The Election Contest Court (ECC) was listening and talking. They listened to a somewhat faster set of testimony. They talked by issuing orders (mostly AT the Coleman camp.) Team Franken filed a reader-friendly brief with the Court.
WineRev went to the UpTake bash for way too late in the night and now does not feel UpTaken but DownGiven out....and bummed for other reasons too....
Franken still leads +249.
MN Supreme Ct. still silent on Franken motion for a Cert. of Election (day 14 since hearing.)
Oh and Norm Coleman gets a new/old lawyer and Lillehaug vs. Ginsberg could be good starting today at 9:00am on the UpTake.
Thats the abbreviated....the "what more could there be" is just past the Orange fold.....
Elections Contest Court (ECC)-- Episode XXIV; The Dark Lord Arrives.
Last Friday the ECC ruled 12/13 of 19 categories of absentee ballots inadmissable, thereby shrinking Coleman's universe of potential ballots from 4623 down to about 3300. Friday the Coleman legal team called that ruling a victory. Monday they wrote the Court a letter asking them to reconsider their victory from Friday. (Don't you just hate victories that won't stay victorious?)
Well yesterday the Court replied in writing to the letter from the Coleman side: DENIED. This is almost the entire order!
(Has an almost eerie resemblance to: From: the commander of the military forces at Bastogne TO: the commander of the German military forces surrounding Bastogne, regarding your request for surrender of Bastogne: "Nuts.")
While the Court heard more testimony and saw more ballots flashed and then withdrawn, Ben Ginsberg held pressers in the lobby re: the Court's action. He was very wound up about them, invoking as much gloom and doom the "Friday the 13th" court ruling is denying equal protection to MN voters who voted absentee. Indeed, after invoking cheesy shlock movies, now comes word that Ben Ginsberg, legal eagle in Bush v. Gore in Florida 2000 and the mouthpiece of record for the Swift Boat team of 2004 is pro hac vice!
This means more than being ANTI hac vice. Ginsberg has now been officially entered as a member of the Coleman legal team for this case ("pro hac vice" (pro hawk VEE-chay I believe) "for this instance/case." An out of state lawyer is allowed to try "just this case" without being actually admitted to the state bar. Elias and Hamilton are PHV for the Franken Team.)
We'll see if Big Bad Ben makes an official appearance in court today. But this probably means the Coleman pressers will be duller. I mean Ginsberg could at least throw around terms like "fatally flawed" and "Friday the 13th horrors" with gusto, even if they were aimed at the Court rather than at Team Franken. As a citizen he still has right of free speech. But now he is officially part of the case, an "officer of the court." Coming outside the courtroom and bashing the other side in the case is standard stuff and we've seen plenty of it.
But it seems to this non-lawyer going after the Court hearing your case is a definite no-no. The most you can say is something like, "Well the Court unfortunately decided against our motion. We are disappointed but will continue the case seeking justice for my client...." Saying, "The stupid poopy heads in the judges' chair were really mean and wrong by shooting down our motion" goes down hard with a court, whether inside our outside the courtroom.
King Banaian out.
The Court also bounced the Coleman witness Banaian, the St. Cloud State Univ. economics prof. "Bounced" as in agreed with The Franken side not to have him called. No need apparently for statistics on voting anomalies between counties from an econ guy who did well it stat class. Not that his analysis would be "fatally flawed" or anything......
Equal Protection defended
The Coleman case now seems more and more aimed at an appeal to federal court on grounds of equal protection. The Court in its Friday ruling already slapped this down saying (among other things) they found no systemic problems with the election.
Team Franken filed a 6-page memorandum yesterday supporting the Court by arguing equal protection has been met and that (as the closing line has it) contestant/Coleman's argument fails "both as a matter of law and of procedure." Its surprisingly easy reading for us of the non-esquire persuasion (you just sort of slide your eyes over the (Marbury v. Madison 1803; Dred Scott v. Missouri) parentheses stuff, like you just did.) You can tell whoever wrote it (Elias probably) A) knows his law cold, B) enjoys law, and C) can write with flair, brevity and microscopic focus from across the room.
Documents here: (#1, 4 and 5 are the ones you want; all pdfs)
http://www.mncourts.gov/...
Very Late Wednesday/ Too Early Thursday
Today's diary is at least brief; flair & focus are so-so. You see last night was the UpTake meet-up in St. Paul at the Groveland Tap. The staff & some (maybe 60) of the bloggers from the cutting edge of citizen media were there. WineRev met all sorts of interesting people in the flesh: Precinct capt. 51 took the train from Chicago to be here.....no other business, just needed the party.... Latte Liberal (and his "all the good ones are taken/ break my heart" SO), Grace Kelly, Tweedy, WYDubois, BillW, Mark Bannick, LindaG addicted..... those are the ones I remember and their spellings as best as I recall.
Ah yes the recall. Its rather...... delicate this morning..... McIntee was older than his boyish looks let on, Noah was thinner, Jason was holding up from his illness quite well and Jennifer.....ah, Jennifer..... well, if I were a quarter century younger........ ah, Jennifer..... who knew a purple dress and black boots would look so good together (certainly better than they would look on Mike or Noah!)
Wednesday was a vicious bummer for me personally: the mailbox had two crappy pieces: a "dear author" thanks but no thanks letter from a publisher....I guess I had higher hopes than I'd realized..... they read the whole manuscript (not just the first 25 pages or first 3000 words)..... yeah they have their reasons (a literary house; limited titles/year; just not a good fit for them etc.) but its a major bummer
And the mailbox also had a notice that I am officially being sued by Citibank for my credit card debt...... all I can feel is guilt, fear dread, shame........ and all I can think is I am going to have to actually file personal bankruptcy, something I've been desperately fending off the past 3 years.....and I'm scared to even ask about it.....and I don't think I can even pay for a lawyer to do it..... and will my pension fund be exempt?.....my car (to get to work to pay for... you know, living....or do I have to move in with my mom in FL for economic reasons (and face the emotional mess of that, and leaving my son still here in MN-- who would be with his mom of course, but still, I'm only 2 blocks away)....
Sorry. All that made for one rotten night of way too short sleep.......so for reasons of karma I SO needed to go to the Uptake meet up and spend a few hours being patted on the back and throwing around "Ginsberg is an ass! Freidberg SUCKS!" and hearing snatches of "I saw that challenged ballot in McLeod county" ..... "purple dress & black boots at 10 o'clock, alert" ... "my brother in Portland reads your stuff to keep up on the Senate race in MN"
......"OK then, the interview will be at 5:00. Just have your cell phone charged WineRev.... WineRev? thats 5:00 Thursday! you know, about 17 hours from now....radio, OK?".... "World Trade Center building 7 went down why? Can't ask on DailyKos you know"......
OK, hope this will hold you. Gotta get a shower (and why is water so LOUD?), scrape my face and pretend I like the early shift at work. Will try to check in at lunch. Thats all the latest (good GOD the late....the damned early) from yust southeast of Lake Wobegon.
Shalom.