I'm working hard to emulate our President-elect, and to view Republicans as colleagues, but right now, I'm just not there yet, so here's hoping Norm Coleman goes down, hard, and the Republicans pay the price for their pigheaded obstruction for generations to come.

You go Al! BTW, I loved the video released on youtube this week. How does Coleman defend disenfranchising voters?

Ramsey County includes St. Paul. It's one of the most Democratic counties in the state.

Ramsey County Elections Manager Joe Mansky is refusing to sort the Rejected Absentee Ballots.

The Canvassing Board decided this morning that they can't order him to.

I hope that someone gets a court order for Ramsey County to sort those ballots.

I dunno if it's good or not. I think overall it's helpful, but it's not going to be good for Franken or bad for him. The issue is whether the board can force the counties to count the ballots. They cannot. Franken might have some leverage in court with this ruling, but that's about it.

Anybody get the feeling that Franken and his team learned a lot from the 2000 recount? They have clearly been the aggressor, keeping Franken on defense. They have dominated the spin war. And if you think that doesn't matter, just ask Al Gore.

Ramsey County Elections Manager Joe Mansky is refusing to sort the Rejected Absentee Ballots.

What is his reason for that?

Still waiting for an answer. Does anyone know?

God, I would love to see Al win this. I think he would be a great Senator (and one with a great sense of humor).

That said, it will not prevent the Republicans from obstructing for the next 4 years. I wish the Dems had emphasized to the voters just how vital & essential it was to get a super-majority in the Senate.

"and board members did castigate any election officials who wouldn't do so, with some of them even leaving open the option of seeking a court order if necessary."

totally inaccurate reporting. The board members were quite explicit in recognizing they had no statutory authority to order county election officials to either review the rejected absentee ballots or to submit amended county totals based upon adding improperly rejected absentee ballots to the count. They did however request that both be done and said this was a county decision. They also opined that regardless of what local officials decided, that the campaigns could contest it in court if they so chose. There was nothing said to suggest that the state canvassing board would seek a court order over anything the counties might decide in this regard.

I do not expect there will be very many county election officials unwilling to inspect rejected absentee ballots, count the ones that were rejected due to election worker error and resubmit an amended and more accurate count of their voters (many of whom paid property taxes on Nov 15th, and therefore their salaries as well!) I think the counties that haven't yet were waiting to get a signal from the state canvassing board before taking on a potentially unnecessary task.

Most (if we are lucky, all) of the rejected absentee ballots are going to be re-examined and those that were improperly rejected will be counted and submitted to the state canvassing board. Stay tuned.

I stand by my original position: If the Senate seats Al Franken, then in fairness they also have to seat Ann Coulter.

I called Norm to find out how he had voted on the auto bailout and, despite the Ford plant in St. Paul, he had voted against cloture.

Gave him a piece of my mind.

Now, with the latest news from the Canvassing Board, I am consoling myself by imagining Norm on the unemployment line and having to run from angry newly unemployed auto workers.

Give the guy a break, Norm is against bailouts and giveaways of any kind. Except free suits. There's nothing wrong with free suits. And of there's nothing wrong with free rent either.

Heck, the only reason he needs these things is so he can more effectively fight liberal freeloaders like union activists and voters. Honestly, Norm haters make me sick, the way you think the world owes you a living just because you work for it.

In the beginning I thought Franken's candidacy was a joke and couldn't see him as anything but a comedian whose brand of humor never had appealed to me. But now, I have the utmost respect for him and admiration for his fighting power.

Most candidates, especially Democrats, would have thrown in the towel and let what seems to be voter suppression have its way. Franken has fought to have every vote counted and will continue to do so, I believe, until the final ballot is included.

Al Franken's chances of winning the Minnesota recount may have just gone up astronomically

Well, given how absurdly razor thin the margins are in this race, I don't think "astronomical" is really in it. But a huge huzzay! to Franken for fighting this thing out to the last vote. Coleman is an asshole, and a corrupt one to boot.

Well, it's offcial: The Coleman campaign is asking that the counting of rejected absentee ballots be halted until a standard procedure is established.

By MARK BRUNSWICK, PAUL WALSH and BOB VON STERNBERG, Star Tribune Staff Writers

The campaign of Sen. Norm Coleman is taking its case to the state Supreme Court, asking the justices to order counties to follow a standard procedure in identifying wrongfully rejected absentee ballots. It is asking county officials to halt any counting of rejected absentee ballots from the U.S. Senate election until the justices can rule on the campaign's request.

The campaign said that it feared what it called a chaotic "Florida situation" and that it is likely to go to the court today.

So remind me again, who was it that created the "chaos" in Florida. From the November 28, 2000 Salon:

Miami protest was carried out by rent-a-rioters flown in by the Republican Party. GOP spokespeople have said that at least 750 Republican activists have been sent into South Florida from around the country to oppose the recount, with the party picking up the tab for a number of them. And last Wednesday, when a gaggle of protesters sprang into action in Miami, those efforts seem to have paid off.

The halt of the Miami-Dade County hand count, where 10,750 ballots remain uncounted -- more than enough to flip the outcome of the Florida election or further buttress George W. Bush's lead in the state -- dealt a devastating blow to Al Gore's presidential campaign.

http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/11/28/miami/

While those votes are being tallied why not have Acorn or some other groups ie. Comedy Central to start now filling out ballots for Franken and after all these (1600) are counted if he hasn't won, he can tell someone where the other votes are and possibly win. Actually, he could keep having this done until the odds are in his favour. This happened once before in history there is no reason it cannot happen again. Franken needs to commit himself to winning and quit talking about losing the election. Win no matter what the cost! That should be his motto.
Just think how great it will be to finally have captured the senate,house,congress,presidency and every decision and action will be that of the Democrats. We will balance the budget in 2 years or so, get a great energy source for the autos,solar power etc..,and after all the great things are accomplished like leaving the middle east and bringing in peace in the middle east, there will be no doubt who is really for America, we will be victorious and will no longer be a scapegoat for the publicans. They won't be able to blame our party for deficits and all the corruption they do.

All this talk about what the Florida outcome could have been due to the 2000 election fiasco.
I find it interesting that prior to and up to the final outcome of the 2000 election nationally, the Repugnants were raising hell and wanting to abolish the electoral college. Only when the electoral college elected the Bushwacker, due to a couple of questionable states (ie Florida), did the Bible thumpers drop the issue. Hmm. The Repubs are like a cancer, they must be erradicated.

You know thumpers,they thump.