True North

Yesterday, in conceding that Al Franken is going to be the next (puke a little in my mouth) Senator from Minnesota, the Minnesota GOP sent out a press release:

St. Paul- Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman-elect Tony Sutton today issued the following statement regarding the Minnesota Supreme Court’s ruling in the U.S. Senate race.

“Today’s ruling wrongly disenfranchised thousands of Minnesotans who deserve to have their votes counted. Alongside Senator Coleman, the Republican Party of Minnesota has fought to make sure every vote counts and all voters are treated fairly and uniformly. As we move forward, our deeply flawed election system must be dramatically improved to ensure our state’s elections are fair, accurate and reliable.” (Republican Party of Minnesota)

This election does bring up a slew of questions:  how did we wind up with a 500 vote swing over the course of eight months?  Why do we have ballots being counted several times (according to at least one SCOM justice) while we’re not entirely sure every ballot was rightfully counted once?  Why does our state have different recount standards in every county?  Why did every single question about the recount process break in Franken’s favor?

And the big one - can more than about 1% even come close to explaining what just happened?   I’ll allow for the fact that 43% of Minnesotans got what they wanted, and many of them wouldn’t care if it came by ballot or by decree, but I’d like to think this state could hope for better.

“Two-Putt Tommy”, a fairly generic anonymous leftyblogger writing at Minnesota Tragedy of Spyrochaetal Paresis “Progressive” Project (a blog that actively recruits liars and distributes 9/11 conspiracy theories), brought what every anonymous leftyblogger brings to the issue: Mthe sort of classy analysis that makes one thing “I’m so glad his vote counts the same as mine”:

Incredible. At the same time Norm Coleman played the “gracious concession” act, the State Republican Party showed their true colors with their official press release:In other words, “Norm wuz robbed.”

Well, actually “Minnesotans who believe Minnesotans should understand and have justified confidence in their election system were robbed”.

That’s the way the state GOP Party was under former Chairman Ron Carey; that’s the way it will remain under new Chairman Tony Sutton.

Catch that?

A guy who spent the last eight years chanting “Bush was selected, not elected!” is yapping about other peoples’ questions about an election that, over the last eight months, might have struck one as “contentious”.

The DFL may achieve a “classless society”, but probably not in the way they intended.

Cross-posted and comments welcome at Shot In The Dark.