To "save" Coleman's seat, GOP eyes Bush v. Gore

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By Mark Crispin Miller (about the author) Page 1 of 2 page(s)

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What the hell, it worked in 2000, right? And desperate times call for desperate measures-- and things have actually been desperate for the Party since the start of the millennium, as they could never have prevailed without a lot of help from their judicial members (among other anti-democratic activists).

But it's right now, more than ever, that the Party needs to drag out its big guns; for that Party --Bush & Co.'s GOP--has never been as weak, irrelevant and hated as it is today. So the Republicans must try to use whatever "nuclear options" they can formulate, so as to sabotage Obama's program, wreck the nation, and then claw their way back into power.

So they are likely to approach the Bush Quintuplets once again, and brave whatever (feeble) outcry might ensue, momentarily, from certain Democrats and pundits, if/when SCOTUS steps in to abort another major popular decision.

As Paul Lehto has noted all along, Bush v. Gore, despite its ludicrous assertion that it has no precedental value, did set a precedent, and a fatal one at that--i.e., the precedent of SCOTUS arrogating to itself the grand prerogative of overriding the the electorate at will.

Thus has that indefensible decision (which no Republican would ever have defended if the shoe were on the other foot) lain dormant, yet as dangerous as ever, like an unexploded mine, because no one has yet dared to make an issue of it.

MCM

GOP eyes Bush v. Gore to save Coleman seat
By: Manu Raju
March 17, 2009 04:16 AM EST
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=11AC7205-18FE-70B2-A83BB8C5201C9612

A state court could rule any day now on Norm Coleman's challenge to Al Franken's 225-vote lead in Minnesota, but the race may be far from over no matter what the judges say.

Top Republicans are encouraging Coleman to be as litigious as possible and take his fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if he loses this round, believing that an elongated court fight is worth it if they can continue to deny Democrats the 59th Senate seat that Franken would represent.

And in pushing a possible Supreme Court conclusion, Republicans are raising case history that makes Democrats shudder: Bush v. Gore.

Coleman's team says the different methods Minnesota counties use for counting absentee ballots violated the Constitution's equal protection clause - echoing the same 2000 Florida recount case that effectively handed the presidency to George W. Bush. By making a constitutional case, Republicans are already looking ahead to federal court.

"The Supreme Court in 2000 said in Bush v. Gore that there is an equal protection element of making sure there is a uniform standard by which votes are counted or not counted, and I think that's a very serious concern in this instance," said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "I'm not making any predictions, but I wouldn't be surprised" if it ended up in federal court.

Democrats believe Coleman is just running the clock, delaying the inevitable.

"He's lost the election. What he should do is save the people of Minnesota a lot of money and allow them to have a representative here," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told POLITICO. "I mean, everybody knows that he's lost the election. Talk to anyone who's watched the proceedings the last week or two."

Asked whether Franken should appeal if he loses, Reid smiled and said: "He won't lose."

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