GOP Eyes Bush v. Gore To Save Coleman Seat - Politico

[WillyT]

GOP eyes Bush v. Gore to save Coleman seat
By: Manu Raju
March 17, 2009 04:16 AM EST

<snip>

A state court could rule any day now on Norm Coleman’s challenge to Al Franken’s 225-vote lead in Minnesota, but the race may be far from over no matter what the judges say.

Top Republicans are encouraging Coleman to be as litigious as possible and take his fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if he loses this round, believing that an elongated court fight is worth it if they can continue to deny Democrats the 59th Senate seat that Franken would represent.

And in pushing a possible Supreme Court conclusion, Republicans are raising case history that makes Democrats shudder: Bush v. Gore.

Coleman’s team says the different methods Minnesota counties use for counting absentee ballots violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause — echoing the same 2000 Florida recount case that effectively handed the presidency to George W. Bush. By making a constitutional case, Republicans are already looking ahead to federal court.

“The Supreme Court in 2000 said in Bush v. Gore that there is an equal protection element of making sure there is a uniform standard by which votes are counted or not counted, and I think that’s a very serious concern in this instance,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “I’m not making any predictions, but I wouldn’t be surprised” if it ended up in federal court.

Democrats believe Coleman is just running the clock, delaying the inevitable.

“He’s lost the election. What he should do is save the people of Minnesota a lot of money and allow them to have a representative here,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told POLITICO. “I mean, everybody knows that he’s lost the election. Talk to anyone who’s watched the proceedings the last week or two.”

Asked whether Franken should appeal if he loses, Reid smiled and said: “He won’t lose.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday first blessed the idea of encouraging Coleman to take his fight into federal appeals court and potentially all the way up to the Supreme Court. On Monday, several top Republicans continued pushing the federal courts angle, which could delay the Minnesota Senate race for several more months.

“The state court is not the final word on that, because the question in federal court is whether the guarantee of equal protection under laws in the U.S. Constitution has been violated by an inconsistent policy with regard to counting ballots,” said Judiciary Committee member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). Sessions said he “absolutely” would encourage Coleman to take his fight to federal court if he loses.

“From what I can tell, there are legal issues well worth taking up in the Court,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “I think the whole Bush v. Gore — using the same standards to count votes is a big issue.”

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More: http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=11AC7205-18FE-70B2-A83BB8C5201C9612

Um... I thought Bush v. Gore was a one time only thing... not precedent setting, according to the majority opinion.

:wtf:

:shrug:

[MADem]

1. Asked whether Franken should appeal if he loses, Reid smiled and said: “He won’t lose.”

Harry plainly agrees with your assessment!

[GoesTo11]

2. At some points, the Dems have to call bullshit

They never did in 2000, acting like they were doing the right thing by being civil and bipartisan, while Bush et al recognized that there was a fight going on. Right now, the Republicans are paying no price for denying the Democrats a seat. How about some sore-loser ads? How about some anger and some mocking of the hypocrisy? They're being too polite. This has gone on long enough. If you don't energetically defend your position, people will think you don't believe in it.

[tekisui]

3. The Senate has the final say. It'll never make it to the Supreme Court.

[Supersedeas]

4. will the GoP make Justice Kennedy cry again?

[Wapsie B]

5. Chimpy v Gore was a one-shot deal.

The gop was pulling out all the stops to put * in office. Norm is just being used to prevent Obama from having Franken in the Senate for as long as possible, a delay tactic.

[Kansas Wyatt]

6. Yep, delay tactic and nothing more.

After all Obama has done to include the Republicans, in spite of their obstruction from the very start, to their delaying one more Democratic Senator...

President Obama and the Democrats need to tell the Republicans to sit down, STFU, and steamroll their asses with getting this country back on the right track after 30 years of Republican Oppression & Destruction.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. If Republicans want to cry foul about Equal Protection Concerns involving voting

then I think that we should welcome such a discussion- but ONLY on the condition that we are allowed to discuss OUR concerns about DIEBOLD, ES & S, and Sequoia BBV, as well as all the other ways that the poor, minorities, convicted felons, persons purged from the voting rolls because they were apparently confused with ineligible felons, and people whom happen to reside in Democratic-leaning districts have had THEIR equal protection rights trampled on for the past several elections.

[WillyT]

8. Kick !!!

:kick: