Well, it was a nice country while it lasted

Surpeme...not even using spellcheck...

Surpeme sounds sort of dirty.

two lines about how something will soon happen isn't really news, though

C'mon, Elie, please have the decency to proofread. "SURPEME"?!?

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Franken's a joke.

breaking: kash is so gorgeous.

Does this have implications for the MBE con law section?

Franken's a stupid joke of a man.

As a Minnesotan, I have to believe that if our Surpeme Court makes this decision that the Minnesota Supreme Court will certainly agree. Just a hunch.

Breaking: Minnesota Surpeme Court Ends the Recount
Breaking: Minnesota Surpeme Court Ends the Recount
Breaking: Minnesota Surpeme Court Ends the Recount
Breaking: Minnesota Surpeme Court Ends the Recount
Breaking: Minnesota Surpeme Court Ends the Recount
Breaking: Minnesota Surpeme Court Ends the Recount
Breaking: Minnesota Surpeme Court Ends the Recount
Breaking: Minnesota Surpeme Court Ends the Recount
Breaking: Minnesota Surpeme Court Ends the Recount
Breaking: Minnesota Surpeme Court Ends the Recount
Breaking: Minnesota Surpeme Court Ends the Recount

More Karen please.

Where is Roxana?!?!?

What's more funny/disappointing/whatever is that 20 mins and 50 comments later the typos remain.

MysTTTal

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14 - ATL laid her off, she's working at the new kitty litter factor outside Trenton.

-17

Lies! Lies and slander!

Roxana

Jesus, FINALLY. Coleman is ridiculous.

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It was a miscarriage of justice that this took 8 months.

I'm always surprised by how many wingnuts troll this blog. Shouldn't you people be out teabagging or something?

Despite this ruling, Michelle Bachmann will remain the (albeit unintentionally) funniest lawmaker in Minnesota.

As a Minnesotan, let me be the first to lament our state court's cavalier treatment of every Minnesotans right to due process. This is a case where different counties instituted different rules for how to go about the recount that reversed Norm Coleman's lead. Some counted ballots that would have been rejected in other counties (based on things like incomplete voter information, partially marked or over-marked ballots, etc.). The end result was that non all votes were treated equally, a clear violation of the well established one-person-one-vote principle.

I hope the federal courts take this case and lay out some sort of clear Miranda-like standard to assure that every Americans vote is counted according to the same standards. Whether you like Franken or not, the slipshot, haphazard, unequal way in which the votes were counted in this case is a defeat for democratic government.

Another clown in the Senate to accompany Schumer, Dodd, and Reid, with Pelosi and Frank in the House and a Blahmah at 1600. Circus government.

Why do the ATL interns never post comments on ATL?

Does that qualify as irony that they are the only interns/clerks/summer associates in the country who are not on the site during the day?

They've got 60. We are now the United Socialist States of America, or the USSA - Kremlin on the Potomac.

is there some common cause uniting these 100 State Senators? and why do they care about the Franken/Coleman race for the US Senate?

"United State"?

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Senator Stuart Smalley.

Dear @23,

Please reread (or read for the first time) Baker v. Carr & Reynolds v. Sims. You obviously have no idea what the one person one vote principle is.

okthxbai

Where is the GoaTTTherder?????

Al Franken is a buffoon - an embarrassment to the august U.S. Senate.

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"Al Franken is a buffoon - an embarrassment to the august U.S. Senate."

Have you seen some of the other clowns who have graced that "august" body? Does the name "Ted Kennedy" ring a bell?

Posts like this are why i subscribe to MSNBC Keep up the good work

All that photo says to me is "BLARF!"

The Dems are all about this manipulative crap (see 2004 WA gubernatorial election for another example) -- if there's a close election, they'll keep demanding recall after recall, talking about how important it is to enact the will of the people, until of course they can manufacture a lead. At that time, we should all accept finality for the good of the country.

The GOP gets harder and harder to parody every day. See, e.g., @38, who apparently isn't old enough to remember Bush v. Gore.

@38 - Bush v. Gore

pwned

Oh yeah 38 -
Like your Republican governor refusing to seat a US Senator for 8 months isn't manipulative -
a UNANIMOUS MN supreme court just spanked him pretty hard.

What the hell is wrong with MinnesoTTTa? Ventura and now Franken.

How do I subscribe to this newsletter?

39: Bush v. Gore was another example of Democrats trying to swing an election with questionable recounts (let's just focus on the heavily populated liberal counties like Miami-Dade!) so I'm not quite sure how that helps your case...

Look, if you're going to do a recount, do it the same way in all counties, areas, etc. Funny how each time this happens, Democrats are all about putting a magnifying glass to urban counties, but couldn't give a crap about paying closer attention to rural areas or military ballots.

BLAAAAARF!

@38, the Dems kept asking for recounts, but I don't think they asked for any "recalls." Some states have recall procedures, but I don't think there is such a procedure for US Senator. The people of MN just have to hope that Stuart Smalley is good enough, smart enough, etc.

@39-40 - Bush won the original count in Florida in 2000, and every subsequent recount, including the one done by a consortium of newspapers long after Bush was in office. It was Gore who kept asking for more recounts. but limited to certain counties where he thought he was likely to pick up more votes. By a 7-2 margin, the Supreme Court (or Surpeme, if you prefer) held that this violated equal protection.

46: Whoops, my bad. You're right -- meant recount, not recall.

Really quite shocking that he was elected even in Minnesota. This is to Republicans like Limbaugh getting elected senator in Texas might be to Democrats; not impossible, but testing to basic beliefs in the, albeit slim, dignity of US citizenship. At least Bush in '00 had been pretending to be a politician for a decade and the arguably biased appellate rulings led to recounts that were later shown to be empirically fair. Franken is a hateful charlatan and the approved recounts don't withstand even a basic sanity test.

48 is right. All the disputed ballots are online and different web sites have complied clear examples of the exact same mistake in favor of Coleman and in favor of Franken (ex, a box "X"ed out or a stray mark) decided in different ways. Time and time again, the Coleman-favored mistakes consistently get thrown out ("no vote") and the Franken mistakes consistently get counted as valid votes. This fails a basic smell test and at least if democrats wanted to cheat, they could be a little more subtle about it.

What an embarrassment for this country.

48, that is a good analogy you draw between Franken and Limbaugh - they are both pretty much just entertainers masquerading as thinkers and appealing to the more extreme wings of their parties, though Limbaugh (so far) has had the good taste not to actually run for office.
Like with Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Minnesotans will eventually come to their senses and undo this mistake, but it will take 6 years (well, actually closer to 5, given how long the recounting took).

That man has the largest mouth I've ever seen.

At the very least, Ventura wasn't an ideologue and despite the bizarreness of some of his statements, approaches, was somewhat pragmatic (had to be, because he had no party support in the legislature). Franken on the other hand is hardcore left-wing and is unlikely to put any thought into his votes whatsoever -- in other words, Democratic party line, no questions asked. While that's good for the Democrats, it's not good for Minnesota or the country, because neither party has exactly shown its ability to lead effectively in recent times. Padding the Democratic majority will just embolden them to enact even more radical legislation.

Moreover, Franken has a very checkered reputation in terms of civility toward the other side -- as in, he's been very rude and insulting toward Republicans (and no, I'm not referring to as a part of his comedy act). Civility is especially important in the Senate where clout and connections on BOTH sides are the key to getting anything done / serving most effectively. Franken's attitude isn't going to win him any friends, and thus, will reduce the influence MN has on national affairs.

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To all the Bush v. Gore defenders: does a federal judge have the stones to cite Bush v. Gore to find that the MN election recount violates equal protection?

I think not.

Now, we will take their guns, defile their marriages, ban their superstitions, and usher in a new world order based on collectivism and brotherly love!

Long live the Revolution!

What the hell does TTT mean?

Hardly an unexpected result, but I agree with the above comments about the democratic party's lack of common decency to at least be secretive about stealing the election. If ballots aren't counted in a consistent manner across the board, how can anyone say the election reflects the true will of the people.

But then again, I come from the school of thought that if you can't fill out a ballot properly, you have shown you don't care enough about your vote to make it count in the first place.

Like the rest of his career--a bad joke.

And yet the liberazis can only brandish a sense that they're somehow entitled to this after Bush v Gore.

Eye for an eye, and now the United States is blind.

"liberazis"

you stay classy, 59.

58, I agree with you on the "if you can't fill out a ballot, it shouldn't count" philosophy. However, the selective (only heavily Franken counties) and biased (even where it's the exact same problem but the candidates in opposite positions, Franken gets the vote but Coleman doesn't) recounts created extra votes for Franken out of ballots that were invalidly filed. Or, at the very least, you have to be consistent about how to deal with those ballots -- either all ballots with the candidate's box shaded in and Xed are votes or they aren't. You can't start playing funny games where Franken Xs are votes, but Coleman Xs aren't, and that's exactly what happened here to give Franken the lead.

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zug zug

This is a sad day for Minnesota. We've traded an experienced and respected attorney whose accomplishments include a distinguished record as prosecutor, successful terms as St. Paul's mayor that went a long way towards turning that city into a vibrant economic center, and a term as one of the Senate's most moderate and thoughtful members, in exchange for Stewart Smallie.

All Franken is a no-talent inflammatory jackass who will coarsen our national debates and drive an already hyper-partisan Congress even further apart. He will also corrupt his party's leadership by giving them the absolute power to shut down all meaningful debate on the major issues that will affect our children for generations.

If the people of Minnesota really did elect this man, which is still dubious given the clearly partisan way in which democratic election officials conducted the recount, then the people of Minnesota deserve exactly what they're going to get. If they didn't really elect this man, then this is a travesty.

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57: It means "To The Top", an ironical reference to something which can never be achieved by the person or insitution in question.

65, it is indeed a sad day for Minnesota. The election was essentially a tie, so even if the people of Minnesota didn't actually elect him, and he won solely by an unequal method of recounting votes, it is still sad and shocking that Franken got enough votes to justify a recount in the first place. This election should not have been close - Coleman should have beaten Franken in a landslide, and if a new election were held today, that is probably what would happen. Unfortunately, Coleman got swept in the anti-Bush backlash. Coleman was indeed a moderate and thoughtful Senator, and ironically, he probably would have been closer to Obama's positions on many issues than Franken will be.

68: Last I checked, Franken got more votes. A close election is not "essentially a tie." The candidate you favored lost (...repeatedly). Spare us your histrionics.

68,

If your last sentence is indeed accurate, then I, as a conservative, am glad Coleman lost. At least nobody will take Franken seriously.

RINOs can GTFO. I'm looking at you, John McCain.

its a damn good thing the world is going to end in 2012

I never understand Dems' reference to Bush-Gore as an excuse for the never-ending Democrat vote manipulations. Yes, Bush did manage to win a close race involving recounts. But no one has ever produced any interpretation under which Gore won. As another commenter pointed out, every recount done by all the liberal media organizations confirmed Bush's victory. And, Bush was pretty much ahead constantly. Here, Coleman was in the lead until mysterious votes starting appearing that miraculously nearly all went for Franken. It's pathetic. You'd think Dems would be satisfied with a very successful 2008 without feeling the need to steal one they plainly lost.

"We've traded an experienced and respected attorney whose accomplishments include a distinguished record as prosecutor, successful terms as St. Paul's mayor that went a long way towards turning that city into a vibrant economic center, and a term as one of the Senate's most moderate and thoughtful members, in exchange for Stewart Smallie. "

You forgot to mention he's slept with half of St. Paul.

If he's half as awesome as you claim, you think he would have been able to pull more than 40% of the vote.

Coleman has one agenda: his own grab for power. He wakes up in the morning, sticks a finger in the air to test the political winds, and follows accordingly.

No loss to Minnesota. At least we now have a senator who has actual beliefs.

people like 70 will make sure the republican party will go the way of the whigs.

Sure, get rid of every republican that doesn't tote your party line. What is that again, exactly? What did McCain do other than oppose bush on issues like campaign financing and torture that makes him a "repub in name only". Are Bachman, Palin, Newt, and Jindal REALLLY the future of your party? I really feel for you my friend, I do.

I have mixed feelings on Franken. He is a bit of a clown, he has no experience, but he is reasonably intelligent and clearly has been involved at least indirectly in politics for a while. And though he has a tendency to not hold back ("Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" comes to mind), I think he will learn. Even hillary, who when elected, the right thought would usher in the end of the world, knew her place in the senate and didn't try to bust heads.

I'm just glad we have 100 senators now. It was getting redokuclese.

And as for figuring out Senators, wth is going on in NY anyway...

Glenn Beck 2072

74,

I love liberals' advice when it comes to this issue. Am I really to believe that you, a liberal, are trying to give me, a conservative, sincere counsel as to how to win? The fact is that liberals always try to encourage Republicans to vote for "moderates," and thus not "tote the party line," because they know it's a losing strategy.

As for McCain, his RINO credentials are extensive. Advocating amnesty for illegal aliens immediately comes to mind.

Five years ago, when Obama was an unknown state senator, was he REALLY the future of your party? Times change, my friend, and they can change quickly. For instance, if Obama stays on his current trajectory, he will be one and done in three more years. Promising the moon and delivering a turd sandwich only works for so long.

"Tendency to not hold back" is NOT a good quality in a senator. Things get done in the Senate (when they rarely do) through dealmaking and cooperation. If Franken lives up to his reputation and just uses his senate seat as a soapbox for wacko left-wing rants, no one is going to take him seriously (definitely not the Republicans and not even the moderate Democrats), and he's not going to be able to get anything done.

BTW this was a three-way race. More people voted against him than for him so stop crying the people of Minn clearly wanted someone besides Coleman for whatever reason.

78: That's true in most three-way races with a half viable third-party candidate, even where the incumbent wins by a lot. In 1996, more people technically voted against Clinton than for him even though Clinton beat Dole by 8-9% in the popular vote. Does this mean that the United States clearly wanted someone besides Clinton for whatever reason?

Minor historical point, the whigs went bye bye precisely because they tried to be the big tent party on slavery. They tried to save the southern whigs against the post-jackson slave power democratic party by accomodating slavery to a degree, and it pissed off so many northern anti-slavery folks that the republican party was formed as a result, and the whigs half-assedness on slavery pissed off enough southern pro-slavery whigs that they migrated to the democrats. by 1860, no whig party.

So if there's a lesson there, it is that on big issues, you have to take a stand.

Liberals, enjoy your remaining year and one half of majority status.

"Does this mean that the United States clearly wanted someone besides Clinton for whatever reason?"

Yes, it does. Twice, in fact. In 1992, Clinton gained 41% of the popular vote, in 1996 49%. Clinton never, I repeat, never, procured a majority of the popular vote.

He is, and shall ever remain, the plurality President.

Question. Will Franken be wearing a T.V. Antenna Helmet on the floor of the Senate?

This guy is a nut job. He needs to be certifiably committed to the nut house.

This guy is a nut job. He needs to be certifiably committed to the nut house.

82: You could describe me as anything but a Clinton fan; however, of all the grounds to attack him on (and there are plenty), the least would be his performance in the 1996 election. Sure, the 1992 election was a crapshoot where Perot played spoiler big time. But in 1996, he won by 8-9% (a huge margin in presidential elections) and got just under 50% of the popular vote. With Perot taking 19% and 8% in the 92 and 96 elections respectively, no candidate, Republican or Democrat was going to take over 50%s sans an absolute bloodbath of Reagan-Mondale proportions.

Anyway, the point is that Coleman (and Franken for that matter) getting under 50% doesn't really say much aside from the fact that there's a decently influential third party in Minnesota. If anything, the lesson from Coleman-Franken was that the electorate likes to take out national / party frustrations (the Republican Party) on local candidates w/ whom they otherwise like reasonably well, but not excessively so (Coleman). Same thing happened to Chafee in 2006 and hopefully, it'll happen to the Dems in 2010 and 2012.

After Florida's spectre of hanging chad voter idiocy, Minnesota reclaims that with AUTHORITY! First Ventura, now Franken.

Minnesotans just lose their shit when it comes to contest & controversy...