Its not that nothing happened yesterday in the MN Senate recount situation, but very little more than nothing happened. So enough for a diary, but one of the shortest in the series.
So even the cliff (notes) are short:
Franken +225, no votes left to count.
Coleman, -225, faces his day in Election Contest Court starting no later than January 26 (10 days to doom?)
NEW: The 3 judge panel makes their stage debut.
To keep warm if all of you will break into a slow trot we can jog past the base of the cliff and through the news in jig time so you can get on to bigger and better diaries.....and thanks for taking a gander at this one......
UPDATE: Ap Reporting Election Contest Court will open Wednesday, Jan. 21. Franken's Motion to Dismiss will be up first.
Election Contest VII
TODAY, this morning both camps are going to meet with the 3 judge panel, get acquainted and, hopefully, in a long meeting, hammer out some basics like starting date, various procedures, etc. Lord have mercy on the judges (and even though its not yet the court, maybe they should bring along gavels) and grant them strength, because both sides sure don't want to come out of their corners and make nice.
Norm Coleman's legal team filed a 204 page brief for an Election Contest Civil trail on January 6. By MN Law such a contest for a statewide race is heard by a 3 judge panel and begins 20 days after filing-- so in this case, by no later than January 26.
Now remember this from yesterday?
JANUARY 21: If there's a Motion to Dismiss the contest, the courts will hear it on this date.
FEBRUARY 9th: Rejected Absentee Ballots hearing begins.
FEBRUARY 16th: Duplicate/Original ballots hearing begins.
FEBRUARY 16th: Missing 133 ballots in Mpls Ward 1/Precinct 3 begins.
FEBRUARY 23rd: Voter Intent Challenges hearing begins.
FEBRUARY 23rd: "Remaining Issues" hearing begins.
This was/is Team Norm Coleman's proposed schedule for the Election Contest Court. To their credit they propose starting on the 21st, saving everyone 5 days from the state maximum. BUT they want 18 (18!) days to argue over Motion to Dismiss and really start chewing through trail stuff (witnesses, evidence, fingerprints, "Objection overruled" etc) Feb. 9 and then not START the 5th piece of their case until Feb. 23rd.
Yesterday Team Franken proposed a rather different schedule. They want to start on January 26 (conveniently a Monday, and the legal maximum to start) and then chew through EVERYTHING in 15 "trial days" (weekends off), about 7 1/2 days for each side, and finish on Feb. 13 (thats FRIDAY THE 13TH-- could be a VERY unlucky day for Norm Coleman!)
So they propose starting later (boo!) but finishing (off Norm) by the same week Norm really wants to start. (Yay!)
Franken lead attorney Mark Elias had a few things to say about the Coleman case as his side released this timetable. Now lawyers are supposed to do this, prop up your own side and bomb the other side, so a lot of this is standard boilerplate lawyer talk, but still: Duplicate/double votes? Missing votes? "They don't have any evidence."......
More richly, "They have a theory but they don't have a case.".....
Coleman's case as a whole "lacks specificity".
"In a normal trial, they would present their witnesses," Elias said. Instead he asserts that they want a process in which they can slow down the process so they can find more witnesses and evidence that might help Norm. "If the court grants this delay, it will place an enormous burden on the witnesses. Some witnesses were involved in multiple stages or phases of the recount process. They would have to appear multiple times. Courts don't order this type of trial except in extreme circumstances." (h/t to Big E at MN Progressive Project)
You know, its boilerplate, but when boilerplate is TRUE does that land on the other side like a street sewer lid frisbee? CLANG! And Elias DID, you know, focus on the FACTS, and the CASE.
By contrast from under that sewer lid Knaak & Trimble threw up their usual chaff: "Franken did not win the election/is not a Senator/not entitled to an Election Certificate/has an artificial lead."
Knaak did wriggle free from the lid long enough to get off one nasty shot (h/t Minn Post) that to my nose has a whiff of desperation to it. Why does this sound like the old lawyer advice to the new kid in the firm: "If you're strong on facts and weak on the law, pound the facts. If you're strong on the law and weak on facts, pound the law. If you're weak on both law and facts, pound the table!"
Claiming the Franken side merely wants the three-judge panel to rubber-stamp the Canvassing Board, Knaak said, "It’s an insult to the intelligence of these judges and a big whack-a-mole over the head to the voters of Minnesota whose votes have yet to be counted."
Soooooo....Judges Hayden, Reilly and Marben? Good luck (and some of us would LOVE to be listening at the keyhole!)
Franken Gift to Texas
You know Sen. Barbara Boxer's quote: "Elections have consequences"? YES THEY DO, even when they are still hung up in Election Contest Court. Earlier this week Senate Republicans threw Norm Coleman to the wolves by agreeing with Harry Reid on committee assignments and ratios based on a 59-41 party division. (They assume Coleman will NOT be back.)
Now comes word from the Minn Independent here:http://minnesotaindependent.com/...
that Franken's election has echoed all the way down Interstate 35 from Minneapolis-St.Paul to the Dallas-Fort Worth form of Texas Twin Cities. Texas Gov. Rick "GoodHair" Perry (R-Nutso) term ends in 2010. Texas R's have seen the Lone Star Democrats rising strength (Noreiga's solid run vs. Cornyn; Obama's notable improvement over Kerry; and I think some improvements in the Texas Legislature-- subject to better info). So they have been making serious noises to ask Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson to step aside from her Senate seat (term runs to 2012) and run for Governor. Texas Dems admit defeating KayBay would be a Texas tall order.
But now it sounds like the lady Senator is feeling counter pressure to stay in the Senate and out of the Texas Gov. race. Seems if KayBay steps down and Goodhair appoints an interim the calculation is the interim could well LOSE the Senate seat (and give Democrats that 60th filibuster-busting seat) in a special election. Because Franken's seat puts Democrats at 59 seats they Repubs don't think they can spare her. Wow.
Friday Morning Minnesota Media
The now bankrupt Star Trib (filed chapter 11) has a couple of stories up. One from Mike Kaszuba recounts (!) the legal maneuvering leading up to this morning's meeting with the 3 judge panel. Its pretty balanced but he does cite this from Franken's filing regarding trial schedule:
"Now, with the new Senate addressing the Nation's urgent business, Coleman still is not entirely sure what his case is about, so he proposes multiple trials that would begin on February 2, 9 and 16," said a nine-page legal document filed by Franken.
Also, as noted yesterday (*ahem*!, WineRev grins, takes small bow) Coleman proposes the trial in stages and at each stage could possibly cut it short if a "sufficient number of votes" ain't happening to swing Norm's way. I said that could be Norm's undoing if he hits the first hurdle and does a face plant instead of clearing it. Kaszuba reports somebody asked Tony Trimble is that is so:
In court documents, (Coleman's) campaign said it might cut the trial short if any stage did not produce a "sufficient number of votes" needed to overcome Franken's lead.
But Coleman attorney Tony Trimble downplayed the significance of that language. "No, no, it's not saying that," he said when asked whether the language indicated Coleman would continue only if he saw he was gaining enough votes.
"It's saying that we want to conquer the biggest territory first [rejected absentee ballots] and, obviously, if we do well in that, we continue to move on. ... You can read a lot of things into it."
Tony, yes we can! And I think your pounding the table some more. ("Methinks he doth protest too much")
Also, the US Senate unanimously passed a resolution to allow Coleman's FORMER Senate office to be unlocked and reoopened to Coleman's staff so they can archive files and arrange to send pending constituent issues and cases over to Se. Amy Klobuchar's office, or in some cases, to members of the MN House delegation. Norm had asked for this for 60 days; Senate granted through Feb. 4.
And thats it. Really. Its so cold again I think even newsmakers are frozen up (although today's meeting with the 3 judges should thaw out LOTS of fingers and toes.) But for the moment thats the latest from yust southeast of Lake Wobegon.
Shalom.