Insults Fly Ahead Of Minnesota Election Trial
One thing is clear going into today's election trial in Minnesota: The Franken and Coleman camps really don't like each other.
Yesterday, the Coleman team posted a YouTube promoting their new push to have the rejected absentee ballots reviewed yet another time -- their current goal is to have 4,500-5,000 more added into the count, which they insist are not cherry-picked -- and declaring Coleman is the champion of counting every vote, against Al Franken's disregard for the people's will.
On a conference call with reporters just now, lead Franken attorney Marc Elias ripped the Coleman team for saying they want to count every vote, after spending most of this recount litigating to stop absentee-vote reviews, and still basing their election lawsuit largely upon throwing out votes for Al Franken. Said Elias: "So don't believe them when they say they want every vote counted, because that isn't what most of their case is about, and it's not what this case is gonna boil down to."
As an extra sign of his contempt for the Coleman team, Elias referred to them as "charter members of the flat-earth club" for questioning the legitimacy of Franken votes during the recount. At today's trial, the tone isn't likely to improve more than the minimum necessary for the courtroom.
The Coleman vid is available after the jump.
Josh
Matt
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Brian
The point of course being not to actually change the outcome but to cast a pall over his senate tenure as being illegitimate.
January 26, 2009 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I'm not sure even they think they can cast a real pall. Public opinion isn't going their way. What they can do and are doing are two things: provide endless fodder for the right-wing talking heads, and temporarily steal a seat from the Democrats in the Senate. Now that Burris is in, the cloture threshold is back up to 60, which means every day Franken's not there is a better day to block the Obama agenda. With the stimulus and Employee Free Choice on the front-burner, I'm sure every Republican in congress is more than willing to do whatever it takes to drag this out.
January 26, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just to be clear: What Coleman is requesting would be the third review of absentee ballots. #1 was on Election Day. #2 was court-ordered recount of rejected absentees.
#3 would be the Coleman fishing expedition.
January 26, 2009 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually it would be the fourth. After the official recount and Coleman's whining about rejected absentee ballots, most counties went back and examined them a third time. Result: one ballot found that should have been included. One. Out of hundreds.
It's like sweeping the floor after it's been vacuumed three times. You might find a couple of specks of dirt that had been missed, but you don't expect much. Which is why the pool of absentee votes Coleman wants to re-examine keeps getting larger (and more cherry-picked).
January 26, 2009 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
This just reinforces the need to get Coleman and his ilk out of government service, or at least elected office. He still clings to the idea that you can say absolutely anything, regardless that it directly contradicts what you said yesterday or two minutes ago, regardless that it has no basis in fact, and that people are going to readily accept it and let you have your way.
We're sick of the bullshit and getting sicker by the minute. Go away, Norm. It ain't workin'.
January 26, 2009 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink