes. This does not make the Coleman team look good, because according to Tomtech's analysis there were 177 signature mismatches that were probably Coleman votes.
Coleman's 1359 still has 177 signature mismatches.
For those 177 votes to count, all the Coleman court team had to do was get the voters to say "that's my signature", "I didn't vote in any other way", and answer a number of simple questions showing that they were valid votes in every other way. Signature mismatches are the easiest votes to qualify because the voter testimony is considered the best evidence. So it really does not look like the Coleman court team got every vote that they could have gotten. I think this is a failure of Coleman court team to do a complete job. As the wonderful Rachel E. Stassen-Berger noted the court very much implied that Coleman team did not do a complete job:
"Although contestants (Coleman's team) were in possession of registration materials for voters in Wright County and Olmsted County, these materials were not offered to the Court....Exhibits containing absentee ballot envelopes and SVRS (state voter registration system) records for the City of Minnetonka were not offered by contestants were accordingly not received into evidence. Thus, although the court had other evidence including absentee ballot return envelopes and absentee ballot applications for individuals with in these counties, the court was precluded from ordering these absentee ballots of these individuals to be opened and counted."
The election contest court has ruled that 400 ballots will be opened on April 6April 7at noonat 9:30. Not all of them may be counted, there still may be challenges. The court has specifically said that they will be reviewing at least some ballots before counting. By my calculations, 400 ballots that means that the votes will have to favor Coleman by at least 79% to overcome a Franken 225 vote lead. I don't know if the Nauman petition votes are separate or in the 400 ballots. Since the names are listed, and many voters have said who they voted for, the campaigns probably already know who won. Even Coleman's lawyers have described this as an extreme long shot.
On the court rulings, the rulings supported the Franken case rather than the Coleman case. The Coleman legal case was a far reach, legally, so this was no surprise.
1) Complete compliance by individual ballot, not substantial compliance
On February 10,"individualized evidence" for each absentee ballot and would not order that an absentee ballot be opened and count "without sufficient evidence that the voter complied with all statutory requirements."
2) Absentee ballots are a privilege not a right, legislation can establish requirements
The Minnesota Supreme Court recognizes that "[t]he opportunity of an absentee voter to cast his vote at a public election by mail has the characteristics of a privilege rather than of a right. As such, "the legislature may mandate the conditions.
3) The burden of proof was on the Coleman side and the court allowed sufficient resources for this to happen.
The election contest is a civil action and the burden is on the party seeking relief to introduce evidence to the Court sufficient to meet its burden of proof. As in all civil trials, a part may not rely on presumptions to prove its case... The Court did not impose time limits on the length of election contest nor did limit either party's opportunity to call witnesses or introduce evidence.
4) Other relief denied.
6. Any other relief not specifically ordered herein is DENIED.
Wow, this court ruling looks clear to me. We will have a big day on Tuesday, where I expect that Al Franken will win by larger margin. It may be possible that Norm Coleman may be able to delay through a Minnesota Supreme Court appeal, which is definitely a delaying tactic rather than any real hope of a change in the results.
Today I went to cover the Coleman concession speech. The gentleman came up to me and asked who I was videoing for. I said "The Uptake". Where upon, the person asked me to leave the private property to the sidewalk. Another Uptake reporter was also blocked. No other person was asked to leave that I observed. I even saw The Big E. So I went doorknocking. A neighbor let me video from the back yard. You can see my vantage point. I did not really have the equipment to zoom in close enough, but I didn't let anyone stop me from videoing what I could,
Patience is wearing very thin. While the process was laid out in Minnesota law, basically everyone thinks the Supreme Court should rule. Not only should the Supreme Court rule, but the ruling should include a mandate that the election certificate be signed. Since every part of this process and the law has been under strong scrutiny, the ruling is obvious.
Tonight, 30 people showed up for a revote rally on the capital steps, the same day as the MN Supreme court hearing. This collage of pictures show all that was happening. The next picture is my standard long distance shot.
Later, I had a long enjoyable discussion with Casey, the organizer. I took a long quote from Casey, which I am too tired to transcribe. Basically Casey and the revote crowd do not have enough trust in government or news reporting to believe that actually every possible avenue was explored in the courts quite transparently. So the deeper story here is trust. I think that these people do sense that they are being lied to. The difference is that they no longer check out the DFL or the other points of view. Having the only reporter type come from the opposite side of ideological side of the universe was a bit of a shock to them.
Last night, Nick Coleman regaled the audience with both Norm Coleman and Tim Pawlenty stories, including juicy new tidbits, that had people laughing. Writing cannot do justice to perfectly timed sarcastic wit, but I will try to give you a flavor. Nick Coleman could honestly say that he was on the "cutting edge" of newspaper journalism. The whole embarrassment of a Republican National Convention raid yielding boxes of vegan pamphlets, could have been avoided by simply having any postal inspector exercise his or her right to open any US Postal box and examine the contents before the boxes were even delivered! Nick Coleman used to live near Norm Coleman, apparently he used to walk the dog by Norm Coleman's house - for as long as it takes! No one asked if Nick Coleman rides a bicycle or if he likes to buy eggs in large quantities.
