Why the right hates Al Franken
And why the relationship will only get worse if Franken becomes Minnesota's new senator
Al Franken: Republican punching bag?
(AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)
It looks like Republicans have a new “bogeyman,” said Benjamin Sarlin in The Daily Beast. Al Franken, a Hollywood liberal, is on the verge of claiming a Minnesota U.S. Senate seat from Norm Coleman after a tense recount. The Democratic comedian’s confrontational brand of politics run directly counter to the civility preached by incoming President Barack Obama, so Franken is the perfect right-wing punching bag.
The real reason for the right to hate Franken, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial, is that he didn’t win fair and square. He went into the recount down by 215 votes, and came out up by 225—out of nearly 3 million cast—thanks to “the machinations of Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and a meek Canvassing Board.” If Franken’s illegitimate victory stands, he’ll be “a tainted and undeserving senator.”
Franken won’t necessarily be a senator, said Chris Cillizza and Paul Kane in The Washington Post, even if the Canvassing Board names him the winner when it meets on Monday. Coleman's pending legal challenge over 654 allegedly wrongly rejected absentee ballots from pro-Coleman territory will be decided by the Minnesota Supreme Court. And Coleman can challenge the election result even if the court rules against him, so this race could be a long way from being over.
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15 Comments
Posted by Greg Laden, Monday, January 5, 2009, 11:56 am What Stephen said.
Posted by Peter , Monday, January 5, 2009, 12:17 pm There's nothing underhanded about a Democratic getting more votes in a recount. That's fully expected. More immigrants (who may not read English well) and new voters who aren't familiar with the voting process vote Democrat; hence their votes are likelier to be rejected in the first count and accepted upon closer examination when the stakes really matter. But what can you expect from a right wing mouthpiece like the WSJ?
Posted by Philosopher Jay, Monday, January 5, 2009, 12:34 pm Yes, Stephen D. makes excellent points. The Wall Street Journal, owned by Foxnews Corp owner, Rupert Murdock, has been printing misinformation about the Minnesota election recount from day one. The Minnesotan election officials have not allowed the Republicans to steal, the election and Republican propaganda tools, like the Wall Street Journal, are angry about it and declaring the election process suspect. It has been discouraging to watch the Republicans lying at every turn in the recount and trying to keep legitimate votes from being counted. Now they are trying to get 654 self chosen votes that were declared illegitimate by bipartisan election committees from districts that favored Coleman to be counted. Good luck with that. It should be noted that when less than 10% of the rejected write-in ballots were included in the vote tally last week, Franken won them by over 60%. Based on this, it seems probable that If all the write-in ballots had been allowed to count, Franken's margin of victory would have been well over 2,000 votes. It was most probably the zealousness in dismissing write-in votes in pro-Franken districts that keep the number of Franken's votes down. If all votes had been counted on election night, Franken would have been ahead by 2,000 + votes. There should be an investigation of the election process to see how many votes the Republicans actually stole from Al Franken's vote total.
Posted by Aaron, Monday, January 5, 2009, 12:44 pm You sure have to go a long way to defend Al's behavior, when everyone KNOWS he's a cheat.
Posted by bubba, Monday, January 5, 2009, 1:12 pm the hell he didnt win fair, the g.d gop just tried to steal it from he start
Posted by bubba, Monday, January 5, 2009, 1:14 pm LISTEN TO ALL THE rethugicans whinning because they got the RED ASS, the gop is the reason the usa is in the shape its in now
Posted by bubba, Monday, January 5, 2009, 1:17 pm dont forget what the crooked republicans did in 2000 election in fla, and 2004 election in ohio,,,,,,,,,,,,,the g.d gop stole election both times ,,,,,,scalia the scab on the supreme court made sure,,,,,,,,,the gop just got beaten fairly in minnesota
Posted by Ron Mulvaney, Monday, January 5, 2009, 2:24 pm Because: 1. the Right hasn't a sense of humor? 2. Because Republicans always have to win their battles in court? or 3. Franken graduated Harvard with honors?
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