Franken wins by +312 votes.
The MN Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday, June 1 so today is about 382 hours into "The Wait." We are also more than 225 freakin' days since the ELECTION (not that anyone's counting.) My thoughts and yours.... just past the Orange fold.
From: The Minnesota Affairs Desk,
WineRev June, Freaking 17th, 2009
To: The Minnesota Supreme Court
Dear Alan, Paul, Helen, Laurie and Christopher (and hello to Eric and G. Barry),
Thank you for all your hard work this last judicial term. I mean look, just here in May you heard several criminal appeals (eg. State of MN vs. Jackson, and vs. Cauz-Ramirez, and vs. Lessley). Also you heard Fleeger vs. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a hairy bank mortgage case against a mortgage company and the United States Government itself. You had to hear the MN Voters Alliance suit against the city of Minneapolis and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie over Instant Runoff Voting. Your oral argument calendar stretched to June 10 (for a case involving a zoning variance and the MN Dept. of Natural Resources.)
And after hearing these you all have to write and issue opinions about them and your website says you have a regular method for doing this:
Minnesota Supreme Court opinions are issued every Thursday and are available to the public at 10:00 a.m. CST/CDT.
On Monday of each week, the Supreme Court mails a notice that informs counsel, pro se parties, and court personnel associated with a case that an opinion will be released the following Thursday. Opinions are available online or by visiting the Clerk of Appellate Courts, 305 Minnesota Judicial Center, 25 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, after the Thursday release time. Copies of the opinions are mailed to involved parties on Thursdays.
In certain time-sensitive cases, the Supreme Court may issue opinions or orders on a business day other than Thursday. In these instances, involved parties will be contacted just prior to the special release.
And you know, A-P-H-L&C, I really get (more than you know) its been a bear of a year with this Senate thing hanging over every one.
But can I ask all of you for something? Could tomorrow be a decision/opinion day for Coleman v. Franken? I want to speak in favor of public mental health because people are really starting to lose it. There's nothing to write about or talk about. Its like we are all living in Mr. Bean's Holiday, the Carson Clay Production/Film/Script/Leading Actor/Director. Everything about this case is leaving us feeling "like a cop with a broken heart": "Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing....."
Look, Minn Independent had to report Norm & Al were on the same plane the other day from MN to DC (Al in coach--with the People, man! Dig it!; Norm in first class-- with the economic royalists/up-grade fanatics/involuntarily bumped from earlier flights). I mean, MNIndy reported this as NEWS for cryin' out loud.
http://minnesotaindependent.com/...
Chris Stoller over there, once a coming reporter, has been reduced to comparing the Coleman-Franken log jam to Ahmadinejad and Moussavi in Iran! Can you see the pain of this good reporter cracking under the strain?
http://minnesotaindependent.com/...
Joe Kimball over at MinnPost is having to reprint Politco columns that declare Coleman doesn't stand a chance in the court case before you. I mean, he doesn't, but Joe is reduced to stating not just the obvious ("the sun rises in the East") but the stunningly obvious ("Dick Cheney should be on trial for treason") when he has to print stuff like that.
http://www.minnpost.com/...
Joe's friend at MinnPost, David Brauer of Braublog, has been forced to write articles about media covering the Coleman-Franken struggle rather than the struggle itself. Granted, its a gentle, strong and praise-worthy piece on the upstart upTake video that many have come to love, but still, I really think David would like to write a fini to the case itself.
http://www.minnpost.com/...
Eric, Joe Bodell and Grace Kelly have been putting up a brave front with stories about US Senators quietly quitting on Norm and what governor Pawlenty will do with a Certificate of Election after he unfolds it as a paper airplane, but they haven't been able to bring themselves to write anything for over a week:
http://www.mnprogressiveproject.com/...
Yes, yes, I know not everyone is hurting. Michael Brodkorb, the founder and webmeister of Minnesota Democrats Exposed, is blithely careening along the right side/seig heil shoulder of MN politics. He STILL hasn't put up anything about the Coleman-Franken oral arguments in front of you from June 1. Rachel Stassen-Berger of the St. Paul Pioneer Press called him on his stunt of filing a suit to get a count of absentee ballots (whether or not these ballots are legal or not) here:
http://blogs.twincities.com/...
But he DID find time to get himself elected the #2 gaulieter of the MN Republican Party. Yeah, really! A blogger parlaying his blogginess into a real job.
So look you 5 (who are on our mind), people are really cracking under the strain. (Brodkorb was pre-cracked, so he doesn't really count.) It would mean a lot to the mental health and general karma of the entire state of Minnesota if you 5 could deliver yourselves of a decision....and maybe tomorrow?
Once again, thanks for all you do for so many.
Your BFF (ask your teen),
WineRev
PS. If all those other folks don't do it for you, think of ME! I've got a gaggle of Amazon editors, fact-checkers (well, not enough), layout people, indexers and a printer all ready to go with a deadline of June 26 for the first print run of MY book about all this. I promise you 5/7 are in it and so far you all look good, but I'm really coming up against the deadline here.
Those NetRoots attenders REALLY want their copy, as do the 160+ people who have already pre-ordered so they could be listed as "supporters" in the book itself.
They can order it the rest of this week for $16.95 if they go to this web address:
http://www.wordalchemy.net/...
You see, to keep the Kossacks happy, and especially THIS kossack moving toward financial solvency, you really need to think of delivering a decision soon.
Soooo... no pressure. Just think of ME out on this ledge... no biggie... teetering here while reporting the latest from yust southeast of Lake Wobegon.
Shalom.