Al Franken Sworn In

This is a happy day. We congratulate Senator Al Franken!

Al Franken Wins

[BARF ALERT] The activist "judges" of Minnesota have appointed Al Franken to the U.S. Senate!

Just kidding, I'm very giddy with happiness at this thing being finally over, and for it having a happy ending. It's nice once in a while for the good guy to finish first.

Now Minnesota can have some representation AND we can have another Democratic senator. We believe Al will be a great one.

It's hard to believe, though, that we had to wait for Norm Coleman to concede. Good grief. When the numbers are against you, you've lost. Whether you concede or not, get out of the way.

Swirling The Drain?

I haven't caught the news today especially. Are the Republicans still swirling the drain? I hope so, although I'd like to have a slightly wider drain installed so they would go down it once and for all.

I see the contest in Minnesota is still being delayed, stretched out by that champion of democracy, Norm Coleman. Now he apparently wishes that the election could be nullified, then presumably the voters would get another chance to reject him. He's come a long way from wringing his hands the day after the election that the voters' precious tax dollars would be wasted by prolonging the contest, that is, when Al Franken appeared to be behind.

It looks like Coleman doesn't care about the precious tax dollars now, or anything, except prolonging the inevitable to simply cause mischief with the Senate. This is a guy we definitely need a wider drain for, and plenty of Liquid Plumbr to rinse down after him to make sure he's gone for good.

That's all I know today. So if The Party Of No has carried on with any of their usual idiotic shenanigans, I either don't know about it or don't remember.

I did see an interesting article somewhere early this morning about the Club For Growth. I haven't paid attention to this. But they seem to be an advocacy group for stricter conservative toeing of the line in the party, leading to some insults and hard feelings among the remaining five or six moderate Republicans still in the party. Some of the Republican senators, as I recall, wishes the Club For Growth would target Democrats more.

No, no, that wouldn't work. Keep eating your own. We'll let the Democrats in this scenario be the two little goats in the Billy Goats Gruff story. And when the trollish Club For Growth comes out from under the bridge, we can say, "We're so small and scrawny. Wait for my bigger brother. He makes a much better meal." Of course our Big Brother, from the Bush years, you see, represents the Republicans.

Oh, in the story the third brother butts the troll off the bridge. But in this case we want the troll to eat the Big Brother, then feel regret and dive to his own death, landing in a flaming heap at the bottom of a very sharp rocked ravine.

Or to keep with my original image, we will widen the drain for them as well, put after them about 10 gallons of Drano, and they'll be gone. No fuss, no muss.

No Do-Over Elections

Norm Coleman lost the Senate race in Minnesota. But it's all tangled up in red tape. And now, right from the horse's mouth we have the suggestion that they might need a do-over election.

This is ridiculous. Haven't we always known that elections could be decided by a narrow margin, and that's why "every vote counts"? Just because it's within a certain percentage, that's no reason to cast out all the votes from election day. That is the reason to have a recount, which has now been done. Get Al Franken in the Senate. Don't delay another day with this fool, Norm Coleman.

They don't want to disenfrancise anyone. But that's exactly what they'd be doing, because you're not going to get 100% of the people who went out to vote on election day at a do-over. So that means the votes they voted on that day wouldn't count. Their voices would be set aside just for the ego (and bad will) of this terrible guy.

We ought to hold Norm Coleman accountable. He said on election day or the day after that if he were behind, as it appeared Al Franken was at that point, that he would concede, in order to save the taxpayers money and trouble. But now that Coleman is behind, he's using every means -- hook AND crook -- to drag it out and perhaps to steal the election after all. Hold him accountable. The standard he set that day ought to be the standard we go by now.

Minnesota is being cheated out of representation. And they are, to a certain extent, cheating themselves. This ought to be something everyone's up in arms about. Norm Coleman is a scoundrel. The Republicans are scoundrels. He needs to be declared the official loser, then run out of town and perhaps the state on a rail.

No do-overs!

Minnesota

I'm glad Al Franken finally won the election in Minnesota. It's unfortunate it took them two months to count the votes. Now if he could just be in Washington and get seated as he should. But Norm Coleman is tangling it up in legal red tape. Which is kind of weird because he said two months ago that if he were behind, he wouldn't bother with a recount but would "step back." Maybe he wasn't telling the truth?

The way it looks, though, is that eventually -- sooner or later -- Al will be a senator in reality. That'll be cool.

I used to get Al Franken's mail. True. Sort of true. I had a page about him on the internet, and for some unknown reason business credit card places took Al Franken's name for mine and would send me credit card offers addressed to "Al Franken" with my mailing address. I haven't had one for quite a while.

Way to go, Minnesota, finally. Remember, that's the land of 10,000 lakes. But if there's a recount they might find it's only 8,500.