When Will Norm Coleman And Tim Pawlenty Allow Minnesota To Have The Same Representation In Washington As Every Other State?

No shame, no dignity, no sense of duty to Minnesota

After Norm Coleman was defeated by Al Franken in November he lost his Senate office and his right to vote, of course. The 3-way race was very close, Franken barely ahead (by 225 votes), 1,212,431 to Coleman's 1,212,206. The third party candidate had 437,404 votes (15%). As a point of reference, Minnesota voters picked Obama over McCain, 1,573,354 (54%) to 1,275,409 (44%). The 5 Democratic congressional incumbents won re-electon by huge margins-- between 63%-72%-- and 3 red seats were all competitive, Michele Bachmann hanging on with only 46%.

Since then, Coleman has suffered an uninterrupted series of setbacks as he has tried to overturn the election results through the courts. His strategy is basically to challenge every ballot that wasn't cast for him. His latest setback came today as the 3-judge court shot down his latest shenanigan for stealing the election.

In rebuffing Coleman, the panel noted that he and Franken had agreed three weeks ago to allow the secretary of state to redact information identifying 933 absentee ballots approved by the state Canvassing Board on Jan. 5. Both campaigns had accepted those ballots, but Coleman last week said about 100 are invalid under the panel's recent rulings.

The judges said the secretary of state had already begun the process of redacting the information, using a black marker to obliterate identifying numbers. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann said about half were redacted before he halted the process Friday when Coleman sought a temporary injunction.

Coleman argued that he would be irreparably harmed without the injunction because the panel would be unable to determine which ballot was illegally cast without the identifying marks.
"The court does not accept this argument," the panel wrote. It cited, in part, "the fundamental right to secrecy of a voter's ballot"

Coleman is suing Franken for beating him. And he's being cheered on by Obstructionist Republicans in Washington who know full well that Franken won and will eventually be seated; they just don't want him voting for Obama's programs for as long as this can be drawn out. That's almost understandable from the perspective of neo-Confederate fanatics and extremists like Jim DeMint, David Diapers Vitter, John Cornyn, Tom Coburn, Richard Burr, Jim Bunning and that lot. But Tim Pawlenty? He's in cahoots with a bad bunch who couldn't care less if Minnesota has representation in the Senate or not. Pawlenty should know better. In fact, national Republicans have agreed to fund an appeal process that could prevent Franken-- if Pawlenty participates in the plot-- from taking his seat for years! As Joe Sudbay pointed out at AmericaBlog Monday, Coleman can't win; all he can do is drag his feet and keep Franken from being seated. And he can do that for as long as Pawlenty puts his party before his state and before his country. I thought the Republican Party opposed frivolous lawsuits? It's a shame no one starts a recall petition against Pawlenty.