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Coleman Fundraiser: "Hell, Yeah," Senate Seat Is Better Empty Than Franken In It
You can't help but get the feeling that Republican donors to Norm Coleman's legal fight really do like the fact that this is preventing the Democrats from seating a 60th Senator.
Greg Sargent reports that Dirk Van Dongen, who heads up the "Team Coleman" group of lobbyists raising money for Norm, said that the group is having some trouble getting more and more money as the donors max out. Van Dongen insists, of course, that the real purpose of this effort is to get Norm Coleman in the Senate.
But check out this line: "Is it better empty than in Franken's hands? Hell, yeah."
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Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Well, that's some spiffy bulletin board material!
"Republican fundraiser to Minnesota citizens: Drop Dead."
May 20, 2009 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
and tell 'em old Dirty Dirk Van Dongen sent ya!
ex-german-porn-star
May 20, 2009 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Reminds me of that other p0rn star Dirk Diggler from Boogie Nights. Sometimes you just can't make this stuff up.
May 21, 2009 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's almost like the GOP is vying for archetypal status of the phrase "win the battle, lose the war".
One question though: why are Democrats still treating the GOP like it is somehow relevant?
May 20, 2009 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Because the GOP has Drudge, Politico (Yesterday's headline: Dems CAVE), and The Page (the real smackdown is tomorrow: Cheney vs Obama!--) and the ear of cable news.
And they don't have much of a backbone, outside of the guy in the White House.
May 20, 2009 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
And the 9/11 truthers have their echo chambers, that doesn't give them traction in national politics.
Drudge is not the problem. Rush is not the problem. The problem is that the bigs pick up these stories and run with them because controversy equals ratings. The false equivalency pushed by the MSM favors the side with the most batshit crazy position (Bachmann beats all).
What progressive/liberals need to do is not push back against the right but push back against the media. Don't have a shouting match with the lying sack on the other side but call out the "journalist" for not pointing out the ways the GOP's positions are demonstrably false.
The Dem's need to drop their sense of decorum, because they are the only one's playing nice. They need to defang the right's talking points and make them look like asses every time they're used. They left needs to start more sentences with "I'm not sure if my colleague is being ignorant or dishonest but...". Or to quote the great Steve Carell "how's the weather up your own ass?".
May 20, 2009 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
What progressive/liberals need to do is not push back against the right but push back against the media.
Indeed.
However, Contessa Brewer this morning said on MSNBC that if politicians don't like the coverage, they should stop complaining about it and become. . .journalists.
May 20, 2009 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
She has a point. Worked for Karl Rove.
May 20, 2009 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Dems could all go spend a week at Media Camp and learn when the "journalist" starts his "balanced" routine that there are effective tactical ways to break out of a false equivalency exchange. The "journalist" must be made to recognize FACTS and not be just a juggler of opinions.
May 20, 2009 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's that foul wind blowing from GOP-TV, aka Fox news that some Dems are still skittish of.
May 20, 2009 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama and Gibbs have done some good work with turning the right's attacks back on itself (eg. Rush being the GOP leader). The Dems need to quit allowing the right to lay the ground rules for all debates.
The Dems can't make O'Reilly or Scarborough disappear any more than they can make Alex Jones disappear. What they can do is out them for being the clowns that they are.
May 20, 2009 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ya think?
BTW, I agree with Stiggs above, Democrats should just laugh every time a repub opens his mouth. Rush? That guy is such a comedian! Steele? Hahahahahahaha! Where does he get his material? Mann Coulter? Phew! Who left the fish in the newspaper overnight? Newt? Hey, the light is back on -- time to skuttle back under the steps!
And Norm -- not worthy of comment, but who did the work on his teeth?
May 20, 2009 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes! Laugh your heads off & in the process PlEASE grow a backbone, there will never be a better time. Lack of that backbone truly boggles the mind.
May 20, 2009 1:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Dirk Van Dongen"
Yah, come on. What's his real name?
May 20, 2009 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Man! And I was feeling sorry for the sorry state of government in California today. Well, could be worse - Minnesota!!!!
May 20, 2009 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have no fear, Harry Reid is on the case. He'll get to it right after a glass of warm Bosco and a few hours after his nap this afternoon. Now what was that problem again? Oh, it'll probably go away by itself.
May 20, 2009 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is one step away from fascism.
Note to Dirk Van Dongen (gotta be kidding with this name): We have a representative democracy in this country. That means that the winner of the election takes the seat, whether he/she is from your party or not.
Every elected official is expected to uphold the Constitution FIRST and their party second. This is why we have political transitions without tanks in the streets.
So Dirk - Why do Republicans hate this country and our system of government?
May 20, 2009 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
From where I stand, the supreme court of Minnesota has so thoroughly disgraced itself that its members should go hide under a rock and stay there, considering the way they allowed themselves and the judicial process to be hijacked by the right wingers in the Coleman camp.
May 20, 2009 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't be so quick in judging the MN-SC.
They, and the MN judicial system, have been playing by the rules (MN statute). These statutes were written in a different time, in a different climate, when you could assume that both parties had the good of the people as their goals. And when it was assumed that both parties would work together for the good of the people.
Coleman and the Republicans have abused the system, have put a lie to the notion that they have the good of the state and the nation at heart. They are neofascists, and have shown that all that matters to them is power.
The MN-SC's time is coming, and I'm hoping that they deliver a knockout punch to Quimby (and his fellow puppet Timmeh).
May 20, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
"They are neofascists, .... all that matters to them is power."
That is exactly true. The Republican Party is in fact the Fascist Party. World War II made these types very unpopular in Europe, but they continue to thrive here in America.
May 20, 2009 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
From where I stand, in Minneapolis, the MN Supreme Court has done nothing but correctly interpret Minnesota state law regarding elections and recounts. The problem is in the language of the law itself, which does not allow the governor or secretary of state to sign a certificate of election as long as the recount remains challenged in Minnesota state courts. So the final step in the process is the MN Supreme Court, which will start hearing arguments on June 1st. Assuming the MN Supremes rule in Franken's favor, which appears likely, Pawlenty loses the cover the law currently gives him. If he then refuses to sign the election certificate, he's going to pay a serious political price, at least in Minnesota. If Norm then decides to take his case to the federal courts, that does not preclude Pawlenty from certifying Franken as the winner as long as the MN Supreme Court has ruled against Coleman. At that point the U.S. Senate could assert it's constitutional role as final arbiter of U.S. Senate election results.
May 20, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, wait a minute. I'm from MN and have watched this mess develop...the three person election court held a very open transparent process, with every ruling being unanimous. Coleman appealed that ruling and it is now in the hands of the MN Supreme Court and they have not yet made their ruling. So hold on please, till the MN SC makes their final ruling...thank you.
May 20, 2009 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
There ought to be a law that this issue has a priority over other matters. The fact that the contender is keeping MN from having two Senators is a crime against the entire state, each and every one of its citizens. Therefore, this should have been before the courts long time ago.
May 20, 2009 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
AMEN !
May 20, 2009 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
With all due respect, I don't think you have any idea what you're talking about. But, if you'd care to elaborate, by all means do.
May 20, 2009 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not expressing a legal opinion. I'm expressing my personal opinion about a tactic which can be held hostage by a bunch of lawyers who can use the law to leverage the court system into an endless process. How many truly generically different challenges do you think have been raised during this process ? My guess would be not many, and in my view (and I could care less what you think of my view) the court should be capable of recognizing the same dead chicken, no matter how many ways the republican lawyers have dressed it up.
May 20, 2009 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're expressing your outrage. There's nothing wrong with that, but blaming the Minnesota Supreme Court is just lashing out at the wrong target. I trust them to have a much better grasp of what's involved in this case than you or I or anyone else here. Just because it's not happening as quickly as you'd like doesn't mean that they're a bunch of idiots. Due process doesn't get waived just because you don't like the person who benefits from it.
May 20, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
We all agree the Republicans have hijacked Democracy. Now ... WHAT CAN WE DO?
May 20, 2009 1:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
God, they're desperate. It would be funny if it weren't so frustrating.
May 20, 2009 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is like some legal love child between the OJ Simpson trial and Bush v Gore. You just stand there day after day and wonder how people can lie and lie about the sky is blue and the grass is green. It represents to all fair minded Americans what Fascism looks like in the year 2009. Just like the Reptile Party cannot resist dumping tens of thousands of voters off the cliff in their caging and other suppression schemes, they have no respect for honest democracy whatsoever if they can benefit from lies.
May 20, 2009 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Precisely!
May 20, 2009 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
To CT Voter...thanks for stating the truth. I am a Dem yet I am amazed how gutless they always are. Obama at least has brass...and you are correct, even Politico is leaning to the Republicans. You hit the nail on the head.
May 20, 2009 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
But it's also the media treating the Republicans as if they had not lost, resoundingly, the elections of 06 and 08: it's the corporations, including and especially the media, that try to make Cheney and Obama equivalent -- in utter disdain for what the people want. They still believe the Goebbelsian line that THEY can shape reality and no one will notice any truth lying outside it. Shocking.
May 20, 2009 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not a backbone that the dems need. It's not that simple.
They need to understand that as long as they remain indebted to (being contributed to by) the same greedbastards that the Goops are indebted to, their inability to go in a significantly different direction is going to be obvious.
Add campaign finance reform to Obama's big long list.
May 20, 2009 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
The popular term for this is "dog in the manger," from one of Aesop's fables. Wikipedia points out that the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas puts a similar phrase in the mouth of Jesus: "Woe to them, the Pharisees! For they are like a dog sleeping in the manger of the cattle; for he neither eats, nor does he let the cattle eat."
I think "Pharisees" describes the rump GOP pretty well.
May 20, 2009 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Look this is Minnesota.
Yesterday and today in the Cities, the temp was up to the low 90's -- but up in Duluth it is still winter, down in the low 30's at night, and there was snow this week in International Falls, (Koochiching County for those now familiar with our county geography.) But in most places it is green-up time, and next week the lilacs will all bloom, and we will forgive all the rotten thoughts that have been thunk about us given our precise exactitude in counting votes.
If you want to knock the Republicans for something, knock them for messing up Mark Richie's bills for fixing some of the problems that emerged in that last election, at the end of the session of the Legislature, which was Monday. Looks like they are holding hostage the reforms needed by the election administrators in the name of their precious Photo ID requirement.
Amy Klobuchar is saying that Al will be seated by the Fourth of July -- I think it will be sooner, perhaps mid June. Al has a nice piece out on YouTube that Hardball used today -- just wink wink, that empty seat in the Senate has Al Franken's name on it.
May 20, 2009 6:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Was the seat full with Coleman in it? It's Jessie Ventura time. Get in the ring!
May 21, 2009 12:05 AM | Reply | Permalink