Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Endgame for Coleman

My Dad lives in Minnesota and I have been a fan of Al Franken since his SNL days. So the ongoing Minnesota Senate battle has held my interest since Franken first declared he was going to run. Franken was trying to take the seat back from Norm Coleman who used the tragic death of Paul Wellstone to win the seat in the first place. The race has gone from a narrow Coleman lead to a narrow Franken lead. Coleman challenged the court ruling in Minnesota Supreme Court. The Coleman camp is claiming that civil liberties of Minnesota voters have been violated in re-count process. I can understand that thinking to a certain degree, but you look at the numbers which Nate Silver did (538 Coleman/Franken article), the math is not on Coleman's side. Unless something very strange happens Al Franken should be the next Senator from Minnesota. That leads me to the question what is Coleman looking to gain by the Minnesota and possible US Supreme Court challenge of election results.

Despite Coleman's claim of a higher purpose for his staying in the fight to the bitter end, this seems to be more about keeping Franken out of the Senate than the freedom and civil liberties of Minnesota voters. With Franken not being able to vote it becomes a defacto Republican vote, so that Coleman does actually to have to be in office. This may make a hero with the GOP and in certain conservative circles but is really the best strategy for keeping a long term political career alive. In the future will Coleman be seen as champion of a cause or just a sore loser who refused to let go or maybe it's just the simple fact that Coleman has no future and has no other choice but go all in on a long shot.

At this point it's just more of the waiting game. Al Franken tries to do as much as he can to be a Senator Elect. Coleman and his team keep making the claims of honoring the voters of Minnesota while pursuing their own goals. Gov Time Pawlenty is sitting on his hands instead of doing the right thing. Lastly the right wing noise machine keeps bitching whining and complaining about the scary notion of Senator Franken. It's insane but I guess if nothing else Al Franken as a great start to his next book.

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