Monday, June 29, 2009

At Long Last, An End Is Near

Yesterday, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty said there could be an end to the madness:

Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) said Sunday he has no plans for further delay in certifying the results of the state's disputed U.S. Senate election so that Republican Norm Coleman can pursue a federal court challenge.

Pawlenty told CNN that he would abide by whatever ruling the Minnesota Supreme Court makes in the contest, where Democrat Al Franken appears to have an upper hand.

Pawlenty Won't Delay If Court Rules For Franken

There seems little doubt that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of Franken. Every other court has ruled in his favor, and the facts seem to be on his side. Nate Silver (of Five Thirty-Eight) predicted in November that Franken would win the recount, and last month he noted that Pawlenty was losing popularity at least in part thanks to the battle over the Senate race. Little wonder then, that he wants to see the back of this controversy. Whatever the reason, Pawlenty's numbers are falling, and the ridiculous lengths the Republicans seem to want to go to prevent Franken from being seated aren't helping his image.

It's unclear when the court will rule on the election. Rumors had the date as being last week, and the week before. Clearly, any speculation at this point would be as pointless as picking a date at random. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable that it should occur within the next month or two.

Once that's done, Minnesota's long nightmare may finally be over.

UPDATE: Corrected the first sentence of the second paragraph. Originally, it said "There seems little doubt that the Supreme Court will rule against Franken". As commenter Eric noted, it was clear that this wasn't what I meant, but somehow I missed this. Thanks for pointing out the error, Eric.


4 comments:

Unknown said...

"There seems little doubt that the Supreme Court will rule against Franken."

Is that "against" supposed to be "in favor of", or am I missing something?

Dana Hunter said...

We'll see how long dear ol' Timmy's determination lasts once the Cons start twisting his arm in earnest. From the way he worded everything, it sounds like he's hoping desperately for a stay from the Supremes so he won't have to piss off the party.

Cujo359 said...

True. Nothing is as transitory as a politician's promise, assuming it's no longer in his best interest.

Dana Hunter said...

Heh. Looks like our speculations as to Timmy's next move got cut rather abruptly short. 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 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.