U.S. Senate: Burning Down the House

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Looks like some financial shenanigans are emerging about Coleman. Not that this should hurt his plan for years-long litigation over the Senate seat; he can continue that from prison if need be.

I don't know for sure, Lemur, but you may have hit upon an excellent solution for Congress in general. Elect whichever thief you want, but then jail them before than can take office and avail themselves of immunity while in session. If we can incarcerate enough of them, maybe we can really limit the ongoing damage.

[Lemur]

Speaking of which, Rep. John Murtha (D) is refreshingly honest: "If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district."

-edit-

Another update from the no-longer-funny debacle in Minnesota:

Texas Sen. John Cornyn is threatening “World War III” if Democrats try to seat Al Franken in the Senate before Norm Coleman can pursue his case through the federal courts.

Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, acknowledges that a federal challenge to November’s elections could take “years” to resolve. But he’s adamant that Coleman deserves that chance — even if it means Minnesota is short a senator for the duration. [...]

Cornyn believes that Minnesota can’t certify Franken the winner if Coleman seeks review from the U.S. Supreme Court or files a new federal case. And Ben Ginsberg, a Coleman attorney and a central player on the Republican side in the 2000 Florida recount, says it’s “an open question” whether a federal court challenge puts a pause on the certification process.

[Lemur]

For some reason I'm reminded of a true story: My wife and I were lost in Brooklyn, looking to meet up with some friends. We were also drunk out of our minds. Anyway, we had been walking for about two miles, which is a long way when you're drunk and it's boiling hot in August. My wife asks me, "What was that march in WWII where everybody died?"

"The Bataan Death March," I said.

"Yeah, that one. If they had just called it a fun march, maybe it wouldn't be so bad."

Since we were drunk, this struck us as hilarious. For the next half-hour we kept riffing on it. "Did you hear, man, we're on a death march!" "No, no, it's a fun march." "Oh, a fun march? Well that's okay then."

Anyway, the latest update from the Minnesota Fun March:

A three-judge state panel convened to review an election contest brought by former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman (R) in his race against entertainer Al Franken (D) has dealt the Republican a serious setback in its ruling this afternoon.

The panel will allow the consideration of only 400 wrongly rejected absentee ballots to be reviewed and possibly counted -- making it very difficult for Coleman to make up the 225-vote deficit he currently carries. (Here's the full ruling.)

"We feel pretty good about where we stand," said Marc Elias, a lawyer for Franken's campaign, on a conference call conducted moments ago. "This court has spoken clearly about the legal standards are" for the inclusion of ballots.

Ben Ginsberg, the lead attorney for Coleman, referred to the ruling as an "April Fools Day" judgment (one day early) and stated that the decision "gives us no choice but to appeal that order to Minnesota Supreme Court." Ginsberg offered no thought about whether or not an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court would be considered.

Ginsberg said it would be a "long shot" for Coleman to make up the necessary ground on Franken with just 400 ballots being included.

The ballots will be opened, sorted and potentially counted by the Minnesota Secretary of State on April 7. It remains unclear how many of the 400 votes will actually be counted. It's also unknown whether Coleman will appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court, which is within his rights.

-edit-

Oh, come on, you've got to be kidding: Another congressional race turns into an unexpected nail-biter. To quote that great poet Samuel L. Jackson, "I have had it with these snakes on this plane!"

The race in the 20th Congressional district between Republican Jim Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy is too close to call. With 100 percent precincts reporting, Murphy leads Tedisco by only 59 votes, 77,344 to 77,285. With nearly 6,000 absentee ballots that will essentially decide the race as of Monday, the election will not be decided at least until April 13.

[Lemur]

Well, that didn't take long:

National Republicans are warning prospective donors that Democrats are trying to “pull a Franken” and “steal” Tuesday's special election in upstate New York.

Republicans made the charges in a fundraising e-mail sent out early Wednesday morning after a too-close-to-call finish in the New York House race between Democrat Scott Murphy and Republican Jim Tedisco. [...]

“Democrats have almost succeeded in stealing the election in Minnesota and seating Al Franken,” wrote Guy Harrison, the National Republican Congressional Committee's executive director. “We cannot allow them to manipulate electoral results to seat another tax-troubled liberal.”

The e-mail indicates Republicans are gearing up for a legal fight over the election results, and suggests the party will pursue a more aggressive legal battle than in Minnesota.

Wouldn't it be cool if we could have years-long legal battles over every seat in congress? This is developing into a trend ....

[drone]

How about a little retro Senatorial action:

Justice Department seeks to throw out ex-Sen Ted Stevens' (R-AK) conviction.

The Justice Department this morning asked a federal judge to toss out the conviction of former senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) on corruption charges.

The move comes as the judge was preparing to conduct hearings to probe allegations of prosecutorial misconduct by the team that tried one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress last year. The request, made in a court filing, caps the controversial prosecution of Stevens, who requested an early trial to clear his name but was convicted just days before he lost a reelection bid.

So the GOP-controlled Justice Department broke rules to convict Stevens, a high ranking Republican? Something weird going on here, maybe this was done to help Palin's chances?

Sort of a shame, from a comedy standpoint Stevens would be hilarious as a top dog minority Senator trying to mooch as much from the stimulus packages while bashing the administration at the same time.

[Major Robert Dump]

Bonuses to congressional aides is big business. I love the way Pelosi says they deserve the bonuses because they are making such a huge sacrifice to work in Washington.....oh the self sacrifice, oh the toll of public service.....oh the 4 day weekends and free lunches and tax deductable stays in luxury hotels.....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123854799133476409.html

[Lemur]

Latest weird Senate news: Because the Bush administration justice department bungled the Ted Stevens prosecution, Alaskan Republicans are demanding that the Dem who won his seat step down. No, really.

Gov. Sarah Palin and the head of the Alaska Republican Party said Thursday that Sen. Mark Begich should give his Senate seat up to a special election now that prosecutors have abandoned their case against Ted Stevens.

"Alaskans deserve to have a fair election not tainted by some announcement that one of the candidates was convicted fairly of seven felonies, when in fact it wasn't a fair conviction," Palin said in a Thursday interview with the Daily News. [...]

The chairman of the state Republican Party, Randy Ruedrich, said that the only reason Begich won his race was because "a few thousand Alaskans thought that Senator Stevens was guilty of seven felonies."

He added that he thought Begich should step down "so Alaskans may have the chance to vote for a senator without the improper influence of the corrupt Department of Justice."

[ICantSpellDawg]

Good Riddance