The Republicans may be celebrating, but in the background they are gnashing at the teeth. For anyone to believe that the Republicans want this stimulus package to be successful, you need to switch what you are smoking. I really wanted Franken to be seated before this bill had to go through the swinging doors, it would have been easier for Obama and maybe some things may not have been stripped down as it was. Franken is the 59th senator for the Democrats, one from filibuster.
Republicans want Norm Coleman to string it out as long as possible, but things may be wrapping up sooner in the state of 10,000 lakes.
The judges in Minnesota's U.S. Senate trial said in a preliminary ruling Friday that Republican Norm Coleman has not yet shown a widespread problem with absentee voters being denied the right to vote.
The three-judge panel ordered that rejected absentee ballots from 12 of 19 categories should not be counted in the Senate race. Coleman, who is trying to undo Democrat Al Franken's 225-vote lead, had wanted to count ballots in all but three of the categories.
Sure the Republicans stood together, but the moderate section of the group defected to work with the Democrats. Yes, gnashing of the Republicans teeth. And to imagine that Norm Coleman could lose to a comedian and had already lost to a tv wrestler when he was running for governor may be too much for him to take.
Having just seen what President Barack Obama can do with 58 Democrats in the Senate, Republicans are more determined than ever to keep him from getting a 59th.
Especially if the 59th is Al Franken.
Franken, the former comedian, leads Republican Norm Coleman by 225 votes in a “Groundhog Day” of an election that dawned more than three months ago and shows no signs of ending soon.
Which is exactly how Senate Republicans want it. The National Republican Senatorial Committee held a ritzy fundraiser for Coleman in Washington this week, helping him raise the money he needs to keep his legal challenges alive through a trial and then a lengthy legal process if he loses.
Again, the Republicans don't care, nor give a damn, at least most of them. And as it continues, Amy Klobuchar is the only senator representing Minnesota.
Democrat Amy Klobuchar also is eager for it to end. Being the lone Minnesota has been a “challenge,” she told Politico, saying her home-state office has been flooded with phone calls and said her staff has seen its casework double in size.
“Every day I say it will be resolved in a month — then the day changes and I say the same thing,” Klobuchar said.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Rules and Administration Committee that would oversee a dispute in the Minnesota Senate race, expressed confidence that Franken would win the case within a month.
“I would doubt anything is going to change,” Schumer said. “I’d say the odds are very, very, very high that Franken is the winner.”
In the end, it does not look like Coleman has been able to make any ground in turning the numbers around, though his Republican colleagues in the senate have been raising money for the continuing defense. Sometimes it is just better to take the high ground, for the good, in the end you look better. Get that message, Norm?
Home Page
Share
