Court declares Franken the winner of Minnesota Senate race

[Cas]

Lets see if the MN Supreme Court forces the issue?

(CNN) -- Minnesota's Supreme Court has dismissed former Sen. Norm Coleman's challenge to the state's November election results and declared Democratic challenger Al Franken the winner.
Minnesota's Supreme Court ruled that Democrat Al Franken won the Minnesota Senate race.





The unanimous opinion ruled that Franken "received the highest number of votes legally cast" and is entitled "to receive the certificate of election as United States senator from the state of Minnesota."
The former "Saturday Night Live" writer and performer had declared victory in the disputed race after a recount ended in January, but Coleman, a Republican who had been seeking a second six-year term, went to court to challenge those results.
Coleman still could attempt to take the challenge to federal courts, but Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, told CNN on Sunday that he would sign Franken's election certificate if the Supreme Court ordered it.

[Ninong]

Lets see if the MN Supreme Court forces the issue?

Unfortunately, they did NOT force the issue. They stopped short of ordering the governor to sign the certificate. All they did was unanimously "affirm" that Al Franken won the election and is therefore "entitled" to receive the certificate that Gov. Pawlenty must sign before it's official.

Yesterday Pawlenty hinted that he would sign the election certificate "if the supreme court ordered him to." They didn't order him to.

If Norm Coleman does not concede and instead files an appeal in federal court, Pawlenty will be on the spot. It would be in his own political best interests to sign the certificate without delay but the national GOP powers that be in Washington, DC will almost certainly insist that this be drawn out as long as possible to deny the Democrats 60 seats in the Senate.

UPDATE:

Norm Coleman just conceded.

That takes Pawlenty off the spot he would have been in had Colemen filed an appeal in federal court. Had Coleman filed an appeal in federal court, the national party would have put enormous pressure on Pawlenty to NOT sign the election certificate.

[Ninong]

Bill O'Reilly Predicted This Would Happen

It also quotes O'Reilly as threatening "any woman" who complained about his advances, and as suggesting that Fox News chief Roger Ailes would "go after" enemies of the channel.

"Look at Al Franken -- one day he's going to get a knock on his door and life as he's known it will change forever," the suit quotes O'Reilly as saying.

Bill-O is on vacation right now. I can't wait for him to return. I know he will have lots of interesting things to say about Al Franken. I don't know if I can stomach watching his show for myself but I'm sure someone will post the best parts on YouTube for me. Should be a barrell of laughs.

[Ninong]

Minnesota Republican Party Gives Franken $96,000

Haha! I hope Al Franken takes a photo of this check and mounts it on the wall in his new office.

The court ordered the Minnesota GOP to pay Franken's court costs.

Here.

[Cas]

Minnesota Republican Party Gives Franken $96,000

Haha! I hope Al Franken takes a photo of this check and mounts it on the wall in his new office.

The court ordered the Minnesota GOP to pay Franken's court costs.

Here.

That will buy some air time for the next election.

[Ninong]

Haha! Your comment reminds me of a funny stunt I pulled back during the fourth year of Bill Clinton's first term. I won a $20 sports bet with one of my co-workers who was of the Republican persuasion. To say that he couldn't stand Bill Clinton would have been a gross understatement.

That Monday morning when I went to my Goppie friend to remind him that his team had lost and that it was time to pay up, he whipped out his check book and wrote me a check for $20, telling me that he was short of cash.

I decided to endorse the back of the check, "Pay to the order of the Committee to Re-elect the President," and mailed it to Clinton's campaign headquarters in a plain envelope without my name and address anywhere. The check did have my friend's full name and address and that's the name and address they used to send out their standard form letter thanking him profusely for his support of President Clinton's re-election.

At first he didn't make the connection. He figured it was just some sort of mistake and they were just sending out bulk mail trying to drum up campaign contributions. It wasn't until the next bank statement arrived and his wife asked him why he had written a $20 check to me to give to the Clinton campaign. I didn't realize they had sent him a thank-you letter until he told me about it after the bank statement was received. That was sort of icing on the cake. I hadn't thought about that. I was just waiting until the time was ripe for me to ask him if he had received that cancelled check back from the back yet and if he had looked on the back of it.

It got better over time. Apparently his name and address had been shared with the California Democratic Party and he started receiving requests for contributions from local Democratic candidates. Later on he started receiving requests in the mail from every environmental group you can name and he blames it all on that contribution to the Clinton Campaign.

We laughed about that for years.

[schrocat]

Freaking CLASSIC!