Wednesday, July 1, 2009

It's Over

Image credit: Screenshot of Minneapolis Star Tribune website by Cujo359

What a long, strange trip it's been:

Sen.-elect Al Franken and his wife, Franni, greeted their supporters and the press in front of his Elliot Park condo; coffee, cookies and brownies were in the offing at the end of this epic campaign trail. As cars honked at the sidewalk gaggle, Franken said he was "thrilled" and agreed that the phone call between him and former Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman was very gracious; both men talked about the how tough the experience had been for their families, and they agreed that it was time to bring the state together again. It was a "nice way to end this" between "two people that really fought hard," he said.

239 days, 312 votes and one new senator: Franken 'thrilled' and ready to go

Norm Coleman finally gave up after the Minnesota Supreme Court decided against him yesterday. In a comment on my previous article on this topic this morning, Dana Hunter summed things up:

I'm shocked ol' Norm gave up before he took his whine all the way up to the Supremes. I guess he just didn't feel like getting spanked by the highest court in the land, even though his Con[servative] friends were handing him a paddle and begging him to go for it.

I can hardly wait to see the wailing, moaning and gnashing of teeth from the rabid right.

Comment on: At Long Last, An End Is Near

They have nothing to complain about. For the most part, the last six months have been a waste of time. Nate Silver had this called last November. The Republicans must have known this would be a waste of time, since they have enough money to hire good lawyers and statisticians, too. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that they deliberately delayed Franken's entry into the Senate as long as they could.

Not that this will stop the whining. One thing conservatives will never run out of is their sense of entitlement.


2 comments:

Dana Hunter said...

"One thing conservatives will never run out of is their sense of entitlement."

Which is deliciously funny considering how they love to whine about entitlement programs...

As to your earlier point, I'm too lazy to look it up just now, but didn't numerous Cons outright say their goal was to keep Al Franken from being seated for as long as possible, even if Norm didn't have a leg to stand on? That's exactly what they were after, and it's disgusting.

Cujo359 said...

Since I'm also too lazy to look up these quotes, I'm just going to go on my recollection. What I recall was that some conservatives said that Franken's absence from the Senate was a good thing. I don't recall if those were the ones who were helping Coleman or not. If they weren't, then it's hard to assign guilt based on the quotes.

I've always found the conservatives' sense of entitlement to be ironic for that reason. They seem to be peculiarly incapable of introspection.