U.S. Senate: Burning Down the House

[Lemur]

You can't keep a good man down:

Former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska has filed a statement of candidacy for the 2014 election, but an aide cautions against reading too much into the move.

Campaign treasurer Tim McKeever said the filing does not mean Stevens has decided to seek re-election. He says it simply was done to accept donations that came into the campaign after the November election.

Stevens lost to Democrat Mark Begich days after being convicted of lying on Senate disclosure forms, but the conviction was vacated this week because of prosecutorial misconduct.

Begich wasn't declared the winner until two weeks after Election Day.

McKeever said federal election laws require donations received after Nov. 4 to count toward a future election.

If Stevens were to run, the 2014 election would look very much like the 2008 race. Begich said he intends to seek re-election.

[Spino]

You can't keep a good man down:

Former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska has filed a statement of candidacy for the 2014 election, but an aide cautions against reading too much into the move.

Campaign treasurer Tim McKeever said the filing does not mean Stevens has decided to seek re-election. He says it simply was done to accept donations that came into the campaign after the November election.

Stevens lost to Democrat Mark Begich days after being convicted of lying on Senate disclosure forms, but the conviction was vacated this week because of prosecutorial misconduct.

Begich wasn't declared the winner until two weeks after Election Day.

McKeever said federal election laws require donations received after Nov. 4 to count toward a future election.

If Stevens were to run, the 2014 election would look very much like the 2008 race. Begich said he intends to seek re-election.

Clearly Stevens graduated from the same parochial school as Mayor Marion Barry; Our Lady of Perpetual Political Crucifixion & Resurrection.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Clearly Stevens graduated from the same parochial school as Mayor Marion Barry; Our Lady of Perpetual Political Crucifixion & Resurrection.

Stevens won't make the election (mortality charts comment, nothing personal). This is simply a tool to keep garnering money and insure that his people get paid without him having to do it out of pocket.

[Lemur]

The latest court ruling: Franken won in Minnesota. Not that it matters, I suppose, since Coleman has alraedy stated that he will appeal.

"The overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates that the November 4, 2008, election was conducted fairly, impartially and accurately," the judges wrote. "There is no evidence of a systematic problem of disenfranchisement in the state's election system, including in its absentee-balloting procedures." [...]

Coleman's lawyers have said their appeal will mostly center on violations of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection, arguing that counties had differing standards in treating absentee ballots.

Franken's attorneys argued that no election is absolutely precise and that all counties operated under the same standard.

In addition to the appeal, Coleman can also initiate a new action on a federal level. Either side can appeal an eventual state Supreme Court decision to the U.S. Supreme Court or throw the disputed election before the U.S. Senate, which can judge the qualifications of its members.

[Monk]

The latest court ruling: Franken won in Minnesota. Not that it matters, I suppose, since Coleman has alraedy stated that he will appeal.

"The overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates that the November 4, 2008, election was conducted fairly, impartially and accurately," the judges wrote. "There is no evidence of a systematic problem of disenfranchisement in the state's election system, including in its absentee-balloting procedures." [...]

Coleman's lawyers have said their appeal will mostly center on violations of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection, arguing that counties had differing standards in treating absentee ballots.

Franken's attorneys argued that no election is absolutely precise and that all counties operated under the same standard.

In addition to the appeal, Coleman can also initiate a new action on a federal level. Either side can appeal an eventual state Supreme Court decision to the U.S. Supreme Court or throw the disputed election before the U.S. Senate, which can judge the qualifications of its members.

I wonder if Coleman's strategy is simply to tie this thing up in the courts for 2 years?

[KukriKhan]

deadlocked on Election Night, triggering an automatic recount of 2.9 million ballots. Coleman led by about 700 votes before routine double-checking of figures trimmed his edge to 215 votes heading into the hand recount. By the recount's end in January, Franken had pulled ahead by 225 votes.

One thing is clear: never, ever hire a Minnesota public servant to do your taxes or book keeping. Different numbers every day!

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Minnesota needs its Senator. Anyone for a "Celebrity Death Match?"

[Strike For The South]

Minnesota needs its Senator. Anyone for a "Celebrity Death Match?"

We would need celebrities.

[Lemur]

Roland Burris, we barely knew ye. Since his appointment by now-defrocked Governor Rod Blagodinnerjacket, Burris has managed to raise $845 in campaign money, against a debt of $111,000. His likely Dem challenger (Alexi Giannoulias) has raised $1.1 million in four weeks.

Assuming God Almighty intervenes and allows Burris to survive the primary, his likely Repub challenger (Mark Kirk) has raised $700,000 over the past three months.

[Askthepizzaguy]

I'm loving these updates, by the way, Lemur.

I find I agree with you most of the time, but even if I didn't, you have an eye for news stories. And I like your commentary.

[Crazed Rabbit]

The WSJ says Coleman has a good shot on appeal, based on a SCOTUS ruling I'm sure you've heard of.

Case in point: the panel's dismal handling of absentee ballots. Early in the recount, the Franken team howled that some absentee votes had been erroneously rejected by local officials. We warned at the time that this was dangerous territory, designed to pressure election officials into accepting rejected ballots after the fact.

Yet instead of shutting this Franken request down, or early on issuing a clear set of rules as to which absentees were valid, the state Supreme Court and the canvassing board oversaw a haphazard process by which some counties submitted new batches to be included in the tally, while other counties did not. The resulting additional 933 ballots were largely responsible for Mr. Franken's narrow lead.

During the contest trial, the Coleman team presented evidence of a further 6,500 absentees that it felt deserved to be included under the process that had produced the prior 933. The three judges then finally defined what constituted a "legal" absentee ballot. Countable ballots, for instance, had to contain the signature of the voter, complete registration information, and proper witness credentials.

But the panel only applied these standards going forward, severely reducing the universe of additional absentees that the Coleman team could hope to have included. In the end, the three judges allowed only about 350 additional absentees to be counted. The panel also did nothing about the hundreds, possibly thousands, of absentees that have already been legally included, yet are now "illegal" according to the panel's own ex-post definition.

If all this sounds familiar, think Florida 2000. In that Presidential recount, officials couldn't decide what counted as a legal vote, and so different counties used different standards. The Florida Supreme Court made things worse by changing the rules after the fact. In Bush v. Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this violated Constitutional principles of equal protection and due process, which require that every vote be accorded equal weight.

This will be a basis for Mr. Coleman's appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Should that body be reluctant to publicly rebuke their judicial colleagues who sat on the contest panel, Mr. Coleman could also take his appeal to federal court. This could take months.

CR

[GeneralHankerchief]

Roland Burris, we barely knew ye. Since his appointment by now-defrocked Governor Rod Blagodinnerjacket, Burris has managed to raise $845 in campaign money, against a debt of $111,000. His likely Dem challenger (Alexi Giannoulias) has raised $1.1 million in four weeks.

Assuming God Almighty intervenes and allows Burris to survive the primary, his likely Repub challenger (Mark Kirk) has raised $700,000 over the past three months.

Interesting, I heard Kirk was gunning for Blago's seat. Love the Burris thing though. Supposedly, they've moved his office around 3 or 4 times.

[Hosakawa Tito]

I wonder how much service time Burris needs to get vested in the mother of all golden parachute pension plans? Hopefully it's a full term because this bum is not getting reelected.

[a completely inoffensive name]

I'm loving these updates, by the way, Lemur.

I find I agree with you most of the time, but even if I didn't, you have an eye for news stories. And I like your commentary.

I think he lurks Digg.com.

[KukriKhan]

I wonder how much service time Burris needs to get vested in the mother of all golden parachute pension plans? Hopefully it's a full term because this bum is not getting reelected.

I think they're under FERS. If so, then 5 years for vesting.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I think they're under FERS. If so, then 5 years for vesting.

Essentially correct. I think they're a little different on the age/years of service stuff. Link.

[Lemur]

Here's a story that makes almost everybody look bad: NSA wiretapped Congresscritter who was offering to help out Israeli spies. I don't honestly know who looks worse, the NSA for tapping the phone of a sitting Representative, or the Congresscritter for consorting with spies while she was on the House Intelligence Committee, or AIPAC for offering to pressure Nancy Pelosi, or Nancy Pelosi for being openly pressurable. It's kind of a stew.

Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.

Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.

In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.

Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, “This conversation doesn’t exist.” [...]

Harman is said to have been picked up on a court-approved NSA tap directed at alleged Israel covert action operations in Washington.

And that, contrary to reports that the Harman investigation was dropped for “lack of evidence,” it was Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush’s top counsel and then attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe.

Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about break in The New York Times and engulf the White House.

As for there being “no evidence” to support the FBI probe, a source with first-hand knowledge of the wiretaps called that “********.”

“I read those transcripts,” said the source, who like other former national security officials familiar with the transcript discussed it only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of domestic NSA eavesdropping.

“It’s true,” added another former national security official who was briefed on the NSA intercepts involving Harman. “She was on there.”

Such accounts go a long way toward explaining not only why Harman was denied the gavel of the House Intelligence Committee, but failed to land a top job at the CIA or Homeland Security Department in the Obama administration.

[Lemur]

No Blago reality show. This sucks! I wanted to see marmoset-head in the Costa Rican jungle!

A federal judge dashed indicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's reality TV dream Tuesday, refusing to give the ousted Democrat permission to travel to Costa Rica to tape a show in the jungle.

U.S. District Judge James Zagel refused to modify terms of Blagojevich's bail to allow him to leave the United States, saying he needs to remain in the country to help his attorneys formulate a strategy for his defense.

The judge said that would give Blagojevich a better sense of the gravity of the legal problems he faces — including allegations he tried to auction off President Barack Obama's former U.S. Senate seat.

"I don't think this defendant fully understands and I don't think he could understand ... the position he finds himself in," Zagel sat during Tuesday's the hearing.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Here's a story that makes almost everybody look bad: NSA wiretapped Congresscritter who was offering to help out Israeli spies. I don't honestly know who looks worse, the NSA for tapping the phone of a sitting Representative, or the Congresscritter for consorting with spies while she was on the House Intelligence Committee, or AIPAC for offering to pressure Nancy Pelosi, or Nancy Pelosi for being openly pressurable. It's kind of a stew.

Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.

Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.

In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.

Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, “This conversation doesn’t exist.” [...]

Harman is said to have been picked up on a court-approved NSA tap directed at alleged Israel covert action operations in Washington.

And that, contrary to reports that the Harman investigation was dropped for “lack of evidence,” it was Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush’s top counsel and then attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe.

Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about break in The New York Times and engulf the White House.

As for there being “no evidence” to support the FBI probe, a source with first-hand knowledge of the wiretaps called that “********.”

“I read those transcripts,” said the source, who like other former national security officials familiar with the transcript discussed it only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of domestic NSA eavesdropping.

“It’s true,” added another former national security official who was briefed on the NSA intercepts involving Harman. “She was on there.”

Such accounts go a long way toward explaining not only why Harman was denied the gavel of the House Intelligence Committee, but failed to land a top job at the CIA or Homeland Security Department in the Obama administration.

As it turns out, that specific criminal supported Bush's NSA warrantless eavesdropping program before she wound up on the end of an investigation! Classic!

[Lemur]

The irony is thick indeed, ATPG.

Meanwhile, if there was any doubt about Norm Coleman's true intentions:

Coleman asks state Supreme Court to take it slow

Norm Coleman asked the state Supreme Court on Wednesday to set a slower timetable than his rival seeks in the next phase of the protracted U.S. Senate race.

Coleman, a Republican, proposed to the court that his appeal of Democrat Al Franken's victory in the recent Senate election trial be argued no sooner than mid-May, two weeks later than Franken suggested on Tuesday.

The Coleman camp said in documents that while it recognizes a need to resolve the case "as expeditiously as possible," the two sides and the court "must be given enough time to fully develop and consider the issues on appeal."

[drone]

Looks like the Dems are getting their 60 vote Senate majority. Arlen Specter has decided to switch parties so he can keep his job past 2010.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/...tch/index.html

[Lemur]

Wow, just wow. I didn't see that coming. And I never believed the Dems would reach a supermajority; I assumed something would stop it from happening.

Well, this is a problem with having a strict church that expels heretics. How many years has Specter been accused of being a RINO? Reap what ye sow, etc.

[GeneralHankerchief]

I doubt this will change much, TBH. Specter was always an independently-minded guy, and every Senator has his own individual motivations. If the House, being much more structured, had the filibuster limit, this would be a lot different of a story, but I think that we can still expect all the Senators to do their own things.

[Xiahou]

I doubt this will change much, TBH. Specter was always an independently-minded guy, and every Senator has his own individual motivations. If the House, being much more structured, had the filibuster limit, this would be a lot different of a story, but I think that we can still expect all the Senators to do their own things.

You could count on Specter for at least one solid conservative vote every six years..... whenever he was up for re-election.

Specter knew he had no chance of winning the primary this time- so like a good politician, he's trying to save his skin. He barely beat Pat Toomey in the last primary, when the GOP was riding much higher. He stood no chance this time around.

With Specter formalizing his switch and effectively ending the primary, I hope that Pat Toomey can better use his campaign resources to get his message out. By all accounts that I've seen, he was a pretty stellar representative when he was in the House. In the House, he had a 94% rating from Citizens Against Government Waste, and an A rating from the National Taxpayers Union.
(Although, I know he'll likely lose based on name recognition alone. )

Well, this is a problem with having a strict church that expels heretics.

Oh give it a rest already. I guess you've forgotten Lieberman....

[Lemur]

Oh give it a rest already. I guess you've forgotten Lieberman....

I can always count on you for a tu quoque argument. And I can only imagine how Repubs would have responded if, say, Tom DeLay campaigned for Kerry and made a speech at the Dem convention. And then let's say DeLay lost his primary, and ran as an Indie. If anything, allowing Lieberman to hold his seniority and committees illustrates my points about the Dems (weak and resilient) rather than otherwise. (Still waiting to see a Dem run to the Daily Show to apologize for daring to criticize Jon Stewart, but really, he's just the same as Rush Limbaugh! No, really he is!)

Forget moral relativism, let's try on empirical relativism—all facts are equal! There is no objective reality! Quickly, let's create an alternate universe in which "conservative" facts are given their proper weight.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Oh give it a rest already. I guess you've forgotten Lieberman....

[Lemur]

Reactions:

Malkin: Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

John Cole: I’m still waiting on my Soros check and forty virgins, so don’t get too excited, Arlen. Oh, and by the way, wingnuts- how is that Republican purity treating you? Is the GOP small enough to drown in a bathtub yet? Going to love hearing how a loyal foot soldier for three decades in the GOP wasn’t “conservative enough.”

Nate Silver: This defection, coming at a time when historically low numbers of Americans are identifying themselves as Republican, would seem to be a manifestation of [the Republican] Death Spiral. These problems, indeed, were particularly acute in Pennsylvania, where many of the state's more moderate Republicans had re-registered as Democrats to vote in the state's extremely contentious primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Thus, given an extremely conservative Republican electorate, Specter appeared to be an underdog against his extremely conservative primary challenger, Pat Toomey, and switched parties in order to increase his odds of survival.

Matt Welch: Throat-clearing aside, this strikes me as no favor at all to the Democrats. By choosing to die on the hill of the stimulus package of all things, Specter reinforces whatever notion there is that stimuli and bailouts are Democratic, not Republican, pet toys. Since professional Republicans are currently scattered in the wind, trying desperately to latch onto the anti-stimulus/bailout Tea Party movement, cementing that divide may come back to haunt Democrats when those policies (inevitably, I think) become so derided that even Barack Obama's impressive popularity can't rescue them.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

[Askthepizzaguy]

I doubt this will change much, TBH. Specter was always an independently-minded guy, and every Senator has his own individual motivations. If the House, being much more structured, had the filibuster limit, this would be a lot different of a story, but I think that we can still expect all the Senators to do their own things.

I'm inclined to agree.

WHY is this a surprise, Lemur? Arlen Specter has always been one of those Republicans that when he spoke, I had to wonder... what the heck are you doing with the Republicans? Back when the GOP had more moderate voices, I didn't question it. But now... all the Republican moderates are gone. It's the party of Bush, Cheney, Palin, Jindal, Steele, and Limbaugh. You question these neo-con masters and you're suddenly a traitor to the values of the GOP. There's no room in the ever shrinking "BIG TENT" for dissenting opinion and honest disagreement. You toe the line or you get tossed out by the party leadership, as Steele was hoping would happen with Specter.

The Republicans have been opposing Specter for years, more and more each year. The Democratic party put up with Joe Lieberman for far longer than they should have because they seem to be more welcoming of opposing ideas. To me, the Democratic party is much more of a coalition of various smaller parties and minority groups that they have to learn to work together; the Republican party has become progressively (ironic word) more conservative and more homogenized. The recent faces of the Republican party seem to be an attempt to hide the fact that it seems to be a party of middle-aged white men and young evangelicals only.

Frankly, this is a political world and the Republicans had been opposing Specter for quite a while. Why they acted surprised when he left the party is beyond me. People are leaving that party in droves, and until the leadership changes, so have I.

[Lemur]

Looks like it's time to get rid of Olympia Snowe as well:

Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of the few remaining moderate Republicans in the Senate, said Tuesday that Arlen Specter’s abandonment of the GOP is "devastating," both "personally and I think for the party."

"I’ve always been deeply concerned about the views of the Republican Party nationally in terms of their exclusionary policies and views towards moderate Republicans," said Snowe, who has been approached, she said, by Democrats in the past about switching parties.

Specter’s switch to the Democratic Party "underscores the blunt reality" that the GOP is not a welcome place for moderates, she said.

So far, she said, she’s staying put. "I believe in the traditional tenets of the Republican Party: strong national defense, fiscal responsibility, individual opportunity. I haven’t abandoned those principles that have been the essence of the Republican Party. I think the Republican Party has abandoned those principles."

-edit-

While you're at it, give Lindsay Graham the heave-ho:

"I don't want to be a member of the Club for Growth,” said Graham. “I want to be a member of a vibrant national Republican party that can attract people from all corners of the country — and we can govern the country from a center-right perspective.”

“As Republicans, we got a problem,” he said.