If one takes a look at the DFL (that’s big-D Democratic for those of us outside the land of 10,000 lakes) Minnesota Secretary of State incomplete unofficial numbers for the Senate recount between Republican Norm Coleman and DFL’er Al Franken, one would assume that Franken took a 4,108-vote lead. Meanwhile, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, showing a few more votes recounted, has Coleman with a 340-vote lead.
Allow me to throw the bullshit flag at the DFL SecState before Harry Reid takes a gander at that and decides to seat his soulmate. The DFL SecState thoughtfully included the by-precinct recounts, which allows me to throw the bullshit flag. There are several counties missing mostly because they have yet to begin their recount process, and a few others are not yet 100% complete. How do I know this? The Strib included those missing returns in their tabulation. 3 of the 4 counties that have yet to begin their recounts, as well as a county that is inexplicably missing from the DFL SecState totals, were carried by Coleman rather heavily, and those are not part of the DFL SecState totals.
So, why did the DFL SecState issue this bullshit number? Simple; they’re setting up for a repeat of 1975, when the Democrats successfully stole a seat from the voters of New Hampshire. If that happens (and honestly, even if that doesn’t), I double-dog-dare the Republicans to filibuster every last item that can be filibustered in the Senate in the coming term.
Revisions/extensions (4:08 pm 12/2/2008) – A couple of items I forgot to mention initially. First, the SecState numbers show a net gain of 129 votes for Coleman. That, combined with the total pre-recount lead of 215 for Coleman, gave Coleman a semi-official 344-vote lead as of 8 pm last night. As noted above, it is mostly Coleman strongholds that have yet to count.
I’ll repeat what I said below – “A process that allows some counties to not even begin a recount process before most of the state finishes said process is not exactly conducive to fairness. I suppose the next question is how that happened.”
Second, the links to both the SecState and the Strib are dynamic. Indeed, the Strib has already updated, and Coleman’s lead according to the Strib is down to 305 as of 2:48 pm.
[…]SteveG raises the bullshit flag at No Runny Eggs.[…]
As much as I’d like to match your “bullshit” and up it with a “DFL bullshit”, I think the site is not trying to be dishonest but reflects only the counts to date. I’m not worried about getting the proper info reflected showing that Coleman won based on MN law, I’m worried about Reid thumbing his nose at Minnesota Law and deciding that Harry knows best!
Naturally I want a fair process with every legitimate vote counted–and no others. That said, I really, really want Franken to win this thing.
A process that allows some counties to not even begin a recount process before most of the state finishes said process is not exactly conducive to fairness. I suppose the next question is how that happened.
One thing I forgot to note above; there was a net 129-vote gain for Coleman according to the SecState numbers, with mostly his strongholds yet to be counted.
The only way that Franken will win this is if Harry Reid and the Dems in the Senate decide that Minnesota residents should not decide who represents them. Never say never, but I can’t believe even Reid is that arrogant…Oops, never mind, he also believes the tourists who come to see what they pay all those federal taxes for, stink.