Really Pissed Off!

For the past five months, the battle for the Senate seat between incumbent Norm Coleman and upstart Al Franken has made Minnesotans blurry eyed, as they’ve counted the votes five ways from Sunday! It may be one way to survive a miserable Winter in the North Country, but the Court has declared Al Franken the winner by 312 votes out of nearly 3 million votes cast. This is a prime example of our government in inaction. It’s time to cut the crap and seat Al Franken as the junior Senator from Minnesota!

The stalemate has become not just a battle over the number of votes. It has become a strategy for the Republicans to keep one more Democrat from the Senate floor. At the moment, the U.S. Senate consists of the following: the Republicans have 41 Senators and the Democrats have 56, with two Independents, who generally caucus with the Democrats. Even with Franken seated, the best that the Democrats can muster will be 59, and that will still not override a filibuster. They need 60, and they don’t have it. Even Fox News reports that Coleman’s appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court is a long-shot, and will go well into May before any decision is made.

Norm Coleman was originally declared the winner by the Associated Press by 763 votes on November 5, 2008. Within a few days, that number had slipped to 206 and on November 11th, Minnesota officials declared that a recount was in order. Thus, as in Florida in 2000, the recount process began with both sides proclaiming victory. Ballots were challenged by Franken and by December 19th, Al Franken had taken the lead by 188 votes. By January 4th, the Minnesota State Election Board was prepared to declare Al Franken the winner by 225 votes. Two days later, Norm Coleman declares that he is going to contest the Board’s decision and filed a lawsuit on January 6th. On April 13, 2009, the Court declared that Al Franken was the winner by a total of 351 votes, over 2.9 million votes cast! The next day, Norm Coleman appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Should Coleman appeal? Well….he has every right to but on every occasion since the beginning of the recount, the edge has always gone to Al Franken.

Perhaps it’s time for Norm Coleman to either fish or cut bait! The state on Minnesota has had only one Senator since January and the people of Minnesota are the biggest losers in all of this, not Norm Coleman. Appealing this to the Supreme Court is whistling in the dark for Coleman and it only delays the inevitable. The people of Minnesota will have to wait another two months if this continues, perhaps even longer. It’s also time for Governor Tom Pawlenty to make up his mind and decide whether he wants to serve the state of Minnesota as Governor or continue to be a pawn for the Republican Party. If nothing else, he should expedite the conclusion of this stalemate. The only ones benefiting from all of this at this point are the lawyers on both sides. It’s time to allow the people’s will, although it may only be by 351 votes and seat Sen. Al Franken in the United States Senate. If nothing else, he may provide a few laughs to an otherwise stoic body and with what’s happening in Washington, as well as the rest of the nation, we need a few laughs, as well as a complete U.S. Senate body. Norm….give it up!

Chris Matthews a wards Al Franken “The Hardball Award”