So Coleman shows up at his press conference today and tells us about the sanctity of elections and how you can't trust an election if you can't trust the election process and blah, blah, blah.
His wife stands to his left (our right) looking somewhere in between "mildly supportive" and "can't I just go back to California yet?"
And the small crowd gathered tries to create some mild form of a chant or a unison clap and instead looks like they were brought in from their offices and offered $20 if they would just fake some enthusiasm.
No one is surprised that Norm won't quit. But here is my advice:
Quit.
Norm, just quit. I know it hurts to lose to a guy with basically no experience who ran one of the most mediocre winning campaigns that I have ever seen, but you should still quit for a variety of reasons:
- One of your big complaints is that "your" absentee ballots were excluded. Well, who said they could be excluded unless everyone agreed to include them? The Minnesota Supreme Court. And what was your attorney's reaction to that ruling?
"We’re quite happy with it, really," said Coleman attorney Tony Trimble. "They actually endorsed our view. Their view would have the counties go out on their own without any uniform parameters."
So you are trying to overturn a ruling by Minnesota's highest court that your own attorney said "endorsed [your] view." Good luck with that one, and when you file your documents, review the law regarding terms such as stare decisis and "judicial estoppel." See how that comes out for you.
- Suppose that a miracle occurs and your rather sketchy positions about how you were allegedly cheated are found to have some small amount of merit. Even then, you will eventually have to show that you would gain 226 votes. Not that you might, but that you would, in fact, win.
I have seen no objective analysis by anyone that reached the conclusion that Norm wins, even if the votes are counted in the manner he would prefer.
- You get through step 2 -- Now what? Some 3-person panel says, "I don't care what the canvassing board said, Norm is our guy -- he wins."
You may want to look at Article I, Section 5 of the United States Constitution, Normie:
Section 5: Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each House may provide.
If this clause is to mean anything at all, it must surely mean that the Democrats in the Senate can look at the sleazy way Norm "won" and decide, instead, that Franken won.
- So you have overcome enormous hurdles, managed to make people believe your side of the story and found votes that no one currently believes you can find.......and........you can't get seated as a U.S. Senator.
So you sue on and on and on and ask the SCOTUS to make the Senate seat you. General response -- not gonna do that, they are a co-equal branch and this is a political matter. But suppose the folks at the SCOTUS
decide to re-live Bush v. Gore and reiterate its basic rule of law: "If we have 5 Republicans on the court, the Republican wins."
Then you have created a constitutional crisis. The SCOTUS isn't going to come and physically force the Senate to seat you. Is Obama? That is the executive branch's duty -- to enforce court orders. Suppose Obama says he thinks that the SCOTUS is wrong and he isn't going to make the Senate do anything (co-equal branch of government and all that stuff....)?
You are now a year or two down the line, Minnesota still has one Senator, everyone hates you, and what have you accomplished? One of two things:
a) you lost anyway; or
b) you "won" but no one will recognize your win.
AND, if by some miracle you actually get seated, you might get thrown out anyway once people start asking in earnest where that $75,000 came from.
So, Normie, quit.
I am a transplant to Minnesota, but I will say it as a true outstate veteran Minnesotan might say it:
"Norman, seems to me that a guy might wanna consider quittin' about now, huh? Seems to me. But that's just me, ya know."