Posted on 12/02/2008 11:49:14 AM PST by Gary Johnson in 2012
Today’s Senate runoff between Jim Martin and Saxby Chambliss has drawn national attention in large part because of the possibility that a Martin victory would give Democrats 60 seats in the Senate, enough to close off filibusters.
However, Sen. Jim Martin would become that 60th vote only if Sen. Al Franken became the 59th. And that seems highly unlikely. Franken has fallen behind by more than 300 votes in the Minnesota Senate recount (although the Franken camp claims the real margin is less than 80), with less than 10 percent of the votes still to be recounted.
According to The Hill, Franken’s camp is even considering taking the fight to the floor of the Senate:
“Al Franken’s (D) campaign may ask the Democratic-led Senate to intervene on his behalf to allow some disqualified absentee ballots to be counted in his quest to unseat Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.).
Franken attorney Marc Elias made the case to reporters Monday that as many as 1,000 absentee ballots were improperly disqualified and that the Senate or the courts may need to step in to resolve the issue.
“No recount can be considered accurate or complete until all the ballots cast by lawful voters are counted,” Elias said of the recount that became necessary when only about 200 votes separated the two candidates on Nov. 4.
Minnesota’s Board of Canvassers ruled last Wednesday that it would not revisit the improperly disqualified ballots. The bipartisan board ruled unanimously that it did not have the authority to order that the ballots be reviewed and counted.
Elias said that of the 12,000 disqualified absentee ballots in the race, “as many as 1,000” ballots were improperly excluded, and should be counted. He added that the campaign would appeal to the Board of Canvassers, courts or the U.S. Senate to ensure those ballots are counted. Last week, Elias had indicated that the campaign would not directly appeal the board’s ruling.
The U.S. Constitution allows each congressional chamber to be the “Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members.”
Taking it to the Senate would be a big mistake, and Senate Democrats ought to refuse to get involved if Franken dares to push things that far. Franken has the right and even the obligation to press Minnesota officials to count every legal ballot, but in the end the decision should be made in Minnesota, not by politicians in Washington.
Me and a friend of mine once started a rumor where we worked that there was a union organizer in the plant and he was trying to get a union started where we worked. Little did we know that it was actually true! We found out who he was and he came int to where we worked and to talk to our group. By then the rumor had been all around the plant and he was dumbfounded as to how it got around so fast.......
Don’t forget Wellstone...........
Frankin assumes he has friends in the senate.
The senate has to consider if they way to empower hollyweird so much that all the kook fringe actors and actresses suddenly think they are qualified to run to be their replacements in the senate.
Shhh! Democrats!
Fraud, what fraud?
Shouldn't this headline have read "Things looking good for Coleman in Minn?"
-PJ
What's with that ??
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.
With the news of Mel Martinez retiring, Hussein making the left angry, and Chambliss winning Georgia (I hope), then December is off to a nice start.
This reminds me so much of the 2004 governor's race in Washington State. Every day I would sit down to watch the local news and hear the anchor giddily tell us that more ballots had been "found". Always, these ballots were in favor of the Dem candidate. Never did the news anchor, or any of the reporters, voice any curiosity about where the ballots kept being "found".
Found by “helpful, civic-minded” ACORN volunteers?
There is a blurb on Drudge that says Franken “claims he trails by 50 votes”. Is that possible?
This stinks-Harry Reid!
Why should the remaining U.S. Senate races still really matter politically, since the next U.S. Senate will also still have a handful of RINO’s, who often will vote with Democrats on a variety of issues, in it? D’s + RINO’s=more than 60 total votes on the leftist side of the next U.S. Senate.
Humphrey was a patriot compared the rest on you list.
I early voted for Chambliss a week ago and now have just been keeping my fingers crossed.
However, it does look like Martin is going to lose. The final Public Policy Poll (1,276 likely voters) has Chambliss with a 53 to 46% lead.
Here is an excerpt - Chambliss is up 71-28 on Jim Martin with whites. For Martin to win the runoff with that performance the electorate would have to be 34% African American. Given that it was only 30% for the general election with Obama at the top of the ballot and that early voting was less than 23% black, that does not seem particularly likely
Martin showed his desperation when he held a rally in Atlanta with that fool Ludacris. I think he has lost and HE KNOWS IT.
Thanks-I hope Coleman holds on.
Yeah, what the heck is going on up there? Brain freeze?
Let me guess, they checked in the box with Hillary’s Rose Tree law firm records and Shazam!!! There they were....
Can I count them now? :)
Yes, they are “safe” now...........for six more years..........;^)
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