Franken vs Coleman

Hopefully, Minnesota will soon have a 2nd US Senator. According to a 3-judge panel, it will be Al Franken. Early in the election, I had a dog in this race. I was, initially, a strong Al Franken supporter, including standing and voting for him in the Minnesota Democratic Caucus. The closer Al came to being a "real Democrat," the further I fell from his list of supporters. On election day, I canvased two precincts attempting to get out the vote for Obama and the other Democratic candidates, but I'm not really a Democrat. I vote for any candidate (Independent, Libertarian, Green, or Democrat or anyone else) who appeals to me, as long as they are not Republican. I try not to piss in my drinking water.

Franken was, initially, the Democratic unfavorite. Our local US representative, Betty McCollum, was a very vocal supporter of Franken's opponents. Anyone she is happy with, I'm against (unless they are Republican). McCollum is the prototypical Pelosi-Democrat and they are as worthless and gutless as Republicans. Our lone senator, Klobuchar, did her best to stay out of the campaign, in case some actual position was expressed, requiring her to have an opinion on any given issue. Again, a Pelosi-Democrat and a waste of valuable air. I liked Franken a lot better before he became politically acceptable. Once Clinton came to town to campaign for Franken, I lost a lot of respect for him. After I briefly met him at the caucus, I lost a little more interest.

The fact is, anyone who will associate with the kind of subhuman who populates our political system is probably not someone you'd want mowing your grass unsupervised.

However, in the end it was a no-brainer decision; anyone with half-a-chance to move Normal Coleman's creepy, leering mug out of government was worth a shot. Nobody was more of a slave to Cheney/Bush than Coleman. Not even the slavering loons from the deep south walked the party line as tightly as did Normal.

By election day, the Independent Party candidate managed to become a neuter, so the only contender was Franken. On election night, with a tiny majority proclaimed by anti-law Republicans, Coleman proclaimed himself the winner (regardless of Minnesota's law requiring a recount even with a far greater margin of "victory" than Coleman retained) and asked Franken to conceed "for the good of the state and the nation." After the legally-required recount resulted in Coleman losing his tiny edge, Coleman forgot about "the state and the nation" and began to worry about his own self-interests. Norm has some election finance problems and other money issues. Not being a US Senator could result in a lot more problems for the corrupt little transplant from Boston. He might go straight from Washington to jail, which is totally appropriate. We should have such luck with the majority of Republicans.

In the end, it should be remembered that Norm Coleman lost elections to a retired professional wrestler, was nearly beaten by a dead man (Wellstone), and has now been whipped by a semi-retired Saturday Night Live comedian. That is a political record that even your typical Republican ought to be nervous about saying outloud. We know, though, that being a Republican means never having to say, "I'm ashamed of myself."