Tag Archive for 'Al Franken'

If you’re following Norm Coleman’s contest of Al Franken’s victory this morning, Rachel Stassen-Berger has a good overview, Mike McIntee has a video, and Eric Black has a couple things to listen for. MPR has a link roundup. I’ll be there this morning (Twitter) as well as The UpTake with live video.

Cross-posted on Aaron’s Hotlinks

Still working my way through the court’s final order, but something caught my eye.  On page 27 of the opinion, the court makes the following order:

Pursuant to Minn. Statute 209.07, subd. 3, consts of the contest must be paid by Contestants, and Contestee and the Court shall prove up the applicable costsby affidavit after all proceedings in this matter are concluded;

If I am reading this correctly, Coleman has been ordered to pay for the entire cost of the contest.  This was not completely unexpected, but its still significant.  Some have speculated that the huge cost of the contest could weigh on Coleman’s decision whether to pursue his appeals into federal court.  I don’t know if cost is a factor for Coleman (and I’m sure a lot of national Republicans are promising Coleman all the fundraising help in the world), but judging from the fact that Franken Campaign Manager Stephanie Schriock said that the cost of the recount has so far been “double” their estimates, this is a very significant ruling.

UPDATE: There is some confusion right now as to how much Coleman is going to have to pay.  Some think that Coleman will only have to pay a limited ammount as a result of the order in paragraph 3 and not all of Franken’s costs (including items like attorney’s fees).  Franken was asked about this at his press conference and said it was his understanding that Coleman would not be paying his legal fees for the entire contest.  Other sources I have spoken to tonight are less certain on this point and some are convinced that Coleman will have to pay.  There is no doubt, however, that Coleman will have to pay some of Franken’s expenses and also some of the court’s expenses.  We’ll have to wait to see how much.

A video just showed up in my feed that shares my feelings over the last couple months:

The Albert Lea Tribune endorsed Norm Coleman for re-election, but now they think he should concede:

Coleman is now only delaying the seating of Franken and in doing so is not servicing his staff, his financial contributors or the people of Minnesota.

For a time many Minnesotans followed the case closely, but now, after five months, they mainly see stalling. As for the rest of the country, at first, Americans thought Minnesota looked like a diligent place for vote recounts. Now, it’s starting to seem like an election laughingstock.

And Coleman, who rails against career politicians, is looking like a career politician who is losing his career.

A good politician knows when he is looking bad and making his state look bad.

Pretty powerful stuff.

Minnesota has now passed our record for the longest time with only one sitting Senator, but if national Republicans get their way, we may not have representation for years:

Texas Sen. John Cornyn is threatening “World War III” if Democrats try to seat Al Franken in the Senate before Norm Coleman can pursue his case through the federal courts.

Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, acknowledges that a federal challenge to November’s elections could take “years” to resolve. But he’s adamant that Coleman deserves that chance — even if it means Minnesota is short a senator for the duration.

I have been very supportive of letting this entire process play out in the interest of transparency, but enough is enough. Once a candidate is determined to be the winner by Minnesota courts, Minnesotans have the right to be represented by the candidate they’ve elected. We have the right to full representation in Congress.

The losing candidate has every right to continue appealing, but in the meantime the victor should be seated. Once the election has been certified by Minnesota judges, the Senate should not refuse to seat the victor. We can’t allow Norm Coleman to drag this process out for the next six years.

One thing I’ve always been taught with regard to oral arguments is that you should never say to a judge “with all due respect” — to a judge, I’m told, it sounds more like, “you don’t have any clue what you’re talking about, so I’m going to tell you.” Maybe that’s not a tried-and-true rule, or maybe his experience allows him to break a few rules, but Coleman Attorney Joe Friedberg certainly didn’t abide by it at today’s closing arguments in the Capital Judiciary Building.  Instead, Friedberg requested that the court toss out prior rulings and established law in order to allow ballots in… an interesting line of argument if you ask me. Unfortunately, I missed the closing arguments on Franken’s side presented by Kevin Hamilton, but you can find them on the Uptake’s video archive if you so choose. The Strib reports:

Flashing the Coleman spreadsheet of ballots on a courtroom screen, Hamilton ticked off the list of essential elements for a valid ballot that the three-judge panel has laid out in a series of orders during the seven-week trial. In nearly every case, he said, Coleman has failed to show that they were legally cast as required by the court.

Having missed Franken’s arguments, it’s difficult for me to honestly assess what happened today, but I did find Friedberg’s arguments in several places rather lacking; especially with regard to his Due Process arguments — I mean, there may be a Due Process problem where the law changes after the contest (as was the case in the 11th Circuit case Friedberg cited), but where the law stays consistent, there’s not a DP violation merely because the law wasn’t properly applied in some cases and the Court now ensures its proper application. But, hey, that’s just my 2¢. For now, I think we can all be happy that this chapter has come to a close. Let’s just hope that the decision comes quickly and that both sides accept it for what it is — ha, fat chance!