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Cornyn Stands By Coleman In Appeal
After an initial silence, the national GOP is now commenting on Norm Coleman's loss yesterday in the Minnesota election trial, and Coleman's determination to appeal.
NRSC chairman John Cornyn just sent out an e-mail giving Norm his support, and declaring that the protections of the constitution, and of the enfranchisement of every voter, are at stake.
"Unfortunately, those fundamental principles are under attack in Minnesota," Cornyn writes. "Since Senator Norm Coleman was first ahead by hundreds of votes at the end of election night, the Democrats have aggressively worked to change the rules of the game after it's been played."
Full e-mail, after the jump.
Dear Friend:
The strength of our democracy is built on a fair and accurate system of elections. Our Constitution provides for Due Process and for Equal Protection in order to better guarantee the enfranchisement of every voter.
Unfortunately, those fundamental principles are under attack in Minnesota. Since Senator Norm Coleman was first ahead by hundreds of votes at the end of election night, the Democrats have aggressively worked to change the rules of the game after it's been played.
Last night, they succeeded in convincing a three-judge panel to issue a fundamentally misguided ruling that disenfranchises over 4,000 Minnesota voters. They did so by imposing a different, and stricter, standard for votes to be counted rather than following the rules that were in place in Minnesota on Election Day.
In doing so, Constitutionally-valid Due Process and Equal Protection concerns have been raised...and as of yet, have not been resolved. Which is exactly why Senator Coleman is appealing this decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court: the votes of over 4,000 Minnesotans disenfranchised by this court's opinion deserve to be counted.
It's frankly shocking that many of the same Democrats who so loudly decried voter disenfranchisement during the Florida recount in 2000 have so quickly run away from that principle when it no longer fits their political agenda.
Nonetheless, Republicans, and the NRSC in particular, remain committed to a full and fair resolution of this election contest and stand firmly behind Senator Norm Coleman.
Your strong and continued support is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Senator John Cornyn
Chairman
National Republican Senatorial Committee
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Josh
Matt
Eric
What a load! If Cronyn really wants to compare these proceedings to the 2000 FL recount, why didn't he urge Coleman to give up after 36 days?
I say if the MN Supreme Court rules in Franken's favor, let's seat him and bring on World War III.
April 14, 2009 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Translation: Nobody has met the requirements of our partisan agenda and we can't handle a fair contest that doesn't hand us the "win."
April 14, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. Perfect translation.
April 14, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wish that Cornyn was equally concerned about his own constituents... Somehow, I think his work for the NRSC is showing him for what he is -- a major gasbag with no substance. As a Texas Republican, I find him to be a major embarrassment. It is time to give it up, guys!
April 14, 2009 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
A lot of people have been asking whether Minnesotans are upset about the delay in seating their second U.S. senator. Well, I don't know about most Minnesotans, but this one is furious about being denied my fair representation in Congress. The flipping teabaggers are out there with their absurd, little protests, but real "taxation without representation" is when your state is denied full representation by a nihilist, obstructionist Republican party which is abusing the court system in the most undemocratic, cynical, party-first, nation-second manner.
Cornyn is a perfect front man for the asshattery of the Greed and Obstruction Party. If he wants to slander the well-respected electoral system of my state and all the people who work hard to make it one of the best in the nation, he can kiss my ***.
April 14, 2009 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am a Minnesotan too, and you could not have said it any better! Bravo. And to he** with Coleman AND Cornyn.
April 14, 2009 8:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dear John,
I, too, am really concerned about the "disenfranchisement" of these MN voters. I am especially concerned about those among them who decided to cast a second ballot because the first had a flaw or they changed their minds, or they decided to go to their polling place after all. I am concerned about those ballots which had one person's signature on the ballot application and a different person's signature on the ballot envelope. I am concerned about those who somehow sent in a ballot, but were not registered at the address in question. I am particularly concerned about the felons in prison who are not legally eligible to vote whose ballots were rejected. It's so unfair! ALL ballots should be counted.
I noticed that during the trial, Franken brought in proof that some votes should have been counted and weren't. Like the guy the election people thought it wasn't his signature on his ballot envelope, but it turned out he'd just had hand surgery. And a couple more who have "neat" and "messy" versions of their signatures, but testified that both versions were theirs. I know Coleman could have gone through this process, but chose not to. His lawyers are right! We should just assume all those unopened ballots rejected for cause should be opened and counted (but only the ones from red precincts) and not make the attys go through such silly hoops to prove legality. Only Democratic attys should have to prove stuff because we all know how ACORN tries to steal elections and everybody knows Democrats only win when they cheat.
Loyally yours,
Coalition for the Hopelessly Reality Challenged
April 14, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fundamental principles? Cornyn wouldn't recognize one if it bit him on the ass.
April 14, 2009 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
What, "screw the voters, we should be declared the winners" isn't a principle?
April 14, 2009 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm done being annoyed or angry at Republicans on this issue. It's time for Democrats to stand up like adults and call shenanigans.
We all knew there is no legal reason for this battle - it's about nothing more than keeping the valid winner of an election from taking his office for political purposes.
Unless Democrats start making this fact clear, then it's just as much their fault MN is being denied equal representation. Guess what Dems...grandstanding works just fine WHEN YOU'RE RIGHT.
Get off your butts already.
April 14, 2009 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Has Coleman yet commented on the issue, by the way?
April 14, 2009 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
The only fundamental principle that is under attack is the one that says he who gets the most votes wins!
April 14, 2009 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dear Sen. John Cornhole,
Please provide this voter with your, and/or your party's, definition of "disenfranchise."
>Were 4000 legal voters disenfranchised from the Minnesota voter rolls because their names were like those of felons in prison?
>Were they disenfranchised because they hadn't voted in the last two elections?
>Were they refused a ballot at the poll because they could not produce ID even though the poll-workers knew them?
All techniques which were used by Sec O' State Kathy Harris and the GOP to disenfranchise almost half a million legitimate voters in FL'00.
OR were these voters ballots refused because they were not registered, someone else signed for them, or they senttheir ballot in after the polls closed, all of which are known by Americans everywhere, (but apparently not by Republicans anywhere) as invalid ballots, NOT disenfranchisement.
Christ, shouldn't elected officials have to pass Civics? Or is he just being intentionally stupid to appeal to his constituen...oh...well...
Never mind.
April 14, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cornyn is talking to the same evangelical voters in Minnesota as he speaks for here in Texas. He is not talking to those of us who read TPM and object to the Republican/Evangelical takeover over America.
You have to remember that the evangelical voters here in Texas vote as a block. Some two plus decades ago they packed the otherwise sparsely attended caucuses for the Republican Party here in Texas and took it over. They wrote the Texas Republican party platform in 2000, 2004 and 2008 which is such a laughable mess, and included in it a provision that no one could run for office here in Texas as a Republican without signing a pledge to support and enact the State Party Platform. That platform is far to the extreme right of anything the national Republican part has dared to even mutter so far.
The result of this (orchestrated by individuals such as Tony Perkins and the Focus on the family, through the Texas megaChurches) is that the evangelicals have elected every state-wide elected official since George Bush was elected governor in 1994. Remember the wacko preacher of a megaChurch in San Antonio that McCain had to distance himself from? He is one of them. It is a centrally-controlled group action. (I suspect that is very attractive to Bob Altemeyer's "right-wing Authoritarian followers", which is why we have so many of them so prominent in Texas public life. I can't guarantee that, though.)
One of the things they are pushing for is to make Biblical Law superior to U.S. Law. (Shades of Iran!) Another is a conversion to the Gold Standard. Another is to outlaw abortion, including criminalizing the process. That's just the beginning. And they have had control of the Texas Court system for over twenty years now because the judges are all elected. The Texas straight-party vote makes it essential to be a Republican to become a State Judge, so they are all pledged to that crazy party platform.
That's where Cornyn comes from. Also, according to Tristero over at Hullabaloo, so does Bobby Jindal. That whole crew considers America to be a Christian nation and firmly believes the lies published by David Barton.
The Democrats better quit sucking funds out of Texas to spend on other, more easily won races. Texas is the source of a lot worse Unamerican infection than just Bush and Cheney. When you have an infection you have to remove it at the source. That logic applies in politics as well as in medicine. And I doubt that the Chicago politicians have ever seen anything like the Texas Theocratic movement. I also have my doubts that they even believe it possible in America. They better not wait too long to figure it out.
April 14, 2009 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
"It's frankly shocking that many of the same Democrats who so loudly decried voter disenfranchisement during the Florida recount in 2000 have so quickly run away from that principle when it no longer fits their political agenda."
Isn't he admitting that there were disenfranchisement in Florida 2000?
April 14, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Dems need to say Norm Coleman and his partisan funders are disenfranchising the voters of Minnesota by denying them the full representation in the US Senate they are endowed with under the Constitution and which every other state enjoys.
While the Republicans play politics, the people of Minnesota are being deprived of their constitutional rights.
It is time to put the good of the people ahead of the partisan politics.
April 14, 2009 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
They are shoveling $h!t against the tide! The RNC, the RNSC and Coleman's spokesperson are now cartoons. Ginsberg keeps on spinning. Spin is bull$h!t but you can't polish a bull pie.
April 14, 2009 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can a state sue for libel?
April 14, 2009 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
John Cornyn assessing that "principles are under attack in Minnesota" rings with about the same amount of credibility as Bill Frist diagnosing Terri Schaivo from the Senate floor based on old video footage. You'll recall the autopsy proved that Frist was dead wrong. Oviously, Cornyn hasn't read the ruling which essentially refutes ALL of Coleman/Cornyn's straw dog claims. I don't know if you can find them on YouTube but Cornyn's re-election ads were these black and white clips of him showing his ability to be outdoors and lament that the tone in Washington has to change. He didn't name anything positive he had done and most of them didn't even identify him as a Republican. Calling for World War III and saying this case could take years is hardly changing the tone JC. Cornyn represents the worst of naked power thirst and doesn't care at all about democracy or everyday Americans. One in four Texans doesn't have health insurance, we have the worst infant mortality rate in the nation, and our education and social services are a disgrace. Yet this is what JC cares about. Franken won fair and square and Norm, Cornyn, and their ilk cannot stand the thought of an actual populist working for the people. I wish someone would fund a TV ad of just showing a loop of Norm calling for a time to heal and saying that he would withdraw etc. Hypocrites to the very marrow!
April 14, 2009 4:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone have a take on how much Quimby (and possibly Cornhole's NRSC) will have to pay, given that the MN District court ordered that they cover Franken's costs?
April 14, 2009 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not nearly enough.
April 14, 2009 7:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Harharharharharharhar!!!
As we say in a particular part of the world, Norm and John are paddling upstream in a barbed-wire canoe using a broomstick as a paddle. Did I mention that the body of water is commonly known as "Shit Creek?"
The 2009 election for the Senate seat in the State of Minnesota is so last year. Winner declared. Sit back and enjoy their humiliation - over and over and over.
April 14, 2009 7:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh dear, who to believe? A bi-partisan panel of judges, poring over all of the evidence and the arguments, taking time and great pains to do right by the citizens of the state they live in? Or, a lying, hypocritical, ethically challenged windbag who is admittedly comfortable with the idea of this being dragged out for years?
Hmmm, this is a tough one.
April 14, 2009 7:17 PM | Reply | Permalink