Norm Coleman Refuses To Lay It Down

The Coleman-Franken Senatorial Contest

It’s been five months since the citizens of Minnesota cast their ballots and they’re still missing a senator. The Al Franken/Norm Coleman trial has come to an end and a verdict might be in this week. Franken is expected to win but by the sounds coming out of the Coleman camp, it still won’t be over. Here’s how it all came down to this point:

• After the candidates spent $30 million in the senatorial race last November, Coleman came out ahead by a margin of 475 votes.
• An automatic hand recount gave  Franken a 225 vote lead.
• A bipartisan state canvassing board declared Franken the victor on January 5.
• Coleman sued and a long and arduous 7 week trial which focused largely on absentee ballots, came to an end this week.

From the Washington Post:

“Hamline University professor David Schultz, who has been watching the case closely, described the judges as “unsympathetic” to Coleman’s arguments that thousands of absentee ballots were wrongly rejected and that others were counted twice.”

“In a universe of about 1,400 ballots that Schultz considers most likely to be counted, he thinks that there are not enough eligible votes to reverse the results.”

“Nothing is sure either way until the judges rule, and even then, an appeal to the state supreme court is virtually assured, Coleman staffers say.”

Coleman refuses to give it up.  There is much speculation that part of this circus act involves the Republican party wanting to delay Franken’s entry into the Senate for as long as they can.  With one less Democrat vote, it makes it that much more difficult to pass the budget bill which will be highly contested by Republicans come this April.

So as Rome burns, Nero fiddles away…

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