Court Declares Franken The Winner

Yesterday, a three-judge panel in Minnesota declared Al Franken the winner in that state's U.S. Senate race. In a normal race that would be the end of it and Franken would be allowed to assume his senate seat, but this is anything but a normal situation.

In the three-way race last November, Coleman originally came out ahead by a few votes. But the margin was less than 1/2 of 1%, and a state law triggered an automatic recount. After the recount, Franken has taken a 225 vote lead. Coleman appealed the outcome to a three-judge panel, in the hopes of getting some disqualified absentee ballots counted and overturning the outcome. The court did allow another 400 absentee ballots to be counted, but that just increased Franken's lead to 312 votes.

That should be the end of it, but Coleman is now saying he is going to appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. The Republican governor says he won't issue an election certificate until all court actions are completed. That could be a long time, since even if the Minnesota Supreme Court rules against him, Coleman could start working his way up the federal courts.

There is no chance of Franken's victory being overturned. To do so, there would have to be proof of some kind of election malfeasance, and that is unlikely considering the verdict of the three-judge panel. They wrote, "The overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates that the November 4, 2008, election was conducted fairly, impartially and accurately. There is no evidence of a systematic problem of disenfranchisement in the state's election system, including in its absentee-balloting procedures."

There is simply no proof of election malfeasance and Coleman knows it. He knows he has lost the election, but this is no longer about who won the election. Coleman is now just carrying water for the national party.

If Franken is seated in the Senate, that brings the Democrats very close to the 60 votes they need to keep the minority Republicans from filibustering or blocking Democratic or White House bills. The longer the Republicans can keep Franken from being seated, the better there chances are of obstructing senate actions.

The Republicans may be in the minority now, but that obviously hasn't stopped their dirty tricks and underhanded politics.