With Ritchie and Pawlenty refusing to sign a certificate of election for Franken’s win per the canvassing board’s official election results, Minnesota is left with one lonely Senator in Washington D.C. … am I the only one a bit perturbed by this? Where are the screams of taxation without representation people?
With the Obama administration about to take control of the reins, the American people are about to witness, by all accounts, a veritable tsunami of legislation attempting to tackle the escalating economic woes of our nation. And you better bet that there will be an equally sized tsunami of spending accompanying all that freshly inked law — spending of the likes this country has never before seen.
Now, debate if you will the merits of this impending wave of federal spending or the plans underlying them, but I think we can all agree on one thing: Minnesota should be part of the debate. And right now, our voice is halved. Halved at a time where our own state’s budgetary deficit has been reported to be around 15% of our entire budget and may in fact be closer to 20%… no matter how much fluff you think there is in our State’s budget, no one’s going to find $5.3 Billion (or more) without imposing some serious blood-letting.
So, try as we may to do the Minnesotan thing and take care of ourselves, there is no doubt that we, like so many states, are going to be deeply affected by the spending decisions made at the federal level. Billions of dollars of spending is going to be doled out one way or the other, and it is the duty of our Senators (and Representatives) to fight to make sure Minnesota gets it’s fair share. But instead we’re going into the legislative Superbowl of the century with only half an offense.
I think that seating Franken is the wise thing to do in these circumstances; after all, if Coleman’s challenge succeeds (God forbid), Franken will be recalled even if he’s seated. But, stepping back to reality, it’s apparent that that’s just not happening. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so I think the Governor should appoint an interim Senator until this is all sorted out (and who knows how long that will take). Ideally, it should be a bipartisan, or nonpartisan, candidate — a third party, if you will… Anyone know what Dean Barkley’s doing for the next couple months?
He does have experience with this whole interim Senator thing…
I just took my Franken sign down last week, but I think it was a mistake for him to request to be seated. Until that point he had the high ground of “let’s follow the Minnesota and Federal law and count all the valid votes as deemed by bi-partisan election officials.” This effort kind of skirts that. The world will not end if Minnesota only has one Senator for a month.
Yes, it sucks that Norm is a weasel who is out for himself in this whole thing at our expense, but we need to chill out on the seat him now stuff.
At the end of the “day”, Franken will be our Senator. We won. We got what we wanted and what the voters wanted. That should be enough.
Alec
The biggest problem with appopinting an interim Senator is that there is no legal authority to do so. The state law that authorizes the appointment of a Senator allows the appointment only to fill the unexpired term of a Senator. It says nothing about allowing an interim appointment for a few weeks until the winner of an election is certified. Temporary appointments serve until a suceesor is elected (not certified, elected), either at a special election or a regular election for a six-year term.
Dean Barkley was appointed to serve for what was left of Senator Wellstone’s term, as authorized by state law — his situation is no precedent
Randy, I think you’re dead on right. I’m going to run through this in a post later tonight or tomorrow.
Barkley wants to FREEZE all discretionary spending. He’ll be NO help getting the stimulus package passed. Also, he should not be rewarded for acting as a spoiler in this election….randy’s astute points aside.
So, I totally agree we MUST have two Senators. I thought that Burris should have been seated because Illinois deserved two voices, regardless of Blago’s problems. I feel much more strongly now that it is affecting me. I didn’t vote for Franken or Coleman. I guess at a minimum, perhaps they should allow Coleman to return to this office because he already has an established team there. However, I understand that this is as unfair to Franken as it would be to Coleman, were Franken seated for the interim. There’s gotta be a good constitutional argument for it, somewhere. Perhaps Minnesota should sue the Senate and ask for a TRO against all committee and floor votes. Let them go ahead and have meetings and work on drafting legislation, but the business of the Senate should not start until all States have equal representation.
It was foolish of Franken to seek a Certificate now. Does he have some legal argument? Sure, but he was properly slapped down by both Pawlenty and Ritchie and this action is perceived as overreaching and a sleazy lawyer trick. A public relations disaster - now he’s just down in the dirt with Norm.
Alec - well put. Amen.
…. so your advice to the Governor and Secretary, then, is to disregard the very laws that they are sworn to uphold? Unbelievable! No, wait, coming from a Dem, I guess it’s totally believable. -sigh-
There actually is precedent for seating Franken provisionally. In 1996, the initial results showed Mary Landrieu with a small lead for the Louisiana Senate race. The Senate agreed to seat her provisionally on the condition that she would give up the seat if the recount changed the result. The recount and associated legal action lasted more than a year.
That being said, I think Franken should just sit tight, and that he has given up some of the high road by going for this. No matter what the facts are, some people (and some Newspapers) are going to be convinced that this election was stolen and Franken’s attempting to be seated before things have been concluded just reinforces that.
As far as Barkley goes, would Minnesota be better off being represented by Barkley or to have no representation? I’ll take the vacant seat, thank you.
And on a related topic, as far as Coleman’s bitching about unfinished constituent service projects, the only reason that is a problem now is that his people assumed they would win and dragged their asses. If Coleman had lost decisively on election day, those projects would have had to have been done by now. If your issue didn’t get resolved, you have no one to blame but Norm Coleman.
“We got what we wanted and what the voters wanted. That should be enough. Alec”
Did we?
Well, we will have gotten what the voters wanted, at least a plurality plus some smallish number.
Franken doesn’t want to sit back and let Coleman unilaterally file all the SC petitions. If the SC has to consider x petitions from each side, Franken’s interests are best protected. In other words, Franken does not want to act like Al Gore in 2000.
This is how I’m viewing Franken’s actions.
Frankens action in asking to be seated is likely just a legal pre-requisite to other arguments of his case. I’m not a lawyer, but many things that appear at first glance to be trivial end up being very important later on when motions and objections are filed, and standing is determined.
I think Al did the right thing by asking to be seated. It was done in the open and in a respectful manner. He has a right to ask for what he thinks is right.
I think Franken should be seated now. We need representation in the Senate, and Colemans case sounds pretty empty. Lots of stimulus money will be allocated for state projects in the next few months, and we need two senators to advocate for our state.
Barkley should NOT be seated. I am so sick of the Independence Party spoilers I could spit. I’ve tried to get IP supporters to explain what they stand for and they cannot. They don’t stand for anything. “We are not those other guys!” is not a reason to vote for somebody. The only reason the IP keeps fielding candidates is because they get public money.
The IP gave us Pawlenty, Coleman and Bachmann. We need Instant Runoff Voting to give genuine, principled third parties a chance.
BobT…. don’t be an idiot; it doesn’t matter what YOU think SHOULD be done. We as Americans are under the rule of law, not under the rule of public opinion. The case can be made to change the law so this doesn’t happen again, but for now we must play the hand we are dealt. Kudos to the Guv and Secretary for understanding that and doing the jobs they are sworn to do; upholding the law!