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:
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)
In other words, "Norm wuz robbed."
Classless.
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.
One reason republiCon Ron still has his job, is he's good at asking AND he's good at ducking. It's the GreedOverPrinciples Party's Golden Rule: "Do Unto Others But Don't Let Them Do Unto You."
I bring this up, because so many of us on the left side o' the aisle have a tendency to enjoy - if not laugh uproariously - when some brain-dead bootlicker in the "Family Values" party (they're called the "Family Values" party because they have so many of them; for instance, in the last presidential election the only candidate that had only been married once was the Mormon - go figure) does something incredibly hypocritical - such as David Vitter replacing the disgraced Bob Livingston in Congress, and Vitter later getting caught in figuratively if not literally the exact same (cheney)in' kind of scandal.
Well, since morckery, ridicule and scorn are heaped upon those on the right for the old-fashioned reason - they've EARNED it, it only seems fair to rip those on the left side of the aisle when they've done something incredibly hypocritical. It seems that they too should be roasted and toasted with the same types of mockery,ridicule, and scorn. And I was going to do just that, today, to an organization known as Parkwatch - but, I'm tracking down more information on them that's recently come in -- so that's going to have to wait for another day.
In the meantime, and to whet the whistle o' the Regular Readers, I'll end with a couple of thoughts. First, let's review what it says on the "About Us" page at ParkWatch:
What Bachmann MotorMouth Overdrive said, BEFORE she said she was gonna break the law, is worth repeating. Here's the transcript:
(0:25) I come from Minnesota. We're still in a recount with our Senate race between Senator Norm Coleman and the challenger, Al Franken. Senator Coleman won the race on Election Day but that was challenged repeatedly over and over with what we feel may be fraudulent votes and very concerned about what goes forward.
"fradulent votes", eh? That's what you "think", Michele?
Why, just the other day (June 1st, to be exact) Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Christopher Dietzen said he saw "no evidence or fraud or misconduct." And Justice Dietzen said that in court.
That same day, in that same court, another Minnesota Supreme Court Justice asked Norm Coleman's attorney, Joe Friedberg, very pointedly if their were any instances of fraud. Norm Coleman's attorney - NORM COLEMAN'S ATTORNEY - answered emphatically "absolutely not" and added that there was no fraud of any kind; election, voter or otherwise.
But, hey - today's GOP playbook is ignore the debunking and repeat, Repeat, and REPEAT the debunked stuff over and Over and OVER, as Bachmann just did: the "fraudulent vote (debunked) theory."
In the rightwingworld, Norm "Smokescreen" Coleman "wuz robbed." That's their story, and they're stickin' to it.
From yesterday's breakdown, I note that of the 4,715 donors on the list, only 1837 are from Minnesota - about 39%. Of the dough scammed collected by Team Smokescreen, about 31% came from Minnesota.
210 days ago, on August 4th, 2008, Team Coleman Spokesman Mark Drake took the podium at a press conference at the Capitol. Drake claimed Coleman has been "open" and "transparent" with regards to RentGate and UtilityBill. Further, Mark Drake promised, under questioning, to check with the campaign about allowing members of the media to see an actual utility bill, so members of the media could verify who's name the utility bills are in and that Coleman was paying what he should be and not violating the Gift Ban.
210 days later, said utility bills have yet to be produced.
And it seems the media has lost interest. Which, of course, demonstrates once again exactly why GOPers lie to the media:
So, I'm reading Al Franken's Op-Ed in the Rochester Post Bulletin, and I notice a survey/poll:
How confident are you that the final result of the Franken-Coleman contest will reflect the will of Minnesota voters?
The choices are:
- very confident
- somewhat confident
- not at all confident
Now, I've been paying attention, and watching when I can. I simply have to agree with what Al wrote, in that Op/Ed:
Minnesota's recount was the most careful in the history of the country. Independent election officials in more than a hundred recount locations around the state, under enormous scrutiny, hand-inspected more than 2.9 million ballots.
Hundreds of local election officials worked tirelessly to make sure every ballot was counted fairly.
During the hand-count, both campaigns deployed thousands of observers who often exercised the right to challenge the local election official's ruling.
Each campaign brought those challenges to the state canvasing board seeking yet another examination of hundreds of ballots.
This panel of some of Minnesota's most respected jurists re-examined 1,337 ballots and toiled for four days to ensure that each and every vote was counted fairly. Some ballots were even examined more than once.
All of the board's major decisions were unanimous, consistent with Minnesota laws, and ignored any partisanship that sometimes plagues similar proceedings in other states.
...
The brilliance of our system here is that each of the stages was completely public. I believe transparency breeds accuracy and fairness.
Every recount table was administered in the public eye, every state canvassing board meeting and decision was aired under the media spotlight, and every court hearing open to the public and broadcast across the State.
There were no secret meetings, no behind-closed-doors negotiations -- just Minnesota's public servants working hard to ensure whoever received more votes on Election Day was declared the winner.
(Post-Bulletin)
So, what were the results of that survey/poll, so far?
- very confident: 50 votes; 18.8%
- somewhat confident: 47 votes; 17.7%
- not at all confident: 169 votes; 63.5%
Looks to me like Team Smokescreen has been successful, in their assault on Minnesota's Electoral System - and the people in it, Minnesota's Election Officials.
By now, the story of ol' Smokescreen, Norm Coleman, completely misrepresenting a late-campaign Strib story on Esme Murphy's show, is out there. And there's no doubt that ol' Smokescreen threw down a cloud, trying to cover the truth. Esme blogs about that, here.
And here's Esme's "Mea Nota Culpa" for letting Norm get away with his latest smokescreen:
Because of time constraints, I did not ask Coleman about something I knew: that the reporters say they tried repeatedly to reach the senator for a comment before confronting him in the parking lot at the campaign stop. (Esme's Blog)
I sent, via e-mail, "An Open Letter To The Media" last October 8th, about Coleman's failure to provide an actual utility bill for review.
The Silence Of The Scribes on this subject has been total; twice Team Smokescreen Spokesman Mark Drake promised the media he'd try to get a copy of an actual utility bill and twice he hasn't. Why should he? It's not as if the media is going to keep bugging him about it, is it?
Especially considering how the media, apparently (and conveniently for Norm), has forgotten all about UtilityBill. Well, and RentGate and SuitCase, too. The jury is still out if the media will let InsuranceScam fade away.
I'm just wondering if Esme will let Coleman get away with dropping his latest smokescreen on her show.
I'm actually almost - ALMOST - feeling sorry for Norm "Smokescreen" Coleman, R=Fourth Most Corrupt Senator.
Here ol' Smokescreen goes, entering into the Hail Mary "election contest" phase and on Day One, funded by every RightWingNutCase he can tap into, his legal beagles can't even get evidence introduced because it has been tampered with "isn't the best evidence."
This, of course, led to the classiest quote from Team Smokescreen (so far): Team Smokescreen's Trial Puppy, Joe Friedberg, said after Day One, and I swear I'm not making this up:
"Our issues are simple, once they've been dumbed down for me, we find that many thousands of ballots and uncounted absentee ballots should now be opened and counted," Friedberg said. (Pioneer Press)
Say, Friedberg? How about trying to avoid entering "evidence" that has stuff purposely altered and/or redacted and/or ommitted and/or added??!? Is THAT simple and/or dumbed down enough for you?
Starting at the bottom, Team Smokescreen dove lower: one of their witnesses admitted that a signature that should have been his, wasn't - his girlfriend signed his name. Gee - like I wonder why an Election Judge tossed THAT ballot??!?
Today, on Day Three, upon cross examination, James Gelbmann, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's deputy and Team Smokescreen's witness, on cross, spent hours detailing and verifying the paper trail of Team Smokescreen's flip-flops.
I don't know what Team Smokescreen's legal beagles are charging, but it's safe to assume the future price of their services are going down faster than Coleman's chances of prevailing.
I'll comment more on this farce "election contest" later; for now, I'd like to thank The Uptake for providing coverage of Team Smokescreen's abuse of the legal system Hail Mary Pass.
For now, those that want a reasonably accurate background, link to FactCheck.org.
"Thirdly, those with no major medal impairment now make up the vast majority of claims, while those who are truly sick are denied their day in court." -- George orwell Bush, Clinton Township, Michigan, January 7th, 2005
Hmmm, "medal impairment" - what might that be? Well, Dumbya gave medals to those who truly screwed up, such as Geroge "Slam Dunk" Tenet and Paul Bremer, two who have blood on their hands for creating the FUBAR that is today's Iraq.
Perhaps "medal impairment" refers to those who actually displayed competence, which was loathed in the misAdministration of Bush The Lesser - such as Richard Clarke, say, or Paul O'Neil, or General Shinseki, or perhaps even Valerie Plame.
In that tradition, Team Smokescreen's lawyers are due a medal from Boy Blunder. Those bumbling idiots have managed to lose every - EVERY - court filing they've made, yet they convinced ol' Smokescreen to keep 'em on the gravy train for a couple of more months, while they desperately play for the Hail Mary Pass.
In thirteen short days, we'll be rid of Boy Blunder. Getting rid of "The Fourth Most Corrupt Senator", FORMER Senator Norm Coleman, will take a little longer.
OK, this one was originally posted back on August 13th, 2008, over at MnBlue.com. I bring it up, because in less than one hour, ol' Smokescreen is holding a presser. I'm going, because I want to see if any "traditional, credentialled" media types will ask the question I write about, below: Who Is Paying Norm Coleman's Electric Bill? Keep in mind, that it's been 155 days since Mark Drake told the assembled "traditional, credentialled" media about that utility bill....
This one just forwarded from a dedicated MnPP reader - read it, and let the fisking begin!
Dear Friend,
The next several weeks are going to be very important in the Minnesota recount.
After each and every pivotal phase of this election and recount, Norm Coleman has been elected--and been ahead--and we expect this to continue all the way through the completion of the recount.
But, that isn't stopping the Franken campaign and their D.C. supporters--Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and incoming Senate Rules Committee Chairman Chuck Schumer--from trying to change the rules to benefit them.
On August 4th, at a press conference, Team Smokescreen's Spokestool, Mark Drake, promised the assembled media he'd check with "the campaign" about providing an actual utility bill for Norm's sweetheart deal for an apartment in a pal's Washington, D.C. "shack" (it's a million dollar townhouse), and get back to said media. Needless to say, Spokestool Drake never got back to 'em. Hence, the "T Plus" in the title, above.
I bring this up, because it seems Minnesota's Most Ethically-Challenged Politician, ol' Smokescreen himself, Norm Coleman, now has a little problemo with his St. Paul "shack", which Norm apparently refinanced for around 3/4 of a million smackers ($775,000.00, apparently), in early 2007.
Investigative Reporter Tom Lyden, of the local Fox TV affiliate, has the story, and it's a good one!
