Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Recounting past tales

Where is all the conservative bloviating about election theft in Minnesota this cycle? Oh, right, their guy, Tom Emmer, is behind this time, behind by almost 9,000 votes.

When Al Franken and Norm Coleman were nip and tuck, Minnesota wingnuts screamed that Franken and the DFL were stealing the election. No amount of transparency in the recount - not even posting every single contested ballot on line - could allay their hysteria.

Now, however? The Republican-desired recount is not a mugging at all. In fact, important GOP officials still can't stop fighting the battle of 2008, even as they follow the Democrats' example to keep recounting in 2010:

State GOP chairman Tony Sutton jumped in: "We are not going to get rolled this time."
Sutton is morally stunted. He can't even apply the golden rule, can't see his opponents as justified in the Senatorial recount, all the while having totally signed onto this recount even though it is much less plausible that it might change the Election Day outcome.

Oh, and this time, Tim Pawlenty (R-me, choose me!) expects to remain governor for the duration of any recount. And maybe during any lawsuit filed by Emmer, too. So that he can govern in a term to which he was not elected with the now-Republican state legislature at his side.
"I don't think there's any downside to keeping this recount going on as long as possible," said a high-level Republican operative who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "If we keep the process going, there are opportunities for us in the upcoming legislative session."
I've said it before, but it bears repeating:
  • Democrats want to count (and recount, if necessary) the votes and let that determine the winner.
  • Republicans want to win and the hell with the will of the people.
Republicans think elections are casino games, they are the house, and they should win all ties. And all races anywhere close to a tie. Maybe even all races that they just imagine they should win.

And the hell with democracy.

6 comments:

globeisatrocious said...

Let's recount the 341 Franken votes cast by felons.

lovable liberal said...

You have to realize that this is a falsehood. You have no way of knowing who the felons voted for. Given the choice, they probably recognized Norm Coleman as someone more like them.

globeisatrocious said...

I just want to recount them. And it was too bad, I'm sure you agree, that the Franken recount was limited to heavily Democrat districts. There was a case of only recounting the votes that determined the winner.

lovable liberal said...

Another tale! The entire state of Minnesota recounted. I was so compulsive that I looked at every single challenged ballot. While there were ballots about which I disagreed with the result - in both directions - the overall count clearly put Franken ahead.

If you want to argue for a voting system that treats the statistical tie as a tie, you're welcome to, but that's not the current law anywhere.

globeisatrocious said...

OY!

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/01/022474.php

lovable liberal said...

Every single contested ballot from every precinct was reviewed by hand. Every precinct was recounted. Remember - every single challenged ballot was imaged and posted on-line, all 6600 of them. There was no hiding from an honest count.

You and Henneberger object to the DFL counties ("mostly" she says, which could mean half plus one) that recounted more ballots, that were more transparent, that didn't claim they were perfect on Election Day are to blame for Coleman losing!? The Republican counties that didn't do any of these things (allegedly, on Jan. 5, 2009, when it became convenient for Henneberge to allege it), they're blameless.

The "consistent standard" you and she crave is Republican wins all ties.