On Election Day, Senate GOP incumbent Norm Coleman squeezed out a 721 vote victory against former funnyman Al Franken.
As scattered votes from the DFL strongholds of the Iron Range – and in particular, Duluth – rolled in with almost uncanny timing throughout the early and late morning hours of November 5th, Al Franken – recognizing that no amount of potentially “held back” ballots from Duluth would allow him victory – elected to hold a news conference proclaiming it was time for a recount.
Franken’s lawyer, former U.S. Attorney and highly partisan DFL legal operative, David Lillehaug, stood in front of the cameras with all of the sincerity of a guy looking to “alter” an election result, and said: “I expect that there will be not just lawyers but people with experience in recounts and thoughts on it because there are many people, not just in Minnesota, but around the country that believe that Al Franken would be the best senator for the state of Minnesota.”
Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chair Chuck Schumer, very temporary resident Al Franken, and a host of other Democratic activists and interest groups from around the nation, intend to do one simple thing:
They intend to alter the results of this election and hand it to Al Franken.
What’s worse is that they appear to have a willing accomplice: Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.
Ritchie is a partisan Democrat. He is a graduate of the Wellstone Alliance political action camps – and, is one of the most strongly endorsed ACORN candidates in the country.
Instead of performing his duties to uphold the law and secure ballots immediately after the election, Ritchie proceeded to tell anyone who would listen just how perfect the election went.
Until, of course, the Franken campaign complained about “irregularities.”
Keep in mind, not a single one of the irregularities that Franken and his Attorney have concocted have any bearing on a recount. But they were enough to unnerve their political cohort, Ritchie, into starting to backtrack about his vaunted “perfect” election system.
On a recent Minnesota Public Radio show – instead of pounding his chest about the great election his office ran – Ritchie began to echo the Franken campaign line that there may indeed be some problems with the results. That was a quick change of heart.
But, so concerned is he that when it was revealed that a small city in the DFL bastion of Mountain Iron suddenly “identified” 100 votes for Barack Obama (and, wouldn’t you know it, 100 votes for Al Franken) that he said nothing – except to point his fingers at the Coleman campaign for having the audacity to wonder aloud about how such an egregious event could have happened.
And, when a City elections supervisor in Minneapolis “found” 32 absentee ballots, it wasn’t Ritchie who sounded the alarm and wondered why 72 hours had passed since the election.
Instead, it was left to the Coleman campaign to step up and go to court to uphold the laws that Ritchie was elected to uphold.
With 48 hours left before the end of the process that allows election officials to “clean up” the numbers they reported on election day – it’s clear that Coleman’s lead has taken a questionable hit — and, as a result so has Ritchie’s credibility.
Any other Secretary of State would have been alarmed at the unusual shifts in vote totals that have taken place since the Tuesday election. Ritchie has expressed no such alarm. Instead, he’s remained silient as his political associate, Al Franken and his Democratic allies, attempt to alter and change the rules of the game.
Minnesotans re-elected Norm Coleman fair and square — even after all the gloating from the DSCC and the Franken campaign, who told anyone who’d listen that the race was over.
But, the process that Ritchie has allowed to unfold is intended to do a number of things:
First, is to raise doubts in people’s minds about the results. More than likely, when the official recount begins, and ends, Coleman’s lead will be significant enough to cause serious questions about Ritchie’s role in what is becoming a partisan charade inconsistent with the Minnesota tradition of total integrity and transparency.
Second, Franken and Schumer intend to perpetrate any legal ruse necessary to thwart the will of the people of Minnesota. If that means asking for multiple recounts, that is exactly what they will do.
Third, Franken and his temporary political cronies (Franken will undoubtedly soon move back to New York City) want this election decided on the floor of the United States Senate.
Watch out, Minnesota. There’s definitely scheming going on behind closed doors to change the outcome of the election — to have a “do-over”, and the guy at the center of the crime is none other than Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.
Tom McClintic