Part 1 of 2: How the zany Saturday Night Live comic pulled it off, if he did, to become the junior senator from Minnesota. It boggles the mind.
(Editor's note: This article by IC regular Gary Larson is also published at Human Events by Eagle Publishing Co.)
The number who voted for Alan Stuart Franken, 58, for United States Senator, was 1,212,431, give or take a few hundred. No one knows for sure. How many double-counted ballots did he get? How many felon's votes? Other illegals? How many votes (to the nearest thousand, please) did ACORN scrape up for him, tossing voter registration forms like confetti in Democratic strongholds?
To cap it off, how many "votes" did Franken's acolytes dig up after the election to cover Senator Coleman's 725-vote advantage on election night? Enough, it seems. Enough.
Fraud not so much after Election Day, as before, might have thrust Franken into greatness — er, the U.S. Senate. Unless a Hail Mary pass in final proceedings propels incumbent Senator Norm Coleman back into the lead, fraud will have won. Period. End of discussion.
Coleman is, or perhaps was, a respected member of the Senate, an independent mind, a conciliator, a man of principles and fair play. He is far superior, in terms of intellect and experience and cool-headed judgment, to the angry, hate-filled, demagogic, expatriate Minnesotan Franken. No comparison.
Coleman's expected cakewalk to a second term — by as much as 60-30%, it was thought, with a third guy in the race — seemed a certainty. In the polls he led by double digits up to the very end. In the courts today, he is rated as a long shot.
What the hell happened?
The election was a virtual tie. At it stands, Franken has a 225-vote lead and the state is shy one senator. If he "wins," this surreal saga will bring to life his book-length parody, Why Not Me? (1999). To some it will recall his Stuart Smalley sketch of being "good enough, doggone it!"
Think of it: Reality mocks comedy.
When the smoke clears, mirrors put away, the chunky, snarly, obviously unqualified one-time pornographer (for Playboy), a delinquent taxpayer in several states, not paying even workers' comp premiums for his talk radio employees in New York, will have assembled enough votes to "win" — again, if he did.
Get-out-to-vote was all the rage. Minnesota's goofy same-day registration law kicked in. State election officials swear by this law as "enfranchising." They are naïve not to see the law serves wholesale fraud. No telling how many, at this stage if ever, illegals voted.
Local election judges, running tainted ballots through twice for Franken, helped juice up the total. Shhh. The recount might have been a Potemkin Village, but election day hijinks remains problematical.
Anyone at all can vote in Minnesota, short of Chicago-style, i.e., plucking names off grave markers. Legitimacy does not count. Election officials choose to trust, but not to verify. Mischief happens.
Post-election maneuvering nailed down Franken's perhaps faux "victory." Coleman's lawyers were far too kind, practicing "Minnesota Nice." They faced a pack of snarling partisan tigers out for blood. Truth did not matter. The aim was to "take down Coleman" by any and all means.
Some of Al's team were imported from Washington State where they had done late deeds before, for the supposed winner there, Governor Christine Gregoire (D-WA), in 2004. They "found" enough votes, mainly in King County, to put the former state attorney general in office. What's not to work in Minnesota? Coleman's toothless legal team was clearly outlawyerd by crafty outsiders.
They were aided by a wobbly state canvassing board and local courts bowing to Franken's demands. It was uncanny. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat Party and ACORN activist, was chairman. Secretary Ritchie had the audacity — but not the legal authority — to ask all 87 counties to check again, would they please?, for presumed "mistakenly rejected" ballots to count. No uniform standards, each county was on its own. (It was Florida 2000 all over again.)
Selective searching for votes in Democrat-rich counties, sans standards, is inherently unfair, of course. Just as it was when the United States Supreme Court finally ruled in Bush v. Gore (2000). (Thank heavens Miami-Dade stopped the counting nonsense, spawned by the outrageously partisan Florida Supreme Court.)
So, too, in Democrat-rich Minnesota counties, including the one-party Mesabi Iron Range, and in urban areas, trolling for Franken votes went deep. Franken's people even phoned voters, from lists supplied by "D-"friendly counties, seeking to get their intent on rejected ballots. Call this real chutzpah.
It was farcical, if not so tragic, that votes appeared out of the ether, nearly all for Franken — 100 here, another 39 there. Hey!, it all adds up. At the end, the 725 Coleman margin was breached. The number for Franken was all out of proportion to those coming in for Coleman and the third man in the race, Dean Barkley.
Statistically, it made no sense. Still doesn't, when you do the math.
Votes for Franken seemed weighted "heavier," it seems, than if for Coleman. "Equal protection" is a thing of the past, although a key factor in Bush v. Gore. In this blue state, Obama got 300,000 more votes than Franken, however, proving a certain alertness to realities among some above-average bears in the Gopher state.
Naturally, the "D"-rich counties, same as in Florida in 2000, were tapped for "new" votes for the "recount." One recalls Gore's slick attorney David Boies casting about for more "votes" only in four Democrat-rich precincts in Florida, no where else, such as in the western panhandle, and calling it fair.
If Franken gets the nod, this election will live on in infamy. Loony tunes will have prevailed. One could laugh, or cry, about the result. Maybe both. In any event, it will seem a nightmare sketch from SNL and Franken will laugh all the way to Washington, D.C.
This election from hell turned on one of the nastiest campaigns in state history. The potty-mouth comic employed blatantly false TV spots and print ads besmirching his foe's reputation, fabricating his record.
Vile name-calling actually worked. Big-headed Franken said Coleman was a Bush lapdog, a pushover for Big Oil, a sell-out for his Senate votes, and "the fourth most corrupt senator in Congress." (The latter smear was a non-fact gleaned from Franken ally's nutty "survey.") The scummy excrement Franken used to blast Coleman was apparently enough to pass muster with uninformed, gullible, juvenile, celebrity-struck loony tunes of Minnesota – 1.2 million of them. Dumbness carries with it the lack of critical facilities.
It is no surprise, either, that Coleman's defamation suit against Franken late in the campaign, was swept off the table by a see-no, hear-no, speak-no-evil minor court. Just another ruling for the Democrat on the road to a dubious, always-to-be-tainted "victory." Someone ought to write a book!
Whether the mas o meno 1.2 million voters know it, or care, they've besmirched Minnesota's reputation of sending thoughtful, sensible, skillful politicians, statesmanlike to the U.S. Senate — such as Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, David Durenburger and Rudy Boschwitz — with the notable exception lately of the forgettable Mark Dayton, but he's another wacky story.
Will the legal Franken voters later recognizing their error in judgment, be ashamed? The short answer is, no. Partisan hubris will set in. (Besides, guilt is easily pardoned when Winning is Everything.) Rules, who needs 'em? And what did Stalin say about the ballot boxes? Who controls them, wins. Case in point: Minnesota Senatorial Election, 2008.
Next Week in Part 2: How blue state Minnesota's populist culture, fascination with "celebrity" and gullibility paved the way for Franken's win, if he did, in an election become blood sport.
I am a regular reader of IC and often post it to other blogs, encouraging my friends to read IC's sound economic philosophy. The article, "We Can't Afford the Empire Any More," for example, was a masterpiece of clear-headed thinking and Austrian economics in the face of the bailout.
This article, however, is truly a DISGRACE and not worthy of the standards I have seen to this point at IC. I am unsure as to why you published something that so clearly contradicts your sound economic philosophy and international philosophy. At least, what I thought was a sound philosophy based on previous postings.
Let's not mince words here. Coleman is not and never was, a conservative. He may be Republican, but the Lord knows conservatism is no longer required to run on the Republican Party. He was pro-Bailout and pro-Iraq War, both unbelievably unsound fiscal strategies. He was an avid Bush supporter to the end and supported the Patriot Act and it's revisions, all highly unConstitutional and abhorrent to the true conservative, who is an advocate of liberty and the ways of our founding fathers.
Franken, on the other hand, did not support the Bailout. Considering every last one of Minnesota's Representatives except for Bachmann voted Aye to the Bailout, I think that that is grounds to seriously consider Franken right there.
Furthermore, this whole post reads like a junior high hate blog filled in with big synonyms so that it attempts to read like it's actually saying something. However, the whole piece lacks data to back up the ridiculous assumptions it makes. It is essentially an emotional, unfounded character attack on Franken and attempts to portray Coleman as the angelic victim.
Is the author seriously attempting to say that the recount (a difference of less than 1,000) was entirely made from felons and election officers (who are monitored VERY closely here in Minnesota)? This is an insult to anyone's intelligence. Close ballots are expected to be recounted for accuracy in Minnesota and a difference of such smallness is par for the course simply when one considers scanning errors. To accuse the election officials, those monitoring them, the entire recount committee (who slaved for weeks counting ballots for the highest degree of accuracy) of committing fraud is sinful. Shame on IC for posting such malarky.
The reality of who Coleman is could not be farther from what is represented on this blog. What the author neglects to mention is that Coleman has been involved in several campaign finance scandals that are being investigated. He has not been above using his family in this scheme, including his wife's employer, to launder money for his campaign. He is not a popular figure in Minnesota.
It is no coincidence that in this close race, over 15% of the vote went to a 3rd party candidate, who did not even have his party's own backing. That 3rd party candidate spend nothing whatsoever on advertising himself, he did not need to. That is how disgusted a significant number of Minnesotans – Republicans as well – were with BOTH main candidates.
Coleman was never elected to the Senate properly to begin with. The race which got him initially to his Senate seat was with Paul Wellstone, a highly respected Dem. who was the favorite with many Republicans in that race as well. Wellstone was known for his brutal honesty and integrity. His plane went down mysteriously less than 2 weeks away from the election and Coleman was elected by default. I can certainly say that that "election" had much more underhandedness to it than this one.
Conservatives cannot afford to kid themselves and buy into the partisan thinker that every Republican is a saint and every Democrat is a scammer. In a nation more in debt than ever, we need true conservative economics and a lack of imperialism, no matter what party we get it from. Coleman never stood for conservative values, not as a mayor and not as a Senator. I wouldn't bother with Part II, this is dooming enough to the otherwise brilliant values espoused on IC.
If you believe Al Franken is the embodiment of conservative principles as espoused here at Intellectual Conservative, you are either ill-informed, illiterate, ignorant, brain dead, or some combination thereof. The same if you believe the results of the Minnesota recount were not influenced by partisan politics. Coming from someone suggesting that Norm Coleman killed the opposing candidate by sabotaging his airplane to win his senate seat, being criticized as a conspiracy theorist rings rather hollow.
The Morning Scramble – 1/27/2009…
It's been a while, so let's rock on…
John Hawkins asked on Twitter this morning how he can "better find outstanding posts from small, lightly read, conservative/libertarian bloggers to link". I can't say……
Re: Patrick Mulligan
I did not applaud Al Franken's conservative principles, nor say he had any besides his objection to the bailout. However, considering the bi-partisan support for this atrocity, it is well worth giving either party kudus for rejecting it. Moving on… Do you READ before you comment?
I did not say Norm Coleman had ANYTHING to do with Wellstone's death. There is nothing to indicate that. However, the deck was inappropriately stacked in Coleman's favor in that particular election. It was the election I referred to, not the death. Moving on…
To criticize something I did not even imply as "conspiracy theory" and then fail to realize you are yourself a conspiracy theorist must take some ability on your part. Minnesota ALREADY HAS HAD recount laws on its books for decades. As this election was within hundreds, clearly it met that criteria. To say that the politics had anything to do with that is ridiculous. Al Franken simply took advantage of EXISTING election law. There was ABSOLUTELY NO special favors bestowed on him. Furthermore, the entire recount process was highly transparent and even televised. Anyone could have watched the proceedings. To imply that Minnesota officials acted without impartiality is completely unfounded and a shameless charge.
The point here is not that Al Franken is above question or that he is somehow an embodiment of conservative principles but rather that Norm Coleman is no saint whatsoever and does not embody conservative principles either. Being Republican has 0% to do with it, his voting record speaks for itself. Like I pointed out in my commentary, there is a REASON why 15% of voters chose a 3rd party candidate who wasn't even endorsed by his own party. Polls have been done on those voters and well over half identified as Republicans disgusted with Coleman and his scandals.
Please accept my most sincere apologies. When you said:
His plane went down mysteriously less than 2 weeks away from the election and Coleman was elected by default. I can certainly say that that "election" had much more underhandedness to it than this one.
I assumed that by "mysterious" and "underhanded" you meant to imply that the circumstances surrounding the plane crash were caused by something other than chance or happenstance. My mistake.
I don't know why from my three sentence post you got the impression that I didn't believe that Minnesota had existing election laws, or how you extrapolated from that imagined position that I am a conspiracy theorist. Minnesota election law is interpreted and applied by Minnesota judges and the Minnesota state canvassing board, and overseen by the partisan state attorney general. The decisions that have been made by Minnesota judges and the state canvassing board (regarding ballot disputes, ballot counting, and ballot discoveries) in this election have overwhelmingly come down to the favor of the Al Franken campaign. The number of ballot corrections in favor of Franken has been statistically improbable given the original vote totals for the candidates. That's just how it went. What that does or does not imply about your state is irrelevent — it's reality. Ongoing disputes about these issues are why Al Franken's motions to dismiss Coleman's challenges were denied, and why he consequently hasn't been certified the winner or seated by the majority-Democrat senate yet. If there were no irregularities or remaining disputable issues here, the election would be over now.
Norm Coleman's party or ideology or voting history isn't at issue, the election is.
Norm Coleman's ideology and voting history is clearly at stake, as this entire blog lauds him in superlative tones usually reserved for deities or cowboys… "respected member of the Senate, independent thinker, a man of principles, a fair thinker, superior in intellect, cool-headed judgment…" blah, blah, blah and on it goes…
Seriously, did this guy just run "super duper" through synonyms.com and pull out whatever came up to cram into 2 paragraphs? There's absolutely no even attempted citations for this worship.
Franken, is "inferior intellectually, hate-filled, angry, demagogic…" blah, blah, blah.
REALITY check here. NEITHER party is perfect. Coleman had awful polling and made catastrophic decision while in Senate including support of the bailout and some rather bad ones while mayor of St. Paul as well. Al Franken has made some poor decisions- bending ridiculously to unions, etc. and some good ones- rejecting the bailout. Coleman would never have been elected in the first place had Paul Wellstone not died, Wellstone had incredibly high popularity polling in Minnesota.
So this whole blog is just a junior high level work of hate and love and no objectivity.
To say that Minnesotans are celebrity struck is ridiculous – many of them never liked Coleman in the first place. What little love was there was tarnished for many by his poor decisions and numerous scandals. Besides, there is nothing wrong with celebrities using their influence to cross over to politics. Reagan did it in California, also with little experience, and Schwarzenegger did it there again, with even less experience in a special recount election. Other individuals also cross over to politics: Pastors, Soccer moms, etc. So come on… this blogger has nothing… he just doesn't LIKE Al Franken… so anyone who does or is sick of Coleman is "intellectually inferior" to his elementary wisdom.
Back to Minnesota. It's absolutely shameless and unlogical to compare Minnesota to Florida voting: We have consistent paper voting. We do not use Diebold, except in scanning. All paper is kept, even beyond the auditing process. That's why the recount IS able to be so accurate. And Chicago style? Please. Are we actually accusing people of organized crime in Minnesota??!! Come on. There is no grounds for ANY of these allegations. That's REALITY.
Yes, there were questionable ballots here and there, such as the "Lizard People" ballot, but this is what the courts will debate. Franken is not even seated yet. Coleman has a right to be heard in court just like Franken had a right to the recount in the first place. Although even with the numbers of the disputed ballots, Franken is still ahead. You can't possibly question the statistics here. The whole count was within hundreds of voters in Nov. and it still is in Jan. Obviously, it is a close race.
Recounts have always been required in races with a margin of less than 1% in MN unless the defeated GIVES UP this right. There is little interpretation to this law that allows for any partisanship, it's simply a mathematical reality. Franken has requested of Pawlenty (Rep) and Ritchie (Dem) to be seated officially. NEITHER has granted him this.
Coleman's rights have not been infringed upon, he is free to state his case to the court.
I have not heard of a SINGLE, SPECIFIC CASE where Minnesota election officials or politicians have overstepped their bounds regarding Franken/Coleman. NAME ONE. Or admit it is all groundless speculation.
You still don't get it.
It has nothing to do with his politics per se, it has to do whether the people who voted for each candidate are being properly represented. Just because YOU don't like Coleman, doesn't mean the people who voted for him should be disregarded, nor should your vote be counted twice.
Election officials or politicians didn't overstep their bounds because they worked their way through the election laws. Just like Sarah Palin didn't overstep her bounds when she fired Monegan as Public Safety Commissioner, since it was completely legal of her to do so.
What is under suspicion, if not so much the motive of the officials, is the results of these new votes. If Coleman would have also seen his numbers increase, but at a much smaller ratio than Franken, it could have still been fraud, but a more believable one. How every new vote goes to one candidate is just ridiculously flagrant.
And before you start throwing Florida under the bus, the issue wasn't about new votes magically appearing and whether those votes should count. The issue was, during the recount, whether improperly punched ballots should be counted, and how so. It was much more ambiguous, vote counts changed for both sides, and in the end, after post-election recounts were made, they vindicated the election results. This mess was mainly started because the media, in their infinite wisdom, gave Florida to Gore before actually counting the votes.
"If Coleman would have also seen his numbers increase, but at a much smaller ratio than Franken, it could have still been fraud, but a more believable one. How every new vote goes to one candidate is just ridiculously flagrant."
>>> Simply not correct. No matter how much you and other may want that to be the reality, it is not. The math speaks for itself.
Coleman DID SEE HIS NUMBERS INCREASE, exactly "at a much smaller ratio than Franken."
http://ww2.startribune.com/news/metro/elections/returns/2008/recount/msenco.html
To simplify this source, there are these colored squares that represent each candidate. See all those little red squares? Those are COUNTIES WHERE COLEMAN LED in recounts.
minnesotamama,
We heard you the first time. Saying the same thing a lot of times, or really loudly, or with a lot of passion doesn't make it any more or less persuasive or relevant.
Since the only thing in your entire inane rant that had anything remotely to do with what I posted was in reference to statistics, let me explain. In counties that went for Al Franken, corrected and "discovered" votes went to Al Franken by a margin far larger than the original vote, and disproportionaly to corrections made for other offices. The amount by which "corrections" favored one candidate was certainly not impossible, but improbable given the initial vote. Those corrections occured before the recount took place and narrowed the initial Coleman lead from 725 to 206. The recount then gave Franken 431 more votes to put him ahead of Coleman. Coincidentally, the Coleman legal team also lost all 6 of its legal challenges during before and during the recount with every decision going in favor of Franken's lawyers. Oh, and 25 precincts in Minnesota have more votes than voters. Here's a piece discussing some of the inconsistencies: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123111967642552909.html ; just more groundless speculation, I'm sure.
Re: post 8,
You're talking about recounted ballots, the poster you're responding to is talking about discovered ballots. I can see it's extremely difficult for you to pick just one topic to rant about at a time, but try to focus.
Dear IC Readers,
Closet liberals often hang out (why I am not certain, self-flagellation?) at conservative and libertarian websites, frequently venting their hostility toward their prime enemy, dastardly “Rs,” in comment threads.
In doing so they expose their political beliefs and sometimes, a clueless nature and their artful fact-twisting skills.
It must make them feel better, or something, to get their whacks in, so covertly, on "Rs" and libertarians.
To “minnesotamama” (comment at the top) I would suggest:
– Get a life.
– Get a grip on reality.
– Get acquainted with facts, don't rely on “Dem” talking points.
– Tolerate others' opinions if different than yours.
– Forgo hysterics and histrionics. They're unbecoming.
– Learn to spell. (Spellcheck is a marvel in that regard.)
– Stop masquerading as a conservative. It's very transparent.
– And for heaven's sakes, we KNOW you despise Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN). Okay? No need to repeat it LOUDLY while stomping your feet like a little kid.
Is it something in the water way up there in Minnesota? Just think: 1.2 million-plus voted for the ex-pornographer Al Franken. Does that reflect any sense of dignity, or common sense, or respect for the office?
First they elected Jesse “The Body” Ventura, then feckless Sen. Mark Dayton (D-MN), and now, maybe, a Stuart Smalley? Whew!
How much lunacy is enough up there in cold-ass country?
What's at issue, however, in this case, is not who you might like for public office, but the integrity of the voting process itself, the very sanctity of the ballot box. No dirty tricks, please.
Whether you despise Norm Coleman, or idolize the late Paul Wellstone, or suggest Franken is (God forbid!) a good little conservative, does not matter a tinker's damn.
Facts are best ignored, I suppose, if you favor the outrageous Franken and put down pro-life Coleman, who was endorsed by every major Minnesota newspaper. But facts, being stubborn things, some foreign to raving “mama,” need to be brought to the table, not liberal spin moves.
To wit: Double-counted ballots do matter, as do more votes recorded than ballots cast. These are not trivial things. Then there's the fact “corrections” to the final tally came in overwhelmingly, out of all proportion statistically, for Franken. Not to mention the pre-election funny stuff, and the bizarre nature of all the “legal wrangling” falling in favor of the Democrat. Doesn't that raise just a tiny red flag of suspicion? To party wonks such as “mama,” apparently not.
Shibboleths invoked as “facts” — such as a wild-eyed contention that Wellstone's aircraft crashed “mysteriously,” or that partisanship did not stick its nose into this Coleman-Franken race – are ludicrous, almost laughable. Nothing “underhanded” about the crash. One could check it out with the NTSB. The plane stalled, probably pilot error. Simple tragedy. No conspiracy there.
Many true liberals—friends of mine—hang their heads in heartfelt shame over Al the Ex-Pornographer's “win,” if he did. Most of them voted for Barkley, the third man in the race. One “held his nose” and voted for Al, not thinking he'd win.
Snotty, redundant “mama” would have us believe (seriously!) that Wellstone was hailed by Republicans as an icon and Franken is a fan of conservatism. Hey, it doesn't get more wackier, upside down, than that.
Frankly, readers, I don't usually stoop to address such silly knee-jerk responses from readers. Their problems are theirs, not mine. Besides, life is too short. Rational discussion is all but impossible with the wild-eyed who have All the Answers.
As a mostly liberal newspaper editor once, before I saw the light of Russell Kirk, I discovered first-hand liberals' denials of reality. Saucy ignorance was on display, too, in their letters to my op-ed pages, and their bristling phone calls to my desk. “Is that so?,” I would ask, trying to calm them down, focus on facts. Not easy for some to do.
I sought factual bases for the allegations, the spin. Then I'd hear them recite the “party line,” a stream of talking points, not facts. (To be fair, this was often the case also with letter writers and callers from the Far Right, too. Pity them both.)
Often letters were simply restatements of the liberal orthodoxy, not a lot of thinking involved. They tended to amuse before getting placed in our File 13. We'd post some on the office bulletin board, especially those written in color crayon, just for fun. Liberals' letters predominated.
Rare but welcome was the letter from a committed, thoughtful adult liberal that made sense. Those got ink in my newspaper, gladly, and hoorays from yours truly for advancing intelligent discussion of public issues.
Such a scuzzy allegation as the crash short of the runway north of Duluth is an example of what passes for shady “reality” on the left. Shameful, yes, but what we come to expect of the disingenuous, or the simply clueless.
Some would revise—that is, deny–history by saying Wellstone was a shoo-in in 2002. He wasn't. Running for a third term, which he promised never to do, he trailed Coleman by up to six percentage points in the polls. Democrats in Minnesota put up their Biggest Gun to take down Coleman–Walter Mondale. It didn't work. Mondale made up some ground, losing 50 to 47% to pro-life Coleman. A memorial service-turned-political pep rally at a public auditorium at my alma mater (U of MN) hatefully excoriated Republicans, and sealed the deal for Coleman. Bad manners, and hate, did in the Democrats.
“….the whole piece, lacks data,” claims “mama” about my article. But “mama” ignores my primary, factual theses in her zeal to take down Coleman in a hissy fit. (Can “mama” read?) Facts are hard to ignore, but ignored they are, especially by closet liberals rooting for Franken and making up allegations about the Wellstone crash.
Disingenuous “mama” (or perhaps, it's merely ignorance showing?) falsely claims that I said the current difference in the vote (225 up for Franken) “…was entirely made from felons and election officers…” That's not true. Look again. I did NOT say what she says I said. In truth I cited a combination of factors for Franken's improbable win” up there in her wacky-tacky Minnesota. See how the left tilts reality?
“Shame on IC for posting such malarky,” [sic] tut-tuts “mama,” taking Intellectual Conservative to task. With that in mind, I do hope myopic “mama” skips Part 2 of my How Al Franken Won in Minnesota…If He Did.” You see, the facts, let along distaff opinion, are burdensome things to the liberal class. Reading my Part 2 would likely give intolerant, fact-dissing "mama" a case of apoplexy. Growing up, it's so hard to do.
– Gary Larson
Oh sigh… neo cons can be such bitter people when they are obviously clueless about facts and called out on it!
No one is saying there were not errors or ballots counted twice, this is not denied even by the Franken camps and will be heard in court, but your charges of ballot election officials' corruption is simply silly and petty beyond belief.
I'm sure, however, in Gary Larson's Far Sided little world, however, accusing an entire state's recount committee of corruption (while the proceedings were televised) makes perfect sense.
I'm sure both our Republican Gov. and Democrat Sec. of State were in on it too. Maybe you can get an advance from Bob Woodward for telling your story. Let's see, I'm thinking of another nickname than "deep throat"…
By the way, Jesse Ventura was the rare incredibly honest man who actually got elected in politics and a close friend of Ron Paul. We would be incredibly lucky to get either of them to run for president in 2012. But if your standards of excellence are Coleman, I'm sure you're probably still fantasizing about Palin's skirts.