Say goodbye to Franken if seating him requires the Dems to show any actual spine at all. The current feckless leadership has thus far shown itself incapable of that sort of political acumen, organizational ability or testicular fortitude.

Fortunately, the state supreme court tends to jump quickly on election cases, so I don't think it will be months unless Coleman loses at the state level and manages to get into the federal courts. I hope federal courts will push the case to the front but if a partisan judge gets a hold of it, who knows. And of course, I hardly trust the conservatives on the US Supreme Court to play fair.

However, if the case stays out federal court, it won't take long.

I mean its not like Congress has any real issues to tackle, best to continue the partisan bickering

Good for the Republicans. Why in the world would Franken get seated before the election was decided? A 40-something vote lead (which has bounced back and forth a few times) with over a thousand challenged ballots is not a victory by any means.

Seating him before the election results are decided would be an insult to democracy and the voters of Minnesota.

Oh, you GOP rascals. STFU.

On one hand, I agree with the Republicans that Franken should not be seated until the election is officially decided.

On the other hand, I want Reid to make the Republicans put up or shut up by forcing them to ACTUALLY FILIBUSTER instead of just threatening to do so.

The bothersome thing here is not that the Republicans are insisting that the legal challenges be resolved. That's all well and good. The bothersome thing is that they're continuing to set the tone that they intend to be obstructionist and little else.

The mark of The Beast

What is extremely frustrating is that Republicans, when in the majority, carried on a prolonged media campaign critical of "obstructionist" Democrats who (rarely) invoked their right to filibuster and the Democrats all but forfeited their ability to use it. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, those same Republicans claim the right to filibuster any and every thing the Democrats want to do, and Reid and the rest of the gutless Democrats just roll over like the political cowards they are.

Overcoming a procedural filibuster requires a supermajority of 60%. If there are 100 senators seated, that means 60 votes -- but if there are only 98 senators (i.e. until the Minnesota and NY seats are filled), only 59 votes will be needed. And if there are only 96 seated senators, it will take 58 votes.

I agree, if the Republicans are going to play B.S. obstructionist games, then I say we set up a side room in the capital where debate for a particular bill is to be held, so as not to tie up the entire body, then force them to actually keep talking until they drop over. If we do this enough, perhaps for multiple bills in multiple rooms, all presided over using closed-circuit video by a single "pro tem" chair, perhaps we can force them to pick their battles a bit more carefully. Either that or tie every Republican up in multiple filibusters running concurrently so that none of them are on the floor when the main body brings to the floor and passes the legislation needed to get this country moving and re-regulate the financial industry among others. Not a "nuclear" option... more like a cluster bomb option.

Whomsoever thinks that the Senate repugs will change their evil ways and become rational, reasonable, or reliable had a better think coming. We can expect the same bad behavior on health care reform, future stimulus packages, etc. So, the Democratic leadership has to pick the best opportunity to snuff out this filibuster b/s before the repugs get on a roll; hence, the Franken matter might very well be a good one to show some spine and make the repugs actually stay up past their beddie times.

Ex-senator Coleman is such a jerk. Remember all his UN bashing, the blue helmets are taking over, etc. The world is so much better off without him in the Senate. Thank you Al Franken!

Comedy Gold.

I am certain a comedy bit would be within the candidates range of talents to deal with such a rejection and more than a few Dems could act as Franken's shills and the result could be aired on CNN and then youtube to memorialize the moment in comedy history, a subject of some more gravitas and respect than political history..

Let them be the party of petty obstructionists crooks.

The voters have spoken, Franken won by 59 votes.

I'm sorry the Republicans don't like it but the fact is they lost and they need to step aside and quit obstructing the electoral process.

This is clear and obvious. Why are the Republicans suing? Is that how the Republicans want to decide elections, in a courtroom and not at the ballot box?

Coleman lost. Get over it.

I'm sorry I don't make the rules. But Cornyn will ensure it gets tossed to a Federal court then the Supreme Court in order to award the seat to the GOP. This is how these things work. Likewise, all the prattling that the Senate Democrats have about Burris will ENSURE that the Senate GOP works to seat NO ONE for that seat on an interim basis. Then they will win the necessary special election because all they have to do is point to the Democrats as corrupt.

So that's two GOP Senate seats.

In NY, the GOPs in the state legislature will force a backroom deal that gets a 'moderate' Republican in the seat.

That's one more GOP Senate seat.

Good job Democrats. Your purity and ideology won out.

Maybe it's time to recall the GOP's "nuclear option": changing the rules (by simple majority vote) to elminate the 60% cloture rule.

"I can assure you that there will be no way people on our side of the aisle will agree to seat any senator provisionally or otherwise unless there is a valid election certificate and all legal issues about who got the most votes is finally decided," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) says.

UNLESS OF COURSE, SAID SENATOR WAS A REPUBLICAN.