Franken Ruled Winner, Again

When I wrote, "What is Best for Coleman?," urging Coleman to drop his court challenge some thought I was being facetious. Maybe Coleman should have listened.

We are now in the next stage of Republican attempts to delay Minnesotans' full representation in the U.S. Senate. Yesterday's strongly worded ruling by the Minnesota Court that Franken won the election, not only puts Minnesota closer to getting a second Senator, but further damages whatever integrity and political future Coleman has left. (Now, even a former GOP congressman told Coleman: "You Lost...It Is Over.")

The courts did not spare Coleman's feelings when they "soundly rejected Norm Coleman's attempt to reverse Al Franken's lead in the U.S. Senate election late Monday, sweeping away the Republican's claims in a blunt ruling Coleman promised to appeal."

The Start Tribune reports that the Judges weren't impressed with Coleman's argument:

After a trial spanning nearly three months, the judicial panel dismissed Coleman's central argument that the election and its aftermath were fraught with systemic errors that made the results invalid.

"The overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates that the Nov. 4, 2008, election was conducted fairly, impartially and accurately," the panel said in its unanimous decision.

The panel concluded that Franken..."received the highest number of votes legally cast" in the election. Franken emerged from the trial with a 312-vote lead, the court ruled, and "is therefore entitled to receive the certificate of election."

Clearly, Coleman should pull the plug on his appeals because it's hard to argue how continuing this fight is in his best interest. Part of me can understand why Republican leaders wouldn't care about Coleman's former constituents, the nation's best interests, or court rulings in their frenzied partisan pursuit to keep Franken from the Senate, but Coleman should know better.

Let me reiterate what I wrote a couple of weeks ago:

I do not know Coleman personally, but I imagine that there aren't many people around him who consider Coleman's best interest over their own personal agendas. I have little doubt that Coleman's lawyers and political supporters have the ability and incentive to push this race well into the future. I fear that the inherently deliberative nature of our courts, combined with the partisan agenda of Coleman's advocates, means that the people of Minnesota will continue to be denied full representation in the Senate.

Yet, there comes a point when Coleman's closest friends need to remind him that it's his name at stake, that Coleman should think of his future and his former constituents. Coleman's true friends ought to remind him that sometimes the hardest people to say no to are your supporters. At the end of the day, the immediate past senator from Minnesota needs to look into his mirror and say, "Norm Coleman, enough is enough."

Coleman knows that there are ways to continue delaying his departure from this race, but he will also come to realize that the people advising him to prolong Minnesota's longest unresolved election are not the ones he should be listening to.

The most recent ruling from Minnesota's courts not only ruled Franken the winner, but "experts who read the panel's 68-page ruling say it effectively attacks some of the very arguments that Coleman would use on appeal." Coleman didn't just lose, he was humiliated.

"It is the kind of opinion that is unlikely to be disturbed on appeal by either the Minnesota Supreme Court or the United States Supreme Court," said Richard Hasen, an expert on election law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. "The opinion considers the major arguments made by Coleman and rejects them in a detailed and measured way."

Added University of Minnesota political scientist Lawrence Jacobs: "This is judicial speak for 'nothing here,' and it is most definitely aimed at the appeals process. It's a signal that they are supremely unimpressed by the Coleman case."

So, what's best for Coleman? Richard Hasen, an expert on election law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, asks, "What's next?"

Coleman has promised an appeal to the state Supreme Court, but I would not count on it. He might decide that his political future in Minnesota requires him to bow out gracefully at this point. The countervailing factor is the national interests of the Republican party, which want to keep a 59th Democrat out of the Senate for as long as possible. If Coleman appeals, it is possible that the Minnesota Supreme Court would reach the equal protection issues more directly, but even if it did, I'd be surprised to see a different result.

...

The Three-judge court opinion ends by extolling the virtues of the Minnesota electoral system. I think some praise needs to be heaped on the three judge court as well, for doing a fair job and rising above the partisan politics that has infected too many election law cases in recent years.

Maybe, what's next and what's best for Coleman are the same -- it's long past time to step aside.

Crossposted on NJDC's blog.

Comments

[Okieborn]

And Again And Again And Again !!!

[JimDSM]

Hey you're misjudging Ron Coleman. If you read his comments through all of this it's entirely obvious he would be seeking an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court even if he had won. After all, he keeps assuring everyone that it's all about fairness. He would have insisted that every possible vote be counted just in case it turned out that Al Franken had won.

[gallon]

ha ha ha ha

[Tusense]

Who can blame Norm Coleman for contesting the initial recount results, it was a ridiculously close election with as narrow as a margin that there could be. Especially since the initial results (before the automatic recount) showed him ahead of Al Franken by 215 votes. Now after the recount and a drawn out court case, a three judge panel has concluded that Al Franken is the winner — ahead by 225 votes.

At this point Norm Coleman needs to stand down and let Al Franken get to work representing the people of Minnesota in the U.S. Senate — it doesn’t do anybody any good to have Minnesota represented by one Senator in Washington D.C. Norm Coleman is simply stonewalling to prevent the Democrats from getting to 59 seats (one seat closer to the 60 required to override a filibuster). I’m sure this case will go on for sometime and probably end up at the U.S. Supreme Court. Let’s just hope it’s not a repeat of the 2000 presidential election where a biased Supreme Court handed the election to George W. Bush. With so much at stake and the balance of power in the Senate so precariously close — this election could be as important.

I can only hope that Coleman drops his selfish stance and graciously concedes the election to Franken. The results are in — Al Franken has won.

http://www.tusense.com

[Craig Calvin Jones]

This was by any count, literally, an extremely close election. Without a strong 3-rd party run by Dean Barkley, it would have gone differently, and in a re-vote (which should happen but wont) it would not be so close. Mr. Coleman should not view his political future as over, and should possibly take a leaf out of Mr. Nixon's book and step aside, as in 1960. Whatever you think of Richard M. Nixon, he did not contest that election, which by today's standard of behavior would be bitterly fought, regardless the cost to the country.

It makes me wonder if this bitterness and fight-to-the-death attitude so prevalent due to the lack of compromise in our recent political reality? It is seen certainly at the national level and here in Minnesota.

[gallon]

Also reminiscent of the 3rd party runs by Ralph Nader. Gore would likely have
become president if not for Nader.

[dessertsfirst]

You go, Norm Coleman.... way to pound the final nail in the coffin....

[SantaFeConservative]

Coleman should use all of the options granted him and every other citizen of Minnesota by state law. All of you aren't suggesting that all citizens rights be set aside just to seat Franken, do you? If so, what other rights are you OK eliminating?

[rogwheel]

So YOU agree Al Gore should've fought on so all citizens rights be set aside to "seat" Gov. Bush!??!!!?!?!?!?!? Since that DIDN'T happen, what other rights were you OK that WERE eliminated?

[Foreground]

He's not suggesting that anyone TAKE AWAY Coleman's rights, merely that Coleman should, HIMSELF, choose to not exercise one in a situation where there is little to no chance of it making any difference.

Just because you have a right doesn't mean you have to use it all the time. I have the right to bear arms, but I don't take a shotgun with me to the shower; I can't be forced to quarter soldier's, but my army medic cousin is always welcome on my couch; I have freedom of speech, but I'm not about to start yelling at some guy who bumps into me on the street. Similarly, this article is saying that Coleman should willingly choose not to exercise his right to an appeal because it would almost certainly fail to do anything but waste time and money, prevent his (former) constituents from having representation in their government and utterly destroying what remains of his own reputation in the process (especially considering how he was saying that he wouldn't have asked for a recount if he'd lost, back before the mandatory recount showed that he did, in fact, lose, at which point Coleman decided that he was wrong about himself).

[medici]

I get the impression that Mr. Keyak is suggesting that Mr. Coleman should face reality.

[gallon]

What about the Minnesota citizens right of representation here?
The election has been decided by vote, and uphelp throughout including the latest judicial review.
It's over.

[sussertown]

I have a really good idea for the Republicans. Since they want to save the taxpayers money they should skip any future elections and take their leaders, Palin, Bachman, and numero uno: the jumping Rush Limbaugh, and their guns and tea bags and head to court. Have they lost their way or are they just lost?

[dessertsfirst]

rhetorical question.... right?

[plzchuteme]

The time for, "bowing out gracefully," is long gone. Any possibility for that was torpedoed by the moronic things his money grubbing, carpet bagging, lawyer says whenever a camera is turned on. Norm has not helped his own cause with the sound bites released. I hope that every would be DFL candidate that Norm Coleman might ever face is making a collection on DVD(a three disc boxed set) to use in the campaign against him. As the old bites get trashed by the courts and detonated by their own illogic and untruthfulness, I am afraid we will hear even more outlandish claims by the Coleman side in their desperation. Norm's last hurrah will be anything but graceful.

[StephCaster]

"It is the kind of opinion that is unlikely to be disturbed on appeal by either the Minnesota Supreme Court or the United States Supreme Court," said Richard Hasen, an expert on election law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Methinks Dr. Hasen is under the illusion that the Supreme Court will act in a professionally appropriate manner, and not make a completely unprecidented and indefensible power-politics ruling in favor of the Republican Party. There was a reason Bush appointed unqualified political hacks to the Court, and this is part of that reason.

[milo h minderbinder]

I think even the SCOTUS realizes that something so blatantly partisan would taint them for years, and it would be for very little benefit. Right now, Coleman has little if any public support, and any inappropriate action from the court would draw a huge backlash.

[magecat]

What a total mess. Gov. Pawlenty has to sign the election certificate. He is a Republican and wants to run for President in 2012. He needs to honest and sign the blame thing.

[mredder4]

The rumors of Coleman replacing Steele at the RNC seem to have died down a bit. What possible carrot could the GOP be dangling in front of Coleman to convince him to continue this? It's mind-boggling, to say the least.

[TryToBeFlexible]

Here is the carrot, if Colman keeps going, then Limbaugh won't say mean things about him.

[nellieh]

Coleman is a tool. He is just dangling at the end of a string belonging to Cronyn. They sure don't have Coleman's political life in Minnesota at heart with these decisions. If he continues this his whining will be like finger nails on a blackboard to independent voters if he wants to run again for State or National office. I'm wondering what loyalty they have for Coleman anyway since he is a turncoat. He lied to Democrats, so what will stop him from lying to Republicans. The Democrats got him elected in the first place and he should have stuck with them and he wouldn't be in this situatioon.

[retromega]

I think you're right. Coleman has pushed this (and been pushed to push it) past the point where he could even be elected dog catcher - especially if he runs for it supported by the GOP.

[proudtobeliberal]

I live in Minnesota. We deserve to have 2 senators just as the rest of the nation has. Someone, please, stop this craziness. Al Franken has won the election, please, let him go to Washington and start working for the people of Minnesota. It is over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[weatherwaxx]

GO. AWAY.

Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

[weatherwaxx]

"...whatever integrity and political future Coleman has left.."

This looks like the former is going into negative numbers. The latter... they're still dragging Newtie the Cutie out, so Coleman could swan around in the GOP forever.