Haunted by the fear that the Elections Contest Court (ECC) would finally heave the Coleman case through the ice of Lake Superior and the MN Supreme Ct. would not even give them a lifeline (or phone a friend), AND that he would miss the big "Franken Swearing In" Party, WineRev has sped back to MN for....... more of the same old, same old. (Did you miss me? Big thank you's to Tom Tech, Vote for America and other Kossacks who posted MN Senate diaries while I was gone. Mazel tov and I raise a glass of albarino to you!)
Jay Weiner at MinnPost continues to give great courtroom daily recaps here:http://www.minnpost.com/...
OK. Franken +225-- now more days ahead (50) than we had to endure the Coleman "lead" (election day to Dec. 18= 43 days).
Today is Day 9 of the ECC AND Today, a special event: The MN Supreme Ct. hears arguments at 9:00amCT over a Franken request for a Certificate of Election...... all coming to you past the fold....
Elections Contest Court: Episode XVIII: Crackin' a Move On.
While I was shivering in Florida (last night was supposed to be in the 30s in Delray Beach-- maybe the coldest night of the entire year for Mama WineRev) the ECC issued 2 rulings.
1) The Court ruled the "universe" of rejected absentee ballots that the Coleman side can even open their mouth about is 4797. Well "universe" is overdone. The ECC DID throw a cosmic rope around quite a bit of the solar system and declare everything from the orbit of Jupiter outward as out of bounds: "No Outer Planet Ballots!"
Recall Team Coleman has been muttering like the Borg Collective about including all 12,000 rejected absentee ballots statewide, minus the the 1354/1346 improperly rejected absentee ballots, of which 933 got opened and counted Jan. 3. (More on these below in 2). But 11000? Nope, only 4797, or 43.61%. So Team Franken can take satisfaction (by "Motion of Limine" granted by the ECC) that 56.39% of the rejected absentee ballots are now officially out of bounds.
Indeed during Wednesday's testimony Coleman main mouthpiece Joe Friedberg made another move to once again go to the the edge of the Oort cloud to bring in the 11000. One of the judges pulled out his or her phaser set on heavy stun and said, "We already ruled on that. Move on." (As in, "Ain't happenin'!") Pppppffzzzztttt indeed!
Many have pointed out the 4797 are NOT being counted, only reviewed for possible counting. And many have noted the counting will NOT be pretty for the Coleman Team:
MN Progressive has analysis & links to Nate (the Holy Odin) Silver here:http://www.mnprogressiveproject.com/...
Finally keep in mind this motion to limit applies to the Coleman Camp. From what I can gather from some of the esquires on these boards (red Starfleet uniforms and insignia of balancing scales around a staff of winding precedents) if/when the Franken team needs to present their side of the case THEY can bring in other ballots from the rings of Saturn or the clouds of Neptune. (They've already hinted they have 771 absentees they will drop into the nearest di-lithium crystal chamber whenever they need to.)
2) The ECC also ruled that the 1351-418= 933 (their numbers) of improperly rejected absentee ballots that were counted back on Jan 3 by the Sec. of State's office are IN. As in "this rock from the asteroid belt of 933 is in earth orbit now and has been properly mined." They went so far as to dismiss any further claims/objections from the contestant Norm Coleman as "dismissed with prejudice." "With prejudice" is not a civil rights thing here but court talk for "WE have ruled and DO NOT bring this sucker back".....you can't re-file, or raise objections, or do a Cullen Sheehan patented whine because "with prejudice" is NO, NO and "no internet, iphone, video games, texting or anything with a TV screen for a week, Cullen, do you hear me?"
AND....... the 418 (which have long been noted on these diaries as the 392/393 of the "5th pile" absentee ballots)? Well the ECC order regarding the 4797 above also uses language about examining (and counting?) "absentee ballots that have been rejected through no fault of the voter." This means to me that the ECC has seen this 418-sized asteroid afloat between Mars and Jupiter and will sooner or later bring that rock into earth orbit for vote mining. The "Nauen" 61 and even the "Kennedy 7" might well be caught in the tractor beam. (Team Franken is getting ready to say, "What YOU fail to realize, Sarris, is that I am dragging mines!")
Sooooooo...... with those 2 moves I think the ECC has begun asserting itself. The headlines have all been about the 4797 and somehow this being a "big win for Coleman in his effort to retain his seat in the US Senate" but that's just hype for 2 reasons.
1) Its almost a word for word repetition from Ben Ginberg at the daily Coleman presser. Just because Drake or Sheehan leads Ginsberg out on a straining neck chain to the podium so he can slobber out "Voters don't matter. Elections don't matter. Democracy only means illusions for little people and control by lawyers from Gorn like us, disguised as earthlings" doesn't make his slug-slime trailings anything like true or even significant.
2) Team Franken has been quite calm about this. Yes they tried to pin Coleman's side down to his little 654 cherries but the 4797 doesn't seem to bother them. They don't look or sound down or sputtering to explain how this "mortal blow" is actually good news for John McCain. They are very much going on in a business-as-usual, running-the-starship sort of way, quite unruffled.
For a thoughtful, reasoned and DIFFERENT take on this ECC ruling, the Romulan blogger "Scott" over at Powerline offers "12 Thoughts" (Feb. 4; about 7 entries down the page) from the right/Coleman rooting interest side of the political street. I don't agree with him on all of them, but I do on some (#1 for instance is patriotically done and I agree completely). I remember when conservatives/Republicans could actually reason/write like this regularly. If its coming back I'm all for it for the sake of American political health.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/
MN Supreme Court 9:00amCT
After the State Canvassing Board certified the recount NUMBERS that gave Franken his +225 lead Franken formally asked Sec. of State Ritchie and Gov. Tim Pawlenty for a Certificate of Election. They both turned him down, citing MN law that bans them from issuing such (they BOTH must sign) until any election contest court (ECC) challenges have played themselves out.
Well the Franken Team appealed those decisions to the MN Supreme Ct. and they will hear arguments TODAY at 9:00 (on the UpTake of course.) (Since the Supreme Ct. gave the ECC THEIR courtroom for the ECC trial the Supreme Court will hear the arguments in the old/historic Supreme Ct. chamber in the State Capitol; cool! Yay historic!.....hope the video and sound are OK)
It is almost certain Justice Alan Page will preside and Chief Justice Magnuson and Associate Justice G. Berry Anderson will recuse themselves in honor of their service on the State Canvassing Board. (You may well hear from another "Justice Anderson" who is PAUL Anderson, same last name but a different justice.) Word is Marc Elias will speak for the Franken side and John Langdon for Team Coleman and the light sabres are ready.
Now I get why Franken is doing this but I'm not that crazy about it. I mean, go ahead and ask, just like Franken did 7 days after Certification of Count. This is the follow-up to that move so I get it, but....... it still sort of leaves the ECC hanging out to dry. If the MN Supreme Ct. orders a Cert. of Election APART from the ECC then why have an ECC?
OTOH, if some losing/former office holder candidate/contestant is drawing out an ECC case by trying to, say, drag 11000 legally rejected absentee ballots into an ECC in a hopeless effort to stall seating the winner of a certified count....... well then yeah, I can see the Supreme Ct. saying, "Enough!"
Are we at "Enough"? I don't think so...... but we're approaching it. If the Supreme Ct. hears arguments and then sits on things they can see if the ECC allows the Nauen 61 and the "5th pile" 392/3/418, (both of which increase Franken's lead). It gives the Supreme Ct. an opening to say, "Look, its hopeless in the ECC. Issue the Certif. of Election."
As in so much of the MN recount: "We'll see." It SHOULD be good watching though. Based on previous hearings the MN Supreme Ct. justices seem to like testing attorneys in their Jedi training with pointed questions and tightly drawn hypotheticals. They also are quick to defend their own integrity: back in December Coleman's Roger Magnuson thought to draw on his experience 8 years ago on the Bush legal team in Bush v. Gore and began throwing around Florida 2000. Justice Paul Anderson cut him off with a sharp, "This is not Florida." When Magnuson persisted, Anderson nearly used the Force to lift Magnuson off the floor by the neck and was vocal about this hearing and this court being FAR from Florida and that the attorney was NOT helping his case AT ALL by persisting.
My guess is if it IS Elias and Langdon that Elias will need to be nimble but that the Court will enjoy questioning his sharp mind (even if they don't agree with him.) Langdon's reviews at the UpTake live blog have been dull: bloggers have seen him as plodding and simplistic, with bouts of condescension. If so he will need to sharply raise his game with the lively Justices who sit on the MN Supreme Court.
Thursday Morning Minnesota Media
The Star Tribune recaps the 4800 absentee ballots at issue and notes today's Supreme Ct. hearing. On this last they frame it as Franken's attempt to be "temporarily" or "provisionally" seated, allowing the ECC process to grind away. Thats a kind way to put it and I would love to see it. Franken attorney Elias seems to think he has a case on the basis of both federal and state law
to do this, so....we'll see.
Star Trib's comment page offers a telling comment high on the snark-o-meter:
State law needs to be changed, removing the judgment of the election officials to determine what ballots meet state criteria. The new law should insert a requirement that absentee ballots be judged only by representatives of the Republican Party. It appears clear that only such a move will clear the cloud that hangs over our election process and bring the legitimacy of constitutionality to our democracy.
Rachel Stassen-Berger over at the Pioneer Press was rather pessimistic in her story in that she thinks this could go a LONG time....but then she limps out to a possible maybe....
Settle in. The U.S. Senate election trial is going to take a while.
This morning (Wednesday), Hennepin County Judge Denise Reilly, one of the three judges hearing the Norm Coleman's case to overturn Al Franken's 225-vote lead, said that the judicial tribunal wants to count many more ballot into the race's tally.
"The panel is going to make sure that every legally cast and wrongfully rejected ballot is opened and counted,'' Reilly said in court today.
The judge's statement was the first time anyone in the panel confirmed that indeed the panel wants more ballots included.
It is still unclear how many ballots may be counted into the race.
And finally, all this absentee ballot stuff just got personal.....for the UpTake.http://theuptake.com/ Intrepid reporter (and senior political correspondent) Noah Kunin voted absentee and has just learned HIS ballot was rejected, possibly because someone read his 2 "N" last name as 1"N" and 1 "M" (miscounting the humps on his lower case letters; see why Mrs. Gallagher was so pushy about cursive writing and penmanship back in the 3rd grade?!). Therefore his application name and ballot name (pile 1) didn't match.
Will we see Noah tearfully throw himself before the ECC crying "Count my vote", and Judge Marben prepares a Vulcan mind meld to see if Noah is good and true? When Noah does, will Ben Ginsberg walk over, look down and say, "Hippie type; must be Franken" and kick him to the curb with his Lizard tail? Will Noah bring his camera to the witness stand and while testifying broadcast close-ups of Joe Friedberg's nose hairs? Could be a GREAT day in ECC!
OK, great to be back to single digit weather. Hope the car starts and I can get to the wine shop on time. 9:00amCT for the Supreme Court hearing---- and the ECC MAY (unsure) recess proceedings while the Supreme Ct. hears arguments. Ohterwise its the UpTake on split screen. Meanwhile hope this will hold you until then with all the latest from yust southeast of Lake Wobegon.
Shalom.