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As we watch the recount process unfold in Minnesota, bear this in mind: The persons screaming the loudest about "chaos" (which is apparently what would happen if all the votes were honestly counted, to judge from their squawking), and how icky everything about the recount supposedly is, and comparing the Minnesota recount to that of Florida in 2000, are the ones with the most invested in delegitimizing the results.
Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi has sussed this out from the get-go, noting both Norm Coleman's frantically sleazy campaign and even more frantically sleazy post-campaign aren't exactly helping him here -- not when that notorious weathervane Tim Pawlenty had to tell him off in public for being a dorkwad.
What's been rather amusing lately is how the quasi-apocalyptic predictions of Steven Smith, a political-science professor from Washington University in St. Louis, have been elevated almost into Holy Writ because for some reason Minnesota Public Radio tapped him for instant analysis, rather than going with any of the local political observers. Smith decided to take this statement by Harry Reid -- that the Minnesota state canvassing board's refusal to admit that it does have the authority to rule is "a cause for great concern" -- and turn it into an alleged willingness to have the Senate decide who gets to sit in Paul Wellstone's seat come January. What it looks like to me is that this is more of an effort by Reid to back up Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's trying to get the canvassing board to do its job. In any event, several counties are still counting and a handful haven't even started yet. This will take a while, but that's how recounts go.
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Interesting.
Oh, puh-leeze, Mr. Smith. The day Harry Reid does anything but dither, I will swoon!
I can’t imagine the Senate getting involved unless Minnesota completely gave up and recused itself, which seems extremely unlikely.
Digg it.
A few years ago a friend and I went to an Al Franken book sighing in Arlington. He said he had to cut it short because of a speech he had to give a speech in DC, but for those interested he would buy a round of drinks afterwards. About 20 of us went to the hotel he was speaking at and he did buy us all a round. I enjoyed talking to him and others for about an hour. However, when I brought up the overwhelming amount of evidence that Paul Wellstone was murdered he got angry. I can understand this because he was apparently close to Wellstone. He has since renounced anything being odd about 9/11 as and told me personally that he didn’t believe in election fraud. I understand there are sacrifices one has to make to become a mainstream politician, but although I think he’s a better man than Coleman and want him to win the recount, if he loses and there is chicanery I can’t help but feel he deserves it.
I wonder why the expensive suits and the mysterious money Coleman’s wife
madetook isn’t on the radar anymore…Really nice to see Chris Bowers on Hardball. Things are looking up!
Brad Freeman from Bradblog and Randi Rhodes have a lot to say about this. When Randi was reporting the 2004 election from Florida and seeing significant election irregularities both in FL and OH, it was Frankin that shut down any reporting of these issues on Air America.
The big problem with election irregularities and fraud is that they don’t use just one method but 10-15 methods spread across a state. So when someone tries to investigate and fight it, it looks like conspiracy wacko tin foil hat time vs say in county X they one thing and county Y they another…..
I happen to live in a district in AZ where the ballots were seized by the FBI in 2006 over a GOP primary…… funny how they are now trying to fight election crimes.
Are you saying that Franken shut down the reporting because AA would otherwise sound wacko?
Totally OT - If you’re hankering for a good chuckle, take the time to read Matt Taibbi’s piece in Rolling Stone:
How nice for this to come out as Gov. Palin is urging on the Ga Republicans in incomprehensible cheers and cadences.
Interesting. What are those counties waiting for? A better sense of how many votes separate a democrat from his seat in Congress?
As the wolf would have said to Riding Hood: “the better to count the remaining ballots with.”
katymine- Like the Washington Post reported today, they’re going to deploy troops on the streets of America. Franken, like most Democrats don’t hit hard enough. People don’t understand how serious this is. I agree with someone I heard on the radio who said many American’s won’t admit they were wrong until they’re sitting in a pile of their own S*it in a FEMA camp. Bush stole both eledtions, 9/11 was an inside job, there were no WMD in Iraq and the Secretary of Homeland Security, Attorney General and incoming White House chief of staff are dual citizens of Israel.
Sweet, indeed.
Each county sets its own schedule for recounting, within a deadline set by the state. Several counties started counting today, and several more will start on Wednesday.
The big story on the recount so far, almost the only story, is the noisy Coleman media campaign, which has convinced a fair number of Americans (mostly outside Minnesota) that the election is being stolen. The truth is that the Minnesota recount process is spelled out in detail and has been well organized and well executed so far. The only reason there’s any noise is that the election has been unbelievably close.
Digby has reported on how the Republicans can win a close election by putting pressure on the courts and other monitors. This is Coleman’s playbook. He’ll stink up the place until he wins.
If the election is undecidable and remains contested, the Senate will vote to seat one candidate or the other. The Democratic Senate should vote to seat Franken, the same way a Republican Senate would vote to seat Coleman. The Republicans will scream about that, but we should laugh at them.
Anyway, the big game now is the media game. The recount is mostly routine, and the legal challenges are for the judges, but Coleman is playing the media hard.