If you're just going to lie, why not make it something interesting.

"We refuse to seat Al Franken because he murdered my sister."

Why doesn't someone call these phony GOP Senators in a televised press conference on their false accusations?

And off topic. Blago must have a pair the size of beach balls or something.

Now we know Harry Reid's position as well, isn't that right, Cornyn?

Hard to find the rationale for this move, other than a GOP trial balloon to see how well their BS floats these days. Or maybe just a crony chip being cashed in.

John Cornyn, spokesman for Minnesota voters?

I think that many people discussing this issue (and specifically the Senate's ability to seat or not seat a senator) fail to understand the limitations of the Powell case.

In Powell, the Supreme Court interpreted the Constitutional provision whereby Congress coudl judge teh qualifications of its members. However, the relevant language actually says "Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members."

Powell was restricted to the "qualifications" section. It in no way addresses how each house shall be the judge of the elections and returns. In Powell, there was no question that Powell had, in fact, been elected to this seat -- the House simply did not want to seat him, and did not choose to expel him (needing 2/3 majority).

Here, the Senate certainly has the power to decide who was actually elected by virtue of its ultimate power to judge the election and returns.

Of course, I fully expect the Senate Republicans to filibuster any attempt to accept Franken as an interim Senator.

What makes it so hard for Republicans to understand the concept of "Count every vote" Perhaps we should now ask the Supreme court to stop the counting of the votes since we're ahead?

Just count the votes and whoever has the most wins. It doesn't seem all that complicated to me.

RE "double counting of ballots"

We don't know that the ballots Norm Coleman says were double-counted were.

Another possibility is that election officials failed to create duplicates, and that is why there are more originals than duplicates.

The State Canvassing Board and the MN Supreme Court would have sided with Norm Coleman on this issue if some ballots were obviously double-counted. Neither sided with Norm Coleman on this.

The most ridiculous thing about this statement is that the only person who has ever declared victory in this race was Norm Coleman, which was echoed by the RSCC and many of his fellow republican senators, back when they were urging Franken to "do the right thing" by sparing the state the cost of a recount. Now, if they would only take their own advice...

The Republicans lie, smear and proudly announce support for their candidate all over the airwaves. Yet the silence from Democrats surrounding Franken's apparent victory is deafening.

TPM, can you get somebody from the Senate Dem caucus to offer even the most tepid support for Franken, or even acknowledge that they would prefer him in the Senate to a Republican?

This grandstanding tells us nothing we didn't already know about the Republican swine. How the Democrats will react to their grandstanding could tell us much about whether or not there will be anything new about the Democratic approach in Congress. If they cave in, it's going to be a long 4 years. If they have the balls to tell Cornyn (whi is a swine himeself) to go fuck himself then we see some actual change in DC.

Gosh, it seems only appropriate for a Texas politician to decide who should or should not be a Senator. After all, it was a 'great job' from the Texas politician who took office in 2000.

The question is, if Republicans say they will filibuster, how quickly will Reid cave in?

Can anyone tell me if under the existing rules of the Senate, a motion to seat (or not seat) is open to a Filabuster? Some types of votes are, others are not, so the question of whether Cornyn can carry out his threat depends on that rule.

There are some wierd technical details involved in today's doings. It appears that what Coleman is doing in several of the regional meetings called under agreed rules to review the envelopes of the wrongly rejected absentee ballots before forwarding them by Friday to the SoS for counting, is to demand that additional ballots that were not in the 5th pile, but in piles 1-4 which are defined by state statute, are also included. Sorting these piles in some counties were initially done under request of the SoS and the State Canvass Board, but ultimately it was done under Supreme Court Order. What Coleman seems to be asking is that county canvass boards go beyond the scope of the Supreme Court Order, and I suspect either the SoS (along with the Attorney General) and/or the Franken Campaign will have to go back to the Supreme Court to get the scope of the order clarified. It looks like the Coleman Campaign is only objecting and demanding a deal for extra ballots from piles 1-4 in largely pro-Franken counties -- a bit of systematic cherry picking. Anyhow, I expect another tour of the MN Supreme Court before this is final pre-certification.

Mark Richie was on MPR's Midday Show today, and introduced another matter -- apparently State Law allows any voter with a wrongly rejected absentee ballot to directly petition the Supreme Court to have his/her ballot counted. No need for a lawyer or lawsuit, just a simple petition. So another solution is at hand -- those 1348 voters in this class could just execute a petition. It would put lots of work on the desks of the Justices, but gets around the Coleman roadblocks. So I expect at least the Franken Campaign will be out and about with petitions. But the need to go to the court one by one could slow this process down a bit. The could relieve themselves of the need to review individual petitions by appointing a magistrate to make the rulings.

But Coleman could do the same thing -- he could do petitions from those in pile 1-4 claiming that they are not wrongly rejected, and demand review.

Ultimately the court will have to facilitate finishing the process, so that the Canvass Board can say their work is done, and certify. They are hampered in making a straightforward clean rule on this, and must stick to the rule that both campaigns have to collaborate on the rules for admitting ballots by Anderson v. Rolvagg -- the Supreme Court ruling in 1963 in the Great Minnesota Governor's Recount, which established this rule requiring collaboration. This is a conservative Supreme Court, and finds it very difficult to break with precident -- and Anderson v. Rolvaag is the great Minnesota Precident.

two things

1) the head of the NRSC is declaring the electoral process in Minnesota (Minnesota!!!) illegitimate.

2) Harry Reid need to make whatever position the GOP takes PAINFUL for them, in whatever way possible.

"We refuse to seat Al because he is secretly a negro." When did the Rethugs decide who gets to become a senator?

One Looney Toons act after another, that's the GOP we've all come to expect. We should demand better from our elected officials, but when the system is tilted in favor of rich criminals, like Cornyn himself, a damn frat boy, what else can we expect. The French proletariat solved their internal problems with their ruling classes, why cant we?

If the governor can't appoint the next Senator, and the only person who can appoint the next senator is the governor, then what is supposed to happen?

I wish Harry et al had mustered this much energy to get Bush & Cheney impeached. There is so much going on and they focus on THIS? Like it really matters?

Fact is, Blago is still the governor, and he can appoint the Senator unless the law changes. Wait for him to be impeached? Is that due process? Now Fitzpatrick wants more time to put his case together against Blago -- what is THAT about?

If it turns out that this Burris, who seems like a creep to me (anyone see the case where he fought to execute an innocent man when he was ag?) did anything illegal to get this seat, he can be kicked out. How long was Tom DeLay in the senate? You know, the one who was kicked out for illegal shenanegans and who now gets interviewed on HardBall as an expert while Chris drools all over him. Did he ever even have a trial?

Give Burris 2 years and then let him go down in flames. He can put Senator on his ugly grave stone and people can spit on it once he is dead.

If this is what the Dems are going to get all excited about they need a true reality check. AND they need to offer a word of support to Al Franken -- why the silence there?