As Markos alluded to earlier today, Chris Cilizza had an unreal tidbit in his "Fix" this morning about the NRSC throwing a meaty little $750,000 bone to Norm Coleman.
According to Cilizza, the money is being given to Coleman to help defray legal fees that he has incurred in his interminable legal challenge to Al Franken's 2008 Minnesota election victory.
Cilizza points out that sources close to the monetary exchange would like us to know that there is no funny business going on here:
"...it should not be read as a down payment for a prolonged Coleman legal battle at the federal level if he loses his ongoing challenge before the Minnesota Supreme Court but rather a good faith effort to keep him from going into massive debt."
Riiiiiiight. Thank goodness for us, one of the bigger donors to the Coleman crusade is willing to be a bit more candid:
The NRSC has just plowed another $750,000 into Coleman’s recount effort, raising questions about whether GOP donors are funding an effort they know is doomed merely to keep the seat empty as long as possible.
Asked about this, (Coleman supporter Dirk) Van Dongen said the goal was to put Coleman in the seat, but added: "Is it better empty than in Franken’s hands? Hell, yeah."
There is almost certainly more motivation than just tweaking Al Franken and the Democrats here. As Laura Clawson rather astutely pointed out last week, Senate Republicans enjoy a legislative advantage by only having 99 Senators in the chamber. Their ability to stifle Democratic initiatives would be compromised a great deal when Al Franken is sworn in as the 100th member of the Senate.
While Democrats and their supporters have to be growing incredibly frustrated with this protracted festival of obstruction, they also have to be amused somewhat by this princely sum going into the money pit that is the Coleman legal challenge.
After all, as Markos pointed out earlier today, that $750K is cash that can not be spent next year to save Richard Burr in North Carolina, and it is money that can not be used to attack Democratic candidates in that raft of Republican open seats that have opened up in places like New Hampshire, Missouri, and Ohio.
Potential Democratic campaign benefits aside, one prominent voice in the Democratic Party has officially had enough. Just today, the Chairman of the DNC, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, called on Governor Tim Pawlenty to bring pressure to bear on Coleman to finally concede the election.
Of course, given that Pawlenty is widely rumored to have designs on a White House bid in 2012, such an entreaty to Coleman seems awfully unlikely.
So, with no prominent Republicans willing to put pressure on Coleman to throw in the towel, and as the challenge drags on now into its seventh month, it is no wonder that 54% of the voters in Minnesota want Coleman to concede RIGHT NOW (even in advance of the state Supreme Court decision).
It is also no wonder that Minnesota political players like former Governor Jesse Ventura think that it is time for Norm to hang it up:
For what it's worth, here is my favorite part of the video:
VENTURA: It’s time to get going and let him (Franken) become the senator, if indeed the Supreme Court rules that way, and end this matter. And besides, I find it very interesting that Norm Coleman, the Republican, in 35 years he has never had a private sector job. I think it’s about time as a Republican he finds out what it’s like to work in the private sector.
One does wonder why Coleman is resisting the inevitable move to the private sector. After all, his three decades in politics ought to land him a very lucrative lobbying gig.
You know, the kind where he will get paid big dollars to represent the very folks who are currently bankrolling this effort to deny Al Franken his seat in the U.S. Senate, and to deny Democrats the full opportunity to use their majority to pursue their agenda.