...that attacks Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat, for having spoken at the Democratic convention this summer,...

Wait, aren't Katherine Harris and Michelle Bachmann the same person? Unless there are more of them that I don't know about....

BTW, missed you guys! Haven't had much time to celebrate out here since the election.

Got my Franken lawn sign. Been donating since he went off the air to run. Gonna give more. Just want to see O'Reilly's head explode trying to say the words 'Senator Franken.' Worth all the money I've got...

Plus, all my Minneapolis friends seem to consistently and independently use variations on the word 'sleaze' when discussing Coleman...

Kick his ass, Al.

Republicans are immune to logic and allergic to facts . . . and oblivious to irony.

In 1962, a recount involving paper ballots (the old-fashioned kind) took place in Minnesota in the Governor's race. That time, the Republican Governor, Elmer Andersen, eventually conceded defeat by 91 votes out of over a million. The lawyers on both sides fought hard but maintained their civility and professional courtesy.

Governor Andersen lived long enough to see the GOP turn into a right-wing cult, and his last public statement was in 2004 when he denounced the Cheney-Bush administration (his phrasing) and cast his vcote for John Kerry.

In fairness to Norm Coleman we all recall his dismay at the Katherine Harris-Supreme Court partisan suppression of the 2000 vote and his comments concerning the Rossi-Gregoire recount...

Garrison Keillor knows Norm Coleman:
http://dir.salon.com/story/politics/feature/2002/11/07/minnesota/index.html

I know Mark Ritchie to be an exceptionally principled man.
Clicking through to the Rethug's backgrounder, I am speechless. Apparently, they just want people to think that they have damaging research and don't expect people to read it.
Ritchie is a DEMOCRAT! Horrors!
He spoke at the DEMOCRAT Convention! Yee Gads!
And before he was elected to office, he took part in a Voter Registration and Get out the Vote campaign! Horrors never cease!

Gee, partisan AGs. Where were these poor benighted non-partisan repubs when the Wisconsin Atty General - who was CoChair of McCain campaign in the state - filing a lawsuit to try to throw voters off the rolls, just two months before the elections? (and admitted contacts with the repub party on this issue too)

It's funny how Coleman tried to lecture Al in their last debate about what Minnesotans are like and what Minnesotans do and don't approve of. This from a guy who moved to Minnesota about 30 years ago and still hasn't bothered to lose his Brooklyn accent.

And, the way Coleman's conducting himself now, essentially making a blanket accusation against everyone involved in counting the votes, in stark contrast to the calm and rational tone set by Franken, is not characteristic of someone who trusts and truly cares about the people of this state.

I was a poll watcher in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District. The election judges were nice folks and they took their job very seriously. I made sure they understood when I first arrived that I wasn't there to try to catch them at something. I said that I was sure they wanted just as much as I did to see everyone who was eligible to vote to have the chance to do so. I saw them bend over backwards to help people register who hadn't already. At the end of the night, the head judge asked me, "Well, how'd we do?" I said that, as far as I could tell, it was flawless and that the poll workers clearly knew what they were doing. She said, "Good. Tell that to the Democrats."

There's probably a better than even chance that the election judges that Coleman has slimed with his blanket mistrust and condmenation are Republicans. For all he knows, the person who initially reported a precinct vote count for Franken that was 100 votes off, as well as the person who corrected it, might well have been a Republican.

The worst part of this is that Coleman and his attack dogs know full well that Secretary of State Ritchie is not trying to pull anything and they know that there's nothing unusual about the vote count having continued to move well after election day. This is how it always works. The only thing that's unusual is that there are only 206 votes separating the two candidates after 2.4 million were cast. They also know that the number is likely to be far different after the recount.

Typical Coleman. Anything to win. Absolutely anything.

Doesn't this kind of pre-emptive character smear seem...I dunno, quaint, somehow?

Whoa, Seldomright,
Minnesota might have to atone for Coleman and Michelle Bachman, but WISCONSIN is totally to blame for Senator Joseph McCarthy. Don't try to pin that one on us.

A few years ago I was watching that wonderful film about Frieda Khalo and I realized that what we really need in this country are some real leftists. The average wingnut would disappear in puff of smoke if he met a real Marxist or Communist.

What a bunch of hot-house flowers they are on the right wing. The range of political thought in this country is way too narrow. It may be that another thing we need are some people on the right who are so extreme that they scare the wing nuts. Yeah, I hate to imagine it, but think about it for a while.

Can the Democratic party finally grow a pair and fight back?

Here's the message: "Norm Coleman is trying to stop the vote counting. But this isn't 2000 and Minnesota isn't Florida."

Repeat and repeat and repeat until the recount is done.

The Foley interview is the most excruciatingly funny thing I have read in some time. He has the self-awareness of a... well, he doesn't have much at all actually. But blame it on the priest, Mark, you just blame it on the priest. Got to get Bill Donohoe the rabid Catholic in on this. Who is going to defend the poor libeled priest?