Franken wins by +312.
Coleman's Appeal Brief is due in to the MN Supreme Court on or before April 30.
So here I have Monday off from work to listen to the drizzle leak down in 50 degree weather. (I know. Probably considered beach weather in Seattle but still....) I've noted to the Kos Community from Saturday that these diaries will be more occasional/sporadic since there will be NOTHING worth mentioning for a while. (MN Supreme Court will hear oral arguments June 1.)
But then the Mpls. Star Tribune (dying) newspaper goes and screws up my day off!
The last few days they did a good thing: they commissioned a MN Poll, a good in-state polling effort (sample of 1042) that has a nice track record on politics in MN. They are releasing the results over a couple days; Sunday they used it for stuff on the Franken-Coleman struggle. (Today they have front page coverage on how President Obama and his policies are seen in MN; good reading.)
Sunday the page one headline above the fold read "Most want Coleman to call it Quits." The story says 64% of those polled want Norm to GO AWAY! (This confirms a separate poll by the Alliance for Better MN from about 10 days ago that says 60% feel this way.) Further, the Sunday story manages to get in above the fold(!) that only 28% of Minnesotans consider Coleman's appeal to the MNSC "appropriate." (Those are Bushistic numbers for sure.)
Well now the Monday Headline writer has reported for work in the on-line section of the Star Trib. This lobotomized cretin with the Faux Noise/Nancy Grace model vibrator glued inside his shorts decides the real story is "Favorable Ratings for Franken and Coleman Drop." Compared to November, Franken's favorables have dripped from 47 to 43%-- 4 points: which is the margin of error you quarter-witted toe-sucker!
Coleman's favs went from 46 to 38-- outside the margin of error and sadistically significant.
Unfavs for Franken is at 47; for Coleman 55. So Franken is net negative 4, and the margin of error is 4. No doubt some stat slinger will tell me those 2 numbers have damn little to do with each other except they are in the same article, but any way you slice it this ain't half bad for a Senator-elect who hasn't been able to legislate or serve his constituents one inch--- because of Coleman.
OTOH the FORMER Senator who can't find an equine orthodontist is net negative 17. Minus 17! NORM! Go stick your tongue on the steel pole of the swing set at MINUS 17.....after you double-dog dare that headline writer to go first. Then the rest of us can get on with fixing the country now that the First Puppet with 28% of the sawdust for brains of the average puppet has left the White House. (*Fumes*)
http://minnesotaindependent.com/...
A Fair Idea Shot to Hell
Columnist Eric Black over at Minn Post last week had an interesting proposal: a deal between Franken, Coleman and the US Senate. The Senate agrees to provisionally seat Franken while Coleman pursues his legal options all the way to Ninth Circle of Il Inferno. If the final appeal of the final court rules in Norm's favor that he won the election (and that Ninth Circle might be the only one in the metaphysical universe that might) the Senate would then UN-seat Franken and seat Coleman. This would show that Coleman TRULY was interested ONLY in pursuing justice while allowing MN to have 2 US Senators. (There would be NO question then that he was stalling for partisan purposes.)
It was sort of bar talk from Eric but readers urged him to "give it a shot" with Team Norm. So he did.
I am now officially informed that Coleman -- who is giving a lot of interviews these days and who, to his credit, has often tolerated my impertinent questions -- will not discuss the merits and demerits of my modest proposal.
Stymied here, Black decided to see if the Coleman side might have something more general to say on the matter. Well yes, generally generically talking-point-stupid as in a written statement from Cullen Sheehan, the Coleman campaign manager AND co-appellant in the court case:
"We are pursuing the legal avenue that has been prescribed under Minnesota law. We are disappointed that Al Franken or anyone else would be so shrill to suggest that the due process and equal protection rights of 4,400 Minnesotans should be swept under the rug. The time that we are taking to get it right is well within the prescribed limits allowed under the law, and any suggestion to the contrary is wrong and misleading."
Uh Cullen? Shrill? Eric asked about the Senate seat and MN representation in the Senate. He did NOT ask about equal protection, due process, rug sweeping, complain about time limits, or suggest ignoring the law (Rethug Default Position 1). Shrill indeed!
http://www.minnpost.com/...
Fresh Air
In contrast with standing 3 meters downwind from the overturned outhouse that IS Cullen Sheehan, Grace Kelly at MN Progressive has a delightful little celebration of both Senator-Elect Franken, the virtue of patience, and the re-emergence of LAW into our elections. Thank you, Grace!
http://www.mnprogressiveproject.com/...
OK. For what its worth here's some of what passes for news these days on the Recount. No real action until Coleman's Brief gets filed later this week, so that will be the next diary FOR SURE. Any other postings will be hit-or-miss; you have been warned.
The latest to you from yust southeast of Lake Wobegon.
Shalom.