DISQUS

JMOHR · 8 months ago

This seems to recall the same problem that the Democrats have had since Nixon. You can not simply be reasonable with Republicans. We gave them a break after Watergate. Look what happened: Iran Contra, Bush Administration and abuse.

We did not obstruct the Senate through the filibuster. Now look at what happened in return. A party totally dedicated to obstructing government. We attempted to play fair on judicial appointments and the Republicans revert back to Bork type of appointments.

No, Obama and the Democrats need to go on the offensive by just delivering a scathing attack on the Republicans for what they have been pulling. We have let this go on too long.

pdxprobert · 8 months ago

The Dems just don't know how to fight.. there attitude is if youre not going to be nice, Im not going to be your friend anymore.. and then say ok, I'll forget the past and look to change things in the future..

John Aravosis · 8 months ago

Yep. If I'm nice to you, maybe you'll take the knife off of my throat.

JMOHR · 8 months ago

I spent more than a quarter century as a litigator. Initially I was a prosecutor and later handling complex civil litigation in government contracts and aviation liability. Now I am retired and I walked away with an utter distaste for conflict and litigation. I can understand the reluctance to go to war over these issues. It is wasteful and an utter inefficient use of resources. However, the Republicans are more than willing to follow this path and will not be deterred through anything less than force. We did not call for this war but we are stuck with it.

We have no choice. It is necessary to raise these issues. I have no doubt that we may very well end up in a civil war with the Republicans and conservatives. It may actually end up as a shooting war given the extreme language, obstructionism and conservatives arming themselves. So be it. Our nation and democracy will not survive if we fail to call out the Republicans for their war crimes, corruption, violation of civil liberties and obstructionism.

The time is now. The lines are drawn. Let loose the dogs of war.

caphillprof · 8 months ago

I think the Supreme Court's right to bear arms ruling was the set up for an actual shooting war.

Given the economic situation, actual shooting is more, rather than less, likely.

red_dwarf · 8 months ago

JMOHR - very succint comment. Jefferson would be proud.

pdxprobert · 8 months ago

Why was it so easy and fast to resolve the 2000 Presidential election and why can't that same path be followed with this situation? and, why do we hear so much about what Coleman is doing? What's Franken doing to show he can fight just as hard to win? I never hear anything about what Franken is doing...

theWalrus · 8 months ago

What's he doing? Ummm....he's winning.....? Senator Franken has made all the right moves, hired some of the best lawyers and is waiting patiently and respectfully to take the oath. Unfortunately, the MSM isn't that interested in covering either side of this story.

The 2000 election was not "resolved" as much as it was usurped.

mtiffany · 8 months ago

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that in this instance I think that as long as this melodrama is in the public spotlight we ought to give Coleman and the Republicans as much rope as they would like to take. Their intransigent refusal to concede to reality just makes the Republican Party look like an elite club for entitled, anti-democratic, self-righteous rich old white guys. Which it is.

woodroad34 · 8 months ago

I guess Coleman is hoping for an "activist" judge to seat him. Oh, wait! Am I silly or what? I forgot that "activist" judges are Democrats.

mtiffany · 8 months ago

"Am I silly or what?"

LOL. Yes, you are silly. And right on the money, too.

RainbowPhoenix · 8 months ago

And of course, the same people pushing for Coleman to take this to the SCOTUS are the same people who were pushing for Gore to concede.

Theo · 8 months ago

Remember, Ben Ginsberg was the attorney who had to drop out of the 2004 Bush campaign because he was simultanously an attorney for the Swift Boat attackers.

AdrianBrowne · 8 months ago

Even National Review Online is calling for Coleman to give up.

Eric on the Beach · 8 months ago

I think the Dems are sitting back for the process to complete. Now that the process is complete, I would hope and expect there to be louder and louder calls for Norm to go away.

RichardfromHB · 8 months ago

The Minnesota Supreme Court, when it refused to order that Franken be seated before the election contest was completed, did a lot of thinking, and writing (see http://www.courts.state.mn.us/opinions/sc/curre... ) about when an election must be certified. In short, there's not a lot of doubt that Pawlenty must sign the certificate when the state court contest is over. Minnesota Law (Minn. Stat. § 204C.40, subd. 2) does not allow him to wait "years" for Norms federal suits to be finished. Here's what the Minnesota Supreme Court said with Slip Opinion Page citations.

Page 16:

The plain language of Minn. Stat. § 204C.40, subd. 2, provides that no election certificate can be issued in this Senate race until the state courts have finally decided the election contest pending under chapter 209.

Page 11:

The term “contest” in Minn. Stat. § 204C.40, subd. 2, refers to contests initiated pursuant to the general election laws of this state—that is, chapter 209—and not to the potential continuation of that contest into the United States Senate.

Seems pretty clear, and good for Al, that Governor Pawlenty must certify the election after the upcoming state supreme court appeal. Without that certification, Pawlenty is not acting in the manner which the law specifically requires, and denying his constituents their second US senator. Would Minnesotans like that?

So, the only way for Norm to use up his newly found $30,000 ceiling on individual election contest contributions is to get an order from the federal courts that prevents Pawlenty from issuing any certificate. If the order, called a "stay" is denied, the fight is over and Al gets seated as a matter of law. Let's all hope that Al's lawyers are researching the federal stay cases for every argument.

Interestingly, Pawlenty today is quoted agreeing with my analysis that the certification only waits for the conclusion of state court appeals, but expects it to take a "few more months". http://washingtonindependent.com/37489/pawlenty...

osage · 8 months ago

SELF-EXTINCTION

Today's GOP is a genetically and or psychologically deviant mélange of morally and ethically damaged mutants, miscreants and kamikaze loyalists who are crashing and burning all things Republican. They are the figurative buzzards and hyenas fighting over the last scraps of a carcass riddled with maggots and festering clumps of putrefied viscera. They are the opportunistic parasites whose very existence is and always has been dependent on the engorged bellies of alpha predators. The prevalence of fear, paranoia, and irrational hatred in today’s GOP represents the antemortem gasps of a doomed species struggling to survive in evaporating pools of their own toxic waste as they mercilessly slice and dice one another in futile attempts to be a big fish in an increasingly smaller and smaller pond.

skyblue · 8 months ago

Norm Coleman = Sore Loser

Freday63 · 8 months ago

So Coleman is waiting for some "Activist Judges" to put him in office?

Grrrowler · 8 months ago

That's exactly what I was thinking. But, we have to remember that judges are only "activist" when they rule against the conservative agenda. Otherwise they are respected judiciary.

Combustibleturnip · 8 months ago

Is it possible--right or wrong--that the Democrats are using this to eventually put Pawlenty on the spot and hamper his presidential campaign (let alone his role as Governor) and let him make a decision he doesn't want to? Force his hand to line up with the hard core Republican base? I can see this backfiring on their party, nationally, but especially locally, no matter what the Christian Republicans do.

Combustibleturnip · 8 months ago

Or am I giving the Democratic "leaders" way too much potential credit and insight?

ShirleyGoodnessanMercy · 8 months ago

I've never witnessed a bigger coward than Norm Coleman.