How much money is Norm Coleman costing MN taxpayers with this pathetic stunt?

[marmar]

:argh:



from the MSP Star-Trib:


Senate recount trial: Ballot ruling buoys Coleman
Judges ordered inspection of 1,500 envelopes for rejected absentee ballots, which could lead to more votes being counted.

By PAT DOYLE, a nd KEVIN DUCHSCHERE

Last update: February 26, 2009 - 10:41 PM



Norm Coleman's luck improved a bit Thursday, as judges in the U.S. Senate recount trial ordered an inspection of about 1,500 rejected absentee ballot envelopes and changed their minds about letting a Coleman witness testify.

The ballot inspection could lead to counting more votes, something Coleman needs, if local officials discover voter registration cards in the ballot secrecy envelopes of voters whose ballots were rejected for lack of registration. But there's no assurance how the votes would divide between the candidates.

Lawyers for Democrat Al Franken and for Coleman, a Republican, had agreed to the inspection of secrecy envelopes. Both sides said they were pleased with the order. But Coleman, trailing by 225 votes, has particularly stressed the need to inspect them for missing registrations.

While more than half of the secrecy envelopes to be inspected are from counties that Franken carried by more than 10 percentage points, most of those are from Hennepin and Ramsey, where Republican-leaning suburbs could favor Coleman. The two campaigns identified roughly the same number of secrecy envelopes to inspect. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/40354162.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUJ

[BlueJazz]

1. Oh Brother..This whole scenario is starting to remind me of 3 day old warm fish.

The smell just goes on and on.

Coleman was one of the Repugs that wanted Al Gore to "Be a good Sport about the Election".

That's Right ..Norm...Do as I say...Not as I do.

[Pab Sungenis]

2. This is one of the few areas where Norm was on the right side

and the judges ruled correctly. If they were registered voters due to their registration being sent with the ballot, and the ballots were rejected because they were supposedly "unregistered" then the ballots are valid and should be counted.

It does not guarantee that the ballots will necessarily be counted, either. There may only be 10, 5, or no valid ballots in the bunch. We don't know.

All this is doing is helping to avoid grounds for an appeal.

[Red Knight]

3. I hope the Dems remember it

THIS is how you act when you lose an election. You delay, you cry, you whine, you scream and you do anything possible to change the outcome.

You don't step gracefully aside.

The Republicans show us the way. Time to take notes.

[mucifer]

6. no the notes we take are from Franken, not coleman.

[izzie]

4. This is really getting silly. Did not a House person never get

their seat with the GOP keeping this person from Ca. out for the whole term or most of it also?

[GoesTo11]

5. To answer your question, my guess is at least $1B

Out of $5B or so aid from the stimulus package, I would guess one senator could hurt that much. Not to mention that the big budget is getting worked on now. Maybe another billion. People there don't seem too bent out of shape over it, though. This is getting ridiculous. It's so obvious that Coleman is acting in bad faith and trying to delay justice or torpedo it. Shameful.

[KharmaTrain]

7. Time To Shut This Down...The Chicken Game

Here's the end-game...and it won't be in Minnesota. Reid has said that he "hopes" (insert your Harry Reid is a ...... here), to have Senator Franken seated by April. This means he's getting ready to force a vote and this could be the fillibuster showdown we've been (or at least some of us have) waiting for. Reid's been biding time in helping get the first wave of important legislation done...the 100 days stuff, but once that's out of the way, the Franken issue will be front and center.

The repugnican party is behind this game both with lawyers and money. It's not that Coleman can win...even his laywers all but are giving up on that noise, but its to keep both the Democrats from having 59 votes and seeing Franken on the floor of the Senate. It's both tactical and personal...and if there's anything that the GOOP may go balls out for is to keep Franken from being seated. Could Reid be getting ready to let the GOOP fillibuster this and shut the government down? I hope so. It's time to call these shit rockets on their con game...make them over-reach and pay a big political price.

[old mark]

8. Franken will eventually be seated. The Gops will have wasted a lot

of their party's time effore and money on this losing cause, when they really are in bad straits regarding the election in 2010.

I believe they will lose big yet again, and I think they might be starting to realize that as well.


mark