From NYT: “The Minnesota Supreme Court has ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state’s long-running Senate race.”
Somebody call the Republican waahmbulance. What a bunch of sore losers.
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Reality-based commentary on politics.
liveandletlive says
no kidding aoout the sore loser thing.
dhammer says
It’s about time – now lets take our 60 votes and implement a real progressive agenda! Oh wait a minute, I forgot, it’s the US Senate… Let’s pass lukewarm legislation and let the lunatic fringe right derail the program and have the banks control the government.
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p>This is very exciting news, and I’m thrilled to have another progressive in the Senate, but I’m not sure it’ll make all that much difference, here’s hoping I’m wrong.
somervilletom says
This was a long time coming. I’m heartened that the entire Minnesota governmental establishment did the right thing, all along, just as I’m disgusted by Mr. Coleman’s selfishness (aided and abetted by the similarly disgusting GOP).
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p>I think it’s time for Ernie to publish a poll (he’s MUCH better at it than me) addressing the question of what, if anything, we should now do with or about Senators Lieberman and Specter.
joets says
Yeah okay, Bob. Like we didn’t hear for YEARS how George Bush didn’t win in 2000.
somervilletom says
Al Gore did the right thing and conceded. Norm Coleman did not.
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p>How much simpler does it get, Joe?
joets says
Norm Coleman conceded after the Supreme Court in his state ruled against him. Al Gore conceded after the SCOTUS ruled against him. However, I doubt that years from now we’ll be hearing about how that evil Al Franken STOLE the election.
mr-lynne says
… to do with the state processes and institutions having been allowed to play out in there own terms. The Florida process was interrupted and then overruled.
stomv says
nobody has brought up conflicts of interest with Coleman — a direct contrast with two SCOTUS members who’s direct family members had direct ties with the Bush campaign.
joets says
both concede following respective Supreme Courts ruling in favor of their opponent?
mr-lynne says
That’s the problem. Florida had a process for resolving the dispute and the US SC usual suspects all of a sudden forgot all about ‘state’s rights’ and federalism and violated the process. Minnesota’s SC was allowed to rule,… Florida’s was quashed.
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p>Equanimity sounds great as long as you want to ignore that there were quite stark differences in the way the two cases were handled.
joets says
and Norm Coleman did. Norm Coleman, after getting his fair treatment, lost and then conceded. Al Gore got the shaft, but still conceded after the SCOTUS ruled in favor of Bush. That about sum it up?
mr-lynne says
… it’s also important to understand that when the court ruled against Gore, they also did a disservice to the State government and State courts, ignoring federalism and usurping their purview to oversee state elections.
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p>Your statement works fine for me with regard to Gore and Coleman.
joets says
since he exhausted the options available to him in a super close election, and Al Gore regardless of whether or not was a sore loser, certainly was entitled to some sore losering.
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p>I would think that if the SCOTUS had not intervened, Al would have gone through just as much of the process as Norm.
david says
joets says
When he was a winner?
david says
He explained in that video how he thought a non-sore loser would behave. (“If you’re asking me what I would do? I would step back.”) He then behaved in precisely the opposite manner. It follows that he is a sore loser, by his own definition.
joets says
So why would he, the winner at this point, volunteer a loss without putting up the legal battle?
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p>If you’re the coach of a football team and you just won but the other coach is calling for a review of the last play, would you throw your hands up in the air and say “nope! don’t even bother, we’ll take the loss!”
mr-lynne says
… anyone begrudges him the recount. That, in and of itself certainly doesn’t make him a sore loser. It was when he went beyond those effort when this got ridiculous.
mr-lynne says
… was entitled to. Personally, I would have conceded a lot earlier. Near the end his filings were hail Mary passes that everyone knew were long shots.
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p>
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p>He was entitled to make an argument, but that doesn’t give him a pass on the ‘sore loser’ test just because he availed himself of it. It was clear to most everyone that he lost before he made the filing. He chose to drag it out arguably unnecessarily. The completed state election procedures made it clear that Coleman lost, where as they were not complete for Gore. When Coleman conceded, it was clear who won and who lost. Arguably it was clear before he even made his last filing. By contrast, when Gore conceded, who actually won wasn’t even clear.
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p>Thus, to the extent that you can say that the contest was dragged out more ‘unnecessarily’ by Coleman than Gore, Coleman can be said to be more of a ‘sore loser’ than Gore.
huh says
Franken, unlike Bush, has made it clear he understands that he doesn’t have a mandate.
joets says
As it should be.
david says
kate says
Check out Charley and Al and know that we were part of this.
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p>Tip of the hat to JohnT001 and his onoging efforts. He can finally change his sig line!
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p>Kate
charley-on-the-mta says
johnt001 says
Congrats to Al Franken and his entire campaign team – when I joined the “Secure Our Senate Majority” folks, 60 seats was just a dream – now it’s a reality!! Thanks, Kate, for connecting me with that organization!
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p>New sig line, coming up – and you can bet it will be related to my new business! I’m inches away from signing on the bottom line for a lease on some retail space in Northborough! I have a franchise from these folks:
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p>http://www.ggreendesign.com
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p>I’m hoping to be open for business by 8/1 – you’ll all be invited to the grand opening!
kbusch says
Given that the recount reversed a narrow lead, some Republicans might reasonably view the results skeptically. One would also expect that the Republican fringe would supply us with conspiracy theories. Sure enough, they have. Someone one claims to have found a box of discarded ballots off some road in Minnesota with enough votes to have elected Coleman.
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p>I think the measure of the Republicans is not how much they complain but how off-the-wall the conspiracy theories get and whether Representative Bachman will have company in talking them up.
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p>As an aside, it’s notable that the Republican officials have been awfully quiet about Rep. Bachman’s diatribes. Awfully quiet. To me, this suggests a continuing quasi-Stalinist approach to truth: it doesn’t matter whether it’s true; what matters is whether it helps the Party. (See yellow cake, aluminum tubes, most discussions of climate change, most discussions of the recession, the run up to Iraq war, and the execution of the Iraq occupation.)
shiltone says
…and doggone it, the Minnesota Supreme Court likes him.
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p>And to Bill O’Reilly: You can call him Senator Smalley now.
mr-lynne says
.. the MN SC didn’t like ineligible absentee ballots.