Coleman’s Legal Argument Has Little Appeal

The revelations over the last couple of days as to what the Norm Coleman defense team was really doing should have been clear to even the most casual observer. They have been setting everything up for an appeal to the US Supreme Court. That was confirmed in a radio interview Friday and updated in articles in both of Minnesota’s largest newspapers. They have been laying the groundwork to use Bush vs. Gore to try to certify the vote total from election night.

This argument has a number of holes in it because it is based on a cry or "count all the votes" and really is just a "we need to win". This is clearly a race that has gone deep into extra innings. The Coleman campaign wants the 3rd, 4th , and half of the 1st, 7th and 9th innings to be used. Do they really expect the Supreme Court to go along with that? Can a free society that is based on electoral system allow this? Step back for a second and forget which party will get what and ask do we truly want to go that deep and twist a result this bad?

There has been a legitimate recount and with the canvasing board and Judicial trial , two other steps taken. It’s time that this thing come to an end. Hopefully, the results from the three judge panel will lead to clear levelheaded thinking from both sides. But, this week’s stories suggest that it really doesn’t matter.

Coleman’s lead council closing argument basically conceded that the votes weren’t there. That there really is only one result for this panel. So at least they see reality. To date they still haven’t come up with the gap ballots that they would need. So now it’s down to grasping at straws. Hopefully, the higher courts won’t buy into this nonsense.