MN Supreme Court

Fuck me running. 

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state's long-running Senate race.

The high court rejected a legal challenge from Republican Norm Coleman, whose options for regaining the Senate seat are dwindling.

Justices said Franken is entitled to the election certificate he needs to assume office. With Franken and the usual backing of two independents, Democrats will have a big enough majority to overcome Republican filibusters.{...}

But wait...there's more:

{...}Coleman's appeal hinged largely on whether thousands of absentee votes had been unfairly rejected by local election officials around the state.

The unanimous court wrote that "because the legislature established absentee voting as an optional method of voting, voters choosing to use that method are required to comply with the statutory provisions."

They went on to say that "because strict compliance with the statutory requirements for absentee voting is, and always has been required, there is no basis on which voters could have reasonably believed that anything less than strict compliance would suffice."

So let me see if I've got this straight: the Minnesota Supreme Court just ruled that the law, when it comes to absentee voting, is the law, and anyone who doesn't comply by it shouldn't expect to have their ballot counted?  Thanks for the clarification, Captains Obvious.  Now, why don't you go and tell us that 2+2=4?  The point of this whole exercise was that the law, when it comes to absentee balloting, was applied inconsistently from county to county.  Equal protection under the law, assholes.  It's part of the Constitution.  You might want to look it up.  

Yeah, yeah.  I know.  As Captain Ed says, no one should have expected this argument to win in the state courts, and that Coleman would have a better chance with this line of reasoning in the Federal courts, but what the hell, people.  What.The.Hell?

This is just one more insult on top of all the injuries. 

You'd have to be an idiot to live in Minnesota and not know that the DFL is the party that wields the majority of the power around here. It was no secret that there was a well-oiled machine behind certain actions. Like booting Rod Grams from office, and putting that idiot Mark Dayton in, instead. The DFL made that happen.  All of Mark Dayton's money would never have bought him Grams' senate seat if he hadn't had the DFL behind him. General priorities were decided, and effort was directed toward making those priorities reality. 

The thing was, the DFL'ers weren't, to my mind, overly obnoxious about it.  They were just supporting their side of things, and they were doing it well; it was up to the Republicans to up their game in response, if they wanted to wield more political power.  Given that there was a large base of support for their actions, the DFL was able to claim that this was what voters wanted, as well, and never mind that they had the cash from said voters to get what they wanted.  Contrary to what the DFL would have you believe, however, there have always been and will always be Republicans in Minnesota.  Yet, as the Republicans' share of the vote became larger and larger, the DFL, obviously, decided it had to double-down and work harder.  No matter how much I loathe everything they stand for, I've never felt that they'd rigged the game before. Have they played dirty?  Had they played like they were out to win?  Sure.  On both counts.  That's just politics.  No one should think the Republicans would have done any differently should the shoe have been on the other foot.

But this decision is beyond the pale.  Of course the Supreme Court is simply ruling on the case as its come to them, but all of the rulings put in by the election commission and the lower courts have successfully whittled away at Coleman's arguments, and evidence, to the point where the court has cover to rule as it has. 

This ruling is so far out of whack that I can come to no other conclusion than that the DFL machine has decided they now have to take power by hook or by crook, and they're not above collusion to get what they want: which was Al Franken as senator in a filibuster-proof Democratic Senate.  I was more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I was more than willing to let the legal process run its course on this recount, hoping that someone would come to their senses and stand up for what is right, but, now?  Whatever Coleman decides in regard to a Federal appeal, I've lost all faith in the institutions of the Great State of Minnesota (which, as it happens, I just had to pay $246 today---for license plate tags. Even though it was due a month early due to a clerical error.  See what all your taxes buy you?  People who are unable to count to twelve. Ironic, no?). Why should I bother to cast a ballot in the next election? Why should I put my faith in the system to get it right when it's patently obvious that they fiddled with said system to get the result they wanted? Do I have any proof to back up my claims?  No.  But we never will have, either.  They've covered their bases and now the rest of us just have to live with it.

And what have we got now?  Stuart effin' Smalley as a United States Senator. 

Which is bad enough, until you think about the simple fact that even if he hadn't run, and some other schmuck had received the honor and the race had been close, said DFL schmuck would have just been declared the victor in the senate race.