Von Spakovsky to the Rescue! Voter-Suppression Guru Backs Coleman's Appeal
An interesting expert has emerged to speak out on behalf of Norm Coleman's fight in Minnesota, and the importance it has to our democratic system: Former FEC commissioner and voter-suppression guru Hans Von Spakovsky, an old TPMmuckraker favorite.
Here's what Von Spakovsky told Fox News in support of Coleman's litigation, including a potential U.S. Supreme Court appeal: "If you don't deal with all of the issues that have been raised in this case, then you know a lot of people are going to be questioning whether the real winner who actually ends up in the seat is actually the person who won the race, and that's not good for the kind of election process that we have."
As I've asked before, when Norm Coleman himself has offered the same point: Where were you in 2000, Hans, when we really needed you?
The Fox article also says that the GOP appears to be ready to keep the fight going, now that Al Franken would be the 60th Democrat. NRSC chairman John Cornyn gave Fox a statement that, not for the first time, invokes the count-every-vote spirit of Florida in 2000: "It's blatant hypocrisy that many of the same Democrats who so loudly complained about voter disenfranchisement during the 2000 Florida recount have been so willing to compromise their principles when it no longer fits their political agenda."
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Am I the only person in the world that read the trial court's final order and memorandum? They DID deal with all of the issues. Just not to Norm's liking.
May 5, 2009 11:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
They just didn't announce him as the winner. That's the rub.
May 5, 2009 11:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
And of course, a Republican going down to defeat to a Democrat is considered an "unorthodox outcome."
May 5, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Every time I see Hans I want to kick him in the guts until his ears bleed.
May 5, 2009 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Me too. I want to take his lunch money, depants him, and duct tape him to the flag pole. And I'm anti-bully!
May 5, 2009 11:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
For some reason I keep getting the feeling he was supposed to be hung at Nuremburg. Ears bleeding is nice but without some sort of broken bones included I just can't cosign that.
May 5, 2009 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
It seems that Republicans care about states' rights only when it benefits their candidates. There's the true hypocrisy.
May 5, 2009 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't have any doubt that ALL of the 2000 Supreme Court Justices had in the back of their minds the possibility of a similar 5 1/2 month (or more) delay in seating the new President. We now have a real life example of that possibility actually working itself out. Think about it.
They still made the wrong decision, but that certainly influenced it, and perhaps it influenced Sandra Day O'Connor enough for her to go with the four conservative Catholics.
Of course, the federal legal process would have been expedited in 2000 and it would have landed at the Supreme Court tout de suite. So the process probably wouldn't have lasted this long, and S.D.O'Connor might not have made her error in judgment.
May 5, 2009 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are right, except it will be time for those ACTIVIST CONSERVATIVE Supreme Court sitters (I cannot bring myself to call them 'justices') to intervene and become the deciders of this election.
May 6, 2009 8:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can't someone say "It's blatant hypocrisy that many of the same Republicans who had no principles requiring them to 'count every vote' in 2000 now loudly proclaim such principles when it fits their political agenda"?
Which is the most damning hypocrisy here, if we place them side by side? That of the Democrats in 2000, who nonetheless yielded to the Republicans and let Bush be seated, or those of the Republicans in 2009, who refuse to compromise even an inch despite repeated rulings against them by the proper arbitrators of elections?
May 5, 2009 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
When John Cornyn calls it blatant hypocrisy then he is actually being an uber-hypocrite...
It's the classic Rovian tactic to attack your opponent from your position of weakness. Dems have always tried to work through the process and get every legal voter to vote and every legal vote counted, Repubs have consistently short circuited the process and tried to make it difficult for people to vote, especially those not in their demographic, and to deny as many select legal votes as possible, but not now in MN.
I kinda wish they could just count all the illegal votes to see if Norm even has any scenario where he could have won. While Team Franken was miles ahead of Coleman's hacks on the recount, I doubt the remaining ballots help Coleman much at all even if they were all counted. If they could blindly count them somehow by all of the different classification groups they were sorted into during the trial just to see if any combination even put's norm ahead. Maybe the combo of admitted ballot signature forgers, ineligible felons, and multiple repeat voters groups eek out a lead for Norm if they are the only ineligible votes groups counted. I'd love to see them try and make that legal argument.
May 5, 2009 12:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hans "The Turtle" returns....
May 5, 2009 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
If somehow the MSC or the SCROTUM I mean SCOTUS asked to hear from this nitwit, then I'd say let's look into it a little further. In the meantime he gets laughed out of the building. BWHAHAHAHAHA!
May 5, 2009 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
well, when can Franken be seated legally?
certainly he does not need to wait for a SCOTUS appeal.
and never would the court accept such an appeal.
sounds to me like these fools are hoping only to fool their dimwit base .
thats why reid must get off his ass and announce when he will seat franken.
May 5, 2009 11:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Even if he didn't have to wait for the appeal and certification, there's simple momentum. An object at rest stays at rest. This has been stagnant for so long that there isn't immediacy there for a sudden change (even though Franken and most of us would disagree).
May 5, 2009 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Once the MN-SC orders "Timmah" Pawlenty to sign the certificate of election along with SOS Mark Ritchie. Then and only then will the issue be before the Senate for seating.
Until then, all the Harry Reid-bashers will have it wrong. Not that it has ever stopped (or even slowed) them.
May 5, 2009 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Commenting on Specter's switch Cornyn had this to say:
“This makes it pretty darn important,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, of the race following Specter’s switch. “I expect they will pursue the appeals until they are exhausted, whenever that may be. … I would assume if they were unsuccessful in the Minnesota Supreme Court, there may very well be an appeal to the United States Supreme Court.”
As I've said, it looks like Franken will be waiting a long time to actually assume his seat in the Senate. And who knows what the USSC would do...?
May 5, 2009 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know! I know! (Waving hand enthusiastically)
The US Supreme Court would rule that Coleman would be irreparably damaged if Franken's election is certified, so they would rule that Coleman won the election, and any further recounting or consideration of the facts must be halted. And, Scalia would announce that the Constitution is very clear on this fact and must be followed to the letter.
May 5, 2009 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I forgot to add, the Supremes would also note that this ruling cannot be used as a precedent in any future case, except those where a Republican can be deemed elected by using it as a precedent.
May 5, 2009 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have every reason to believe that once the Minnesota Supreme Court rules on this case, it will be all over but the wailing from Republicans.
The Minnesota Supreme Court will uphold the finding of the three-judge, tri-partisan panel. There will be no reason, barring a federal injunction, for the Secretary of State to certify the winner, and that certification is, as we learned from the Burris affair, the Golden Ticket to the Wonka Factory that is the United States Senate.
The GOP's options at that point become limited, and the relief even more so. To stop certification and seating, they must seek a Temporary Restraining Order and/or a Preliminary Injunction. Typically, to win a TRO or a PI, you must show (1) likelihood of success on the merits, (2) irreparable harm, and (3) balancing of the hardships. The last two elements are not hard for Coleman to show (if Franken is wrongly seated, there is irreparable harm, and the balance of the hardships tilts in Norm's favor). But that first element of likelihood of success is a doozy. Without it, no injunction can be issued.
So Norm would have to show a violation of Equal Protection, of Voting laws, or assert a theory for permitting the federal government to overturn a state. I am not an election law expert, but it seems to me that without a preliminary injunction or a TRO, Franken gets seated, and relatively soon.
The 8th Circuit is not going to issue a stay on appeal, and cert will be denied by the Supremes. But the key is, after the TRO/PI is stopped at the district court level, Reid should man up and seat Franken, because he will then have in his hand a declaration from the court that Norm is not likely to succeed on the merits.
May 5, 2009 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, should read: "...There will be no reason, barring a federal injunction, for the Secretary of State NOT to certify the winner, and that certification is, as we learned from the Burris affair, the Golden Ticket to the Wonka Factory that is the United States Senate."
May 5, 2009 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
When will the Supreme Court deny cert? Won't they be on recess until October?
May 5, 2009 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Translation: If we don't win, we'll be "questioning" the legitimacy of the winner, no matter how many courts rule against us. It's what we do.
Universal van Spakovsky translation:
"not good election process" = "GOP didn't win"
May 5, 2009 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Forgive me for asking the obvious but:
"Why isn't Von Spakovsky in prision, trading cigarettes for his life?"
May 5, 2009 1:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think you mean being sold for packs of cigarettes and yeah that is a good question. I think the answer to why no one has gone after him lies in the fact that when you scrape all the scum off those people capable of bringing him to justice who also wear donkey pins, they resemble our beady eyed lil Alabama Nazi Hans.
Ignoring what this sleazebag has done and has tried to do is criminal.
May 5, 2009 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
i wonder what the Carter Center would have to say to the likes of HVS.
HVS..hmm.(isn't that a type of horse disease?)
May 5, 2009 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know it's unseemly to comment on folks' appearance, but do you suppose Norm offered Hans some of his chin?
May 5, 2009 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
No! That lack of chin is fine German engineering! It has saved generations of Von Spakovskys from the gallows. That small head and lack of chin has allowed them to easily slip past nooses for centuries.
May 5, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
BWAHAHAHAHA! i KNEW it! you are not the only one to think that.
May 5, 2009 8:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
With those squinty eyes and that forced grin . . . the man has a case of terminal flatulence.
May 5, 2009 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Put glasses on this guy and you've got Himmler.
May 5, 2009 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is unbelievable to me that the Republicans actually believe what they are saying about this race. Let me get this straight:
Six weeks in the courts in Florida, and all of the votes were counted in 2000.
Six months in the courts in Minnesota, and you still think all of the votes have not been counted?
The Minnesota Hoodwink.
http://progressnotcongress.org/blog/?p=351
May 5, 2009 7:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Has anyone else noticed that Von Spakovsky looks eerily similar to the psychopathic Nazi from the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie?
I've photo-shopped a side-by-side comparison here. Spooky.
May 5, 2009 10:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ouch!
May 6, 2009 11:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Where do the republicans get all these weird people! You ever look at what the get to crawl out from under rocks? Colemans words should be read in front of the supreme court. Isnt it about time that we as a people DEMAND that the politicans who claim to have the best interest of our country first actually be honest and be held to that status, put in jail and convicted when they break the law. Now we have a nut in calif. wanting to sell pot to get money for a nut state to begin with. How does this country really keep goin!
May 6, 2009 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink