and doggone it, elected enough.

The MN recount has been the most bipartisan, transparent and fair process I've ever seen. Both campaigns had proxies in all the precincts, equal opportunity to challenge questionable votes, and access to the challenges of the other campaign. The canvassing board was a nonpartisan group with a clean record of fair dealing. There were live blogs, cameras in the canvassing board meetings, daily updates, and the public at large even got to see images of the challenged ballots.

How could any sane person cry "theft!"?

Through it all, the Franken campaign has been consistent and on-message: count the votes. Coleman has challenged more ballots, changed arguments, flip-flopped on procedure and philosophy, and done everything but kick and scream on the floor of the MN Supreme Court. (And was he under the impression he'd get to stay Senator until the case was decided?)

Now he's taking the ball and trying to go home. He's impeding the Senate from taking meaningful action in Obama's first 100 days. And he's thwarting the will of the people of MN, who elected Al Franken to the Senate. If the recession worsens, or the conflicts in the Middle East explode, or another bridge crumbles, this spring, can we sue Coleman for gumming up the legislative works?

If they know of any evidence that would show he has stolen votes or violated any election statute, let them report it to the state law enforcement authorities. And if they don't, perhaps they will at last have the decency to shut up.

We could only wish.

Joe, I miss hearing you on Franken's show. After he announced he was leaving, I was hoping you would get the job. Of course, you probably hope to work at a place where you can depend on a regular check...

Everyone should check out The Rude Pundit's comment on Franken. (http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2009/01/al-franken-lives-for-our-sins-lets-face.html)

It's hard to hope for either of them to win. All hail the Greenwaldian Revolution!

But everyone had a great time romping around the fever swamp with fantasies of Chimpy McBushitler stealing Ohio, Florida, sacrificing virgins to Diebold, etc.

Prove it or shut up? Please--have we learned nothing from the Dems at all?? Maybe Michael Moore should make a documentary...

Perhaps because the Republican party today is so intertwined with the religious right, Republicans tend to think they have a divine right to rule and could not possibly lose an election. As for Norm Coleman, he has lost other elections in Minnesota and has a history of filing lawsuits to contest them. I would like to see some reporter research this angle of the story and report on it.

One of the less-explored stories: Why was the original count so biased toward Coleman? True, it was a small fraction of the three million cast and human error is most likely.

But it does seem suspicious that every time in recent memory there's a recount, the Republican was leading and a scrupulous, bi-partisan examination of the ballots finds that the Democrat gained.

As usual, the press is asking the wrong questions. Even the Star Tribune isn't talking about the voter repression suit filed by SoS Ritchie against the Minnesota Majority. The question is: How did Norm Coleman almost steal the election.

The secret to these individuals success is their embrace of a lack of decency. If any of them had any decency then it is unlikely that they would be celebrities at all.

Last weekend I was browsing with a friend at a store in town that had been there since I was young.

The owner engaged us in coversation and made a reference to what Rush said on a subject as if the great man's pronunciation should have some persuasive weight.

We excused ourselves and left the store empty-handed. My buddy had been interested in a Panama priced at about $160. I doubt that I'll go back. Too bad, I used to like that place.

You get all these morons talking about how Minnesotans are stupid. That's often the entirety of their message, which doesn't make them seem at all smart themselves.

Or they parrot uninformed allegations for Coulter or the WSJ or Lott or one of the others, often using exactly the same words.

Sometimes I'd just say that if you accuse someone of a crime, you should have some factual evidence. Many seemed totally baffled by the concepts of "facts" and "evidence". They were pretty sure that they disagreed with me, but they weren't quite sure exactly what I had said. One called me a troll.

"If it smells fishy, it probably is fishy". "If you smell a rat, there's probably a rat around". Actual arguments I was given by people who had no detailed knowledge at all of what had actually happened.

There are already a couple of them on this thread, I see.

Imagine Wichita Falls Dallas Cowboys fans tweaking on meth after another blown game. That's the Republican internet intelligentsia at this point.

and the liars who support them; Losers all ~ and in the worst sense of the word. huh.

These Republicans and their love/hate relationship with all those liberal lawyers. I simply don't know what to make of it. Other than:

It is a sad shame to me that Harry Reid is so weak willed he will not sit Al Franken, who has indeed won and it is only a matter of time before he does take his seat. The people of Minnesota will go to Congress in the meantime, less than fully represented at a fairly crucial point in the upcoming session. Coleman's name just might be dirt in his home state before his lawsuit comes to final judgement, or so I like to imagine.

If everyone can (as it is beginning to look) agree to see Burris seated, why the silence for Franken? Any ideas?

this country concerning the recount in Minnesota. It's not just the WSJ, although their entry here is particularly grievious considering thay are a major media outlet and one assumes they still have a few dimes left for researching the facts. But they were as lazy as other outlets, refusing to bother to back their assertions up with a click of the mouse. (I won't deal with Rush here, because as Franken said so well, he's a big fat idiot and a lying liar.)

I also encountered many many on left leaning blogs who couldn't get over their need for a result as fast as a drive through, who didn't have the patience to see through a hand count of a virtual tie, who slandered this state repeatedly for not delivering a result on a sesame seed bun with special sauce in less than 3 minutes. It is not only the right that has impatience with the amount of work a democracy sometimes demands.

Those of us who live here, and cared to follow the effort, were treated to a totally transparent effort, (broadcast daily on the uptake, every ballot displayed, every argument aired) presided over by a perfectly balanced partisan committee. And although I'm a Franken supporter, I can tell you without any misgivings that had Coleman won I'd have accepted the outcome and would have hoped my candidate would concede graciously. I couldn't say this if I hadn't watched the whole thing unfold and educated myself daily on the twists and turns of the legal challenges.

This is the legacy of the Supreme Court's ruling in 2000 and should be viewed that way. That election gave everyone, right and left, a precedent to believe in a rigged election. The thought at the time was that the court could actually legislate an outcome. What actually happened is the court blew a hole the size of a country into the broadside of democracy.

Only the people can decide an election and that's what Minnesota spent 2 months trying to determind---the intent of the voters. In the end, Franklin will be seated. I'm confident because I've educated myself. I have no worries about Coleman's pathetic challenge to the result, and I have no worries about anyone who knows the facts being unable to proove them.

The ignorant will inherit what they deserve---irrelevancy.