Is Franken Influencing Harry Reid?
Based on this article by the AP’s Brian Bakst, it sounds like Marc Elias is tring to persuade Harry Reid into setting aside the Minnesota vote for the US Senate currently held by Norm Coleman. The Senate has the right to ignore the will of the people. I’ve said elsewhere, though, that taking that approach would be a major disaster for Senate Democrats. Here’s what Mr. Bakst is reporting:
Marc Elias, the legal chief for Franken, said the campaign won’t appeal the board’s ruling. But for the first time since the recount began a week ago, he publicly mentioned the possibility of the campaign asking the U.S. Senate to weigh in.
“Whether it is at the county level, before the Canvassing Board, before the courts or before the United States Senate, we don’t know yet. But we remain confident these votes will be counted,” Elias said.
The board’s action drew a response from the Senate’s top Democrat, Majority Leader Harry Reid. In a written statement, he called the decision a “cause for great concern.”
“As the process moves forward, Minnesota authorities must ensure that no voter is disenfranchised,” Reid said. “A citizen’s right to have his or her vote counted is fundamental in our democracy.”
Mr. Elias is grandstanding, proving that he’s more adept at PR than he is with the law. I wrote here that Minnesota election law deals with who has authority to issue rulings on rejected ballots. Justice G. Barry Anderson gave a compelling presentation on Minnesota election law. During that presentation, he said that there wasn’t a precedent for recount canvassing boards having that authority. Coleman Campaign Chairman Cullen Sheehan issued this statement:
“This is a stunning admission by the Franken campaign that they are willing to take this process away from Minnesotans if they fail to win the recount. It is even more stunning that the Democratic Senate leader would inject himself into the Minnesota election process. This says that Franken is fully prepared and armed to take this matter to the United States Senate and that the Senate will be receptive, even if Franken fails to succeed in winning the recount. This is a troubling new development. We call upon Al Franken to personally disavow his attorney’s comments, and to commit to Minnesotans that he will not allow this election to be overturned by the leadership of the Democratic Senate. Al Franken owes it to the people of this state to reject any and all efforts to stop a Minnesota Senator from being sworn in on January 6th if Norm Coleman continues to be shown to have won this election after the recount.”
There’s no justification for Franken ignoring the will of We The People of Minnesota. This is proof that this election was purely about Franken’s personal ambition, not about the will of the Minnesotans who voted for Sen. Coleman.
I’d further suggest that the Democrats’ mantra of counting every vote is pure PR. It has nothing to do with reality. It should be amended to this:
Count every vote…except if the voters don’t elect the Democrat.
I’m not surprised with Harry Reid’s or Al Franken’s behavior. It’s predictable. Didn’t Harry Reid ignore the will of the people when he refused to schedule debate for drilling on the OCS? At the time, 75+ percent of the American people wanted drilling. Harry Reid ignored them. It sounds like he’s prepared to ignore the votes of almost 1.5 million Minnesotans who voted for Norm Coleman.
Should Harry Reid’s Senate Democrats vote to seat Al Franken without him winning a more votes than Norm Coleman, there will be electoral hell to pay in 2010 and 2012.
If George Mitchell were still Majority Leader, I could picture him floating this trial balloon, then dropping it the minute the American people expressed their outrage. It’s too easy to picture Harry Reid, who is one of the most inept leaders in American history, seeing the outrage, then ignoring it just so he could thump his chest a little.
Let’s remember that he’s the guy that bragged that they’d killed the Patriot Act. Sen. Reid isn’t the brightest bullb in the Senate’s chandelier. That’s why I can’t rule out his making a boneheaded decision on this.
Technorati Tags: Recount, Al Franken, Marc Elias, Harry Reid, Norm Coleman, Cullen Sheehan, Fritz Knaak, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
November 27th, 2008 at 6:41 am
The Founding Fathers knew what they were doing when they established the election of Senators by the Legislatures. The Senators were to represent the states. I believe two things have brought us to the position and condition we are in at this time. The direct election of Senators and the creation of the Federal Reserve System.
May The L RD G D Bless America!!!!
November 27th, 2008 at 10:13 am
The direct election of the Senate was brought about by corruption of state legislatures by corporate interests.
Under the Constitution, each house has the authority to decide the election and qualifications of its membership. In addition, the Senate was not intended to be another house of popular opinion. Harry Reid would in fact, have every right to call a vote of the Senate on the issue.
What better a civics lesson then to demonstrate what happens when an uninformed, bovine, star struck populace allows incompetent, yet powerful leaders to rule.
Harry Reid and Al Franken. The mind boggles.
November 27th, 2008 at 10:13 am
The direct election of the Senate was brought about by corruption of state legislatures by corporate interests.
Under the Constitution, each house has the authority to decide the election and qualifications of its membership. In addition, the Senate was not intended to be another house of popular opinion. Harry Reid would in fact, have every right to call a vote of the Senate on the issue.
What better a civics lesson then to demonstrate what happens when an uninformed, bovine, star struck populace allows incompetent, yet powerful leaders to rule.
Harry Reid and Al Franken. The mind boggles.
November 27th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
In all the huff-and-puff about the MN election, you’re all overlooking a couple of very important facts. First, the closer the Senate comes to a 60-dem majority, the more powerful Joe Lieberman becomes. While a filibuster-proof majority is certainly a worthwhile goal, it is hardly worth making a king of Joe the liar, because we all know which side he’ll come down on in a pinch (and it ain’t the dems).
Second, the closer the dems come to a filibuster-proof majority, the louder all you discredited and routed repubs scream about the lack of ‘post partisan’ behavior on the part of the dems and specifically, Obama. The American people still, even after the last eight years of one-sided politics and crime, believe in basic fairness, and using the filibuster-proof majority to achieve any goal, no matter how noble or good for the country, will be cast as pure partisan politics by the losing republican side. (Time after time, republicans have shown they are much better being in the minority and fighting as underdogs.)
The irony of this election — and the next — is that we are better off with the Democratic party with fewer than 60 votes in the Senate. If Obama can’t muster a few votes from the other side of the aisle, we will continue to see the same bickering and stalemate that has gotten us into this mess, only from the opposing viewpoint.
So, if either or both Coleman and Chambliss prevail and we reach 2010 without significant progress, Joe the liar and his republican friends won’t stand a chance. Its too bad in the end, because Franken and Martin would be infinitely superior Senators. We’ve seen what Coleman and Chambliss are all about — and it isn’t the best interests of this Nation.
But we should all be thankful on this Thanksgiving Day that republican rule and the republican drive towards socialism (or at least the socialization of corporate loss) has come to an end.
November 28th, 2008 at 1:06 am
“But we should all be thankful on this Thanksgiving Day that republican rule and the republican drive towards socialism (or at least the socialization of corporate loss) has come to an end.”
Oh really? You obviously have not spent much time in Washington, or if you have you didn’t learn much from it. Be thankful for that. Its good however that you did specify Republican drive to socialization of loss, because it’s only going to be replaced with the Democratic socialization of same. If you think Washington is going to magically change on January 20th, your going to be tragically disappointed about next July 4th.
Your are right however, that just about all of us, on both sides, have seen enough corporate charity, remains to be seen whether or not the beltway elite has however.
Despite your own obvious partisanship, you’re are quite right that Lieberman may indeed hold the key. That would explain of course, the magnanimous gesture Of Obama overruling Ried’s threat to punish him.
It also evidences that Reid is, in fact, a dunce.
And by the way, a deadlocked Congress is not always a bad thing, neither party these days seem to have the corner on inspired leadership and the less they do sometimes, the better off we all are.