Friday, June 12, 2009

Minnesota Senate Race

by Dick Mac

In their desperation, the GOP has invested millions trying to retain Norm Coleman's Minnesota Senate seat in the same manner that George Bush won the 2000 Presidency: have the Courts appoint you.

I think the GOP rightfully believes that if they can get their court battle between Coleman and Al Franken, the winner of the election, all the way to the Supreme Court, Coleman will be appointed Senator. I sincerely believe that the right-wing justices would easily deliver a Kafka-esque ruling giving the seat to their friends in the GOP.

Hopefully, the lower courts will successfully stymie that plan, and it the end is in sight; but, maybe not.

On Wednesday, a Ramsey County court administrator entered a judgment that Coleman must pay Franken $94,783 to cover court costs for the ongoing attempt to overturn the election results. Coleman's attorneys, of course, have filed another appeal of the result of the two-month trial that ended with Coleman losing to Franken by 312 votes.

Life does truly imitate art. Coleman looks like a clown. It is Franken, though, who has been a professional comedian, bringing a clown-like character to life with his creation of recovery-cripple Stuart Smalley. Franken's image now is that of a very smart, hard-working intellectual, whose desire to bring sanity back to our crippled nation cuts a stately figure next to the whiny, petty Coleman.

Coleman has the coffers of the GOP to keep this ridiculous court battle going, but I would like to think he has some family member or close friend who could encourage him to go home, lick his wounds, and plan his next dreadful attack against America and sensibility.

Sadly, we will await the decision of the Minnesota Supreme Court and hope that they, too, have had enough of this tedium and let Franken get to work in Washington.

Minn. court orders Coleman to pay $95K to Franken

In Minnesota, a Battle Without End for a Senate Seat

1 comment:

Al Falafal said...

Franken will eventually prevail. He really is a bright guy and will make a great Senator. When he first announced he would challenge Coleman it occurred to me that it should be a mandatory prerequisite for anyone who wants to stand for election to first find success as a stand up comedian. This would weed out all the sourpuss right wing conservatives who couldn't be funny if their lives depended on it. The only jokes they know are lame, offensive, racist, sexist, homophobic and ignorant. How many conservative comics are there? None really. The egoist Dennis Miller only thinks he is cool spouting all his pseudo-intellectual references that people only laugh at because they think they'll appear stupid for not getting his alleged jokes. Fatuous jerk. Al Franken's routines were often just based on silliness but I think he is well aware of that. A neocon can't bring him/herself to just be silly since it's their real gig to try to pull the wool over our eyes for real. And that just gets too confusing for them. Anyone up for a little tea bagging?