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A WARNING FOR RITCHIE: WHEN FRANKEN LOSES RECOUNT AND TAKES CONTEST TO THE U.S. SENATE, YOU WILL BECOME THE DEMOCRATS “FALL GUY”
By Michael B. Brodkorb | November 16, 2008
Yes, I am going to help out “non-partisan” Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. It sounds rather unbelievable, but it’s true.
I disagree with Ritchie on almost every issue related to the recount. I think he should be far more forceful than he has been on the issue of ballot security. I believe he had an obligation to more strongly condemn Team Franken’s fake story about the 84 year old stroke victim’s ballot, as well as their bullying tactics to get voters to potentially sign fake affidavits.
But Ritchie hasn’t criticized Team Franken enough and he probably won’t. That’s the unfortunate partisan side of Ritchie that Minnesotans are going to have to endure for the next couple of weeks.
On a personal level, I do believe Ritchie wants to do a good job with the recount. Unfortunately, I think he’s been getting bad advice from people and I think he needs to be more independent than he has been during the recount process.
I’m warning Ritchie (this is the help I mentioned above) that he best watch his back as his new national Democratic friends get ready to stick it to him when things don’t turn out the way they want it to go for Team Franken.
The word from my sources around Washington, D.C., is that Team Franken is already coordinating efforts with Democratic leadership to bring an aggressive challenge to Coleman’s victory before a significantly increased post-election Democratic Senate majority.
The political bullseye will then fall firmly on Ritchie, as Democrats in D.C. and Franken’s legal team began turning on their DFL secretary of state and the hundreds of Minnesota local election officials. These out of town Democrats will likely blame the whole election debacle on alleged incompetence and failures by Ritchie and local election officials.
The theory is that when the recount confirms Coleman’s victory and the courts reject Franken’s efforts to put new ballots into the recount process (they already attempted this and failed), Team Franken will then claim there was massive voter irregularities that should cause the result to be invalidated and unrecognized by the U.S. Senate.
In the end, I believe this unprecedented power-play will fail for several reasons.
#1. Minnesotans, even those who voted for Franken, will not tolerate the U.S. Senate deciding who should represent them in Washington.
#2. Thanks largely due to the commitment of local election officials throughout the state, Minnesota had what appears to be a clean election. The recount may shape up to be a completely different situation. The political jury is still out with respect to how Ritchie handles the recount process and ensuring a fair and accurate process as is required under the law.
#3. There remains enough comity in the U.S. Senate today to ensure that leading Democrats and Republicans will block any effort to coronate Al Franken to the U.S. Senate when the Minnesota recount is done and Coleman wins again.
Look, I could be wrong. Democrats may decide that power is far more important to them than recognizing the decision made by Minnesotans on election day to re-elect Norm Coleman to the U. S. Senate. But I don’t believe I am wrong.
Topics: Uncategorized | 19 Comments »
November 17th, 2008 at 1:16 am
You’re wrong, Mike. I know, this is what the GOP would do. We’re not the GOP.
November 17th, 2008 at 1:38 am
And I am willing to bet that after all of the time you have spent questioning his ability to do his job, his fitness for office and many other less appropriate things, your counsel will be the first Ritchie asks for should this, unlikely, result occur.
The bottom line is, even the governor has tossed aside the Ron Carey and Norm Coleman’s playbook, which appears to be based entirely on assulting Minnesota’s elections. Ron and Norm are, once again, trying to scare the people into believing that there is a boogeyman behind every bush, and that all the cast ballots are being left out on tables at DFL headquarters around the state next to a pile of blank ballots and a cup of pens.
The problem with this theory is that the republicans have yet to find a SINGLE case of voter fraud or any other sort of shenanigan that would allow doubt to be cast on the great job Mark Ritchie is doing. You can allude and imply with the best of them, but no actual evidence exists that would cause Minnesotans to believe the line Ron and Norm are trying to pitch.
I guess that fact that Minnesotans no longer believe Norm is a fitting way for his Senate career to end.
November 17th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Bah, and my D.C. sources say the Senate’s first order of business to debate about my ass.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:14 am
Is this what they mean by a concern troll?
November 17th, 2008 at 5:57 am
I don’t expect the senate to in any way reject the outcome of the recount. Barring extraordinary circumstances, I would think it would be a mistake for either Coleman or Franken, depending on the outcome, to ask them to.
November 17th, 2008 at 6:07 am
You’re wrong, Mike. I know, this is what the GOP would do. We’re not the GOP.
You’re worse. You have no conscience. When Angry Al loses he will turn scorched earth, eating DFL young to win this thing. This is about raw power and liberals stop at nothing to hold it.
November 17th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Al, angry or owtherwise, is in no position to wreak vengeance on the DFL or anyone else, and that’s part of the problem. Al doesn’t have much of a following in the DFL establishment. If he loses, he will disappear. And it certainly isn’t in the interest of Mark Ritchie, if he has any interest at all in a political career in Minnesota to run a recount that is perceived as unfair. Except for a lot of rather hysterical talk from Norm’s somewhat overheated lawyer, even the Republican establishment seems to have grudgingly accepted that Ritchie’s actions so far have been basically fair.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Glad to hear I’m not part of the Republican establishment, because I think it’s plain that Ritchie is either criminally or incompetently managing this election and recount. I hope he doesn’t deliberately or accidentally steal this election for Al Franken.
If a challenge does go to the Senate, curiously enough it will be Norm’s very vexing (to Republicans) tendency to “work across the aisle” which will give him an advantage in keeping his legally-won seat. Of course, Democrats forget all of that when political power is on the line. Norm should know they would squash him like a bug if he stood between them and 60 votes.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:05 am
It seems to me that Ritchie has been doing a pretty good job. He has appointed a canvassing board which no one seems to have a problem with. It’s headed up by Minnesota’s chief justice, a Republican, and a Pawlenty appointee, who is widely respected throughout the community.
No one can say at this point who has “legally-won” this seat. That’s what the recount will determine. I know I will accept the results of the recount whatever they might be. Will you?
November 17th, 2008 at 9:08 am
J Ewing-
How about providing an example of how Ritchie is, “either criminally or incompetently managing this election and recount.”
Saying that Jason Lewis has told you so does not count. I want actual decisions that Ritchie has made that have tilted this election in favor of one candidate or the other.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Looks like you’ve hit some meat with that shot, Mike.
Feckless Jeffy’s skirt is billowing, Leroy is hiding behind a smoking gun and David Brauer is left
Brainlessspeechless.We’ve seen the careless way the party of Scrubs throws it’s sycophants under the bus when they’re through with them, and when Ritchie fails to swing the election over to them, his puppetmasters will cut his strings too.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Ritchie has refused to call for an investigation into the actions of ACORN, even though that group of travelling hucksters is being investigated in 17 other states where they were raising the dead and extending the franchise to cartoon characters.
Ritchie does not bite the hand that feeds him.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:33 am
“Ritchie has refused to call for an investigation into the actions of ACORN, even though that group of travelling hucksters is being investigated in 17 other states where they were raising the dead and extending the franchise to cartoon characters.”
That has nothing to do with the counting of ballots.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Of course it doesn’t, hiram; of course it doesn’t. Fraudulent, genuine, a Frankenballot is a Frankenballot to you fools…
November 17th, 2008 at 11:22 am
And what part of Ramsey County investigating ACORN left their actions in Minnesota unexamined?
(http://www.startribune.com/politics/local/31233534.html?elr=KArksUUUU)
November 17th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
This nonsense about the faulty/corrupt/incompetent elections is just that: nonsense. Mindless blather by a bunch of people who have never been closer to an election than a ballot. Not withstanding the caveat that no human-created system is perfect, the Minnesota election system is as perfect as one can get. For a system that relies on part-timers and hobbyists to carry it off, there IS NO PROBLEM with how Minnesotans vote. There is NO widespread/systemic voter fraud in Minnesota (document it!) and even junk like the isloated-incident 84-year old stroke victim and the ballots in the trunk of the car had to be made up in order to sully the work of the administrators and local officials in this election. There ARE states wherein systematic voter intimidation and attempts to discourage are the norm; Minnesota DOES NOT happen to be among them. Otherwise, DOCUMENT IT.
November 17th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Who ever gets the most votes wins. Why do you hate Democracy so much MikeDEceit. You know what we know, that in the end, Franken becomes out Senator! Get used to it!
Hey, its Moonbat Swiftee Pffffftttt Buwahahahahahaha
Flash
November 17th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
“Of course it doesn’t, hiram; of course it doesn’t. Fraudulent, genuine, a Frankenballot is a Frankenballot to you fools.”
And a Colemanballot is Colemenballot. Even a Barkleyballot is a Barkleyballot. Let’s count them all.
November 26th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
[...] Ten days ago, I warned Secretary of State Mark Ritchie that national Democrats would blame him should the recount go bad for Team Franken. [...]