Franken's Fate In Hands Of GOP Gov. Pawlenty

Politico:

The legal fight between Al Franken and Norm Coleman is headed to the desk of Gov. Tim Pawlenty -- a no-win predicament for a Minnesota Republican with his eye on a White House run in 2012.

Franken won big Tuesday when a three-judge panel allowed the review of no more than 400 absentee ballots in a race he currently leads by 225 votes. Coleman's camp says an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court is coming; once that's done, the dispute lands in Pawlenty's lap.

Read the whole story: Politico

Comments

[TRYKER]

After reading what his former classmate said about him, he sounds like the opportunistic Sarah Palin. This is about THEM...it isn't about administering govt, like what our administrator in chief Obama is in the process of doing.
Pawlenty will do what is good for him, not what is good for MN or his country.

[TRYKER]

Pawlenty's photo is just not depicting Presidential material. He looks spooky. The man will not be elected Pres.
If he is dumb enough to be in the GOP, he has enough strikes against him already. OK, he can RUN like Palin RAN, but WIN is another story altogether.
Poor Al Franken, at least he is lucky enough to be a comedian because this mess would take a sense of humor to tolerate.
Minnesota used to have such a progressive and smart reputation, their schools were top in the nation, they had their heads on fairly tight. Now, good grief...ho­w many squirrely politicians have they elected?
I'm beginning to believe that the GOP haven't really been WINNING elections, they have been using dirty tricks, programmed voting machines, "missing ballots", blocking votes...fo­r years and years.
That is probably why, though the turnout smacked of h-u-g-e Obama votes, McCain supposedly won nearly half. No way. ...and a HUSH went out over the land, MSM ignored it.
We had best get some election reforms firmed up, or we'll never know the truth about these elections.

[Jane43]

Sorry, forgot the link.

http://www.citypages.com/2004-01-28/news/a-portrait-of-the-governor-as-a-young-weenie/

[power1]

Give Franken the seat, he stole it fair and square.

[jerrycurls]

The definition of "stealing an election" according to the GOP = whenever the otherside gets more votes.

[JRsNana]

I love it when the R's call getting the most votes stealing. It makes me laugh. I am so freakin' sick of you guys and your "stolen" vote BS I could scream. STOP listening to Hannity/Li­mbaugh/Bec­k. It's making you stupid.

[Jane43]

Here's an old piece about Tim Pawlenty's background. He's always been an opportunist. Its pretty spot on. I personally know both the writer and the subject of the article.

[tarayatre]

Another loser amongs many losers, nothing new here.

[wm1066]

Okay this is from Politico so their is a credability issue here.

[Jane43]

To clarify, Mark Ritchie is Minnesota's Secretary of State.

[Jane43]

Two signatures are required on the election certificate, the Republican Pawlenty's and the Democrat Mark Ritchie's. Pawlenty alone can't seat anyone.

[Grannysue]

I thought we had a Constitution in this Country. They had an election, they chose a winner, but the winner cannot be seated because the loser says he can't! What the hell is going on, if the roles were reversed and this was a GOPER waiting to be seated who WON, they would ask for a constitutional ammendment stating he was Senator, Rush would be frothing at the mouth, Bachman would be out screaming it's a Islamic ploy, and the rest of the GOP would gladly follow!

[lunchlady]

I would sure prefer that an at-least-o­fficially-­nonpartisa­n person or persons were given this decision. I predict that Pawlenty will choose Coleman, to make the GOP and Rush happy. I hope I'm wrong, but this man's history makes me think of the 2000 Presidential election results being replayed in Minnesota.
I will support Franken to run again and again if he is not seated this time. Its already been 5 months of delay.
The worst part of Coleman being seated would be seeing his look of victory.

[Paul Peete - Huffpost Blogger]

This issue is beyond Pawlenty's pay grade. The whole Republican establishment is bankrolling Coleman's maneuvers, paying court costs, threatening havoc in the Senate if Franken is seated after the MN Courts rule.

With the vacuum in leadership apparent in the candidacy for President in 2012, Pawlenty cannot afford to buck his party leaders who will demand that he prevent Franken from gaining he seat. He is like Piyush, all suit and no suitability.

[doctorwang]

If Pawlenty allows Franken to be seated you can bet ElRushbo will unleash a gaseous tirade of epic proportion on poor Timmy. Without Rushbo's backing, Pawlenty's chances for the G0P nomination will be greatly diminished­...if not gone completely.

[Opt1musPr1me]

I would like to see Pawlenty run for the whitehouse in 2016. This is who McCain should have chosen in the first place. OK Pawlenty or Romney

[BeasleysMom]

Pawlenty will now have a chance to see if he is an honest and honorable man or just another in the long line of dishonest, obstructionist gops My money is on the later. How about you?

[VOTER]

He wants to be an obstructionist however the people of Minnesota may
force him to behave in an honorable way and seat Senator Al Franken.

[doctorwang]

It was a 50-50 split with the voters....­..Pawlenty will be getting pressure from both sides in MN. I have to believe, considering his national aspirations, that he's going to side with the G0P bigboys and stall the certification.

[idest]

NOW, all of a sudden, Republicans are concerned about counting all the votes??? Don't they remember rule number 1 of the modern Republican party?

1. The less people who vote, the better we do. So do everything you can to suppress the vote in your district!