November 15-19, 2008
Nov 15 02:31 Refreshing Talk From Miami Nov 15 10:13 Lies And the Lying SOB's That Peddle This BS Nov 16 17:40 To: Ms. Deborah Howell Nov 18 04:46 Now That the Election's Over... Nov 18 11:33 State Canvassing Board Rejects Franken's 11th Hour Bid Nov 18 13:55 Franken: Election Workers Broke Election Law Nov 18 14:19 Liveblogging Canvassing Board Hearing Nov 19 02:08 Coleman Campaign to Team Franken: Start Naming Names Nov 19 15:46 Krueger-Fobbe Recount Update
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct
Refreshing Talk From Miami
Byron York's article for NRO is a great elixir for dispirited conservatives . Here's the key portion of Mr. York's column:
To hear Palin, as well as the other governors tell it, voters will be looking for future GOP leaders who are not like current GOP leaders. Here at the conference, when a speaker denounces "Washington D.C.," he or she is politely referring to Republicans in Washington, D.C. Hence, Palin said, "Washington, D.C., leaders spent public money in disregard of the public interest, just like the opponents they used to criticize." And Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, said Americans want "the kind of leadership that you see displayed by Republican governors, not necessarily what you see in Washington, D.C." The dirtiest words here in Miami are "Washington, D.C., values."GOP governors can't afford to be unresponsive to their constituents. They have to actually listen. That's something that most GOP legislators forget the minute they set foot in Washington, DC. The other major difference between GOP governors and GOP senators is that they aren't listening to the constant defeatist drumbeat of the Washington media and the Beltway-bound Washington GOP
Now that Republicans are on the outs, they have decided that outside is the place to be.
And they're probably right. For Republicans, the governors' offices around the country are where ideas are likely to be applied practically, where political leadership will be discovered and tested, and where future national candidates will sharpen their governing skills. Although the loss of the presidential election is the backdrop to this meeting, everyone here will tell you that Republicans shouldn't be thinking about 2012, because the way to build long-term success is by achieving short-term success.
"I thought Sarah was very right to say that we're focused on 2009 and 2010," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told reporters. "Thirty-six governors' races in 2010, including in Florida, that's where our focus is. When I was chairman of the Republican National Committee the last time we lost the White House, after the 1992 election, we focused exclusively on 1993 and 1994. And at the end of that time, we had both houses of Congress with Republican majorities, and we'd gone from 17 Republican governors to 31. So anyone talking about 2012 today doesn't have their eye on the ball. What we ought to worry about is rebuilding our party over the next year and particularly in 2010."
In the mid- to late 90's, Rebublican governors were the innovators. Tommy Thompson was the innovator on welfare reform. Bill Weld had a great reputation for welfare reform, too. John Engler was a great leader in education reform. He was a great tax cutter, too. Frank Keating and George Allen were rising stars, too.
I suspect that most of these gentlemen would win if they ran for US Senate. I particularly suspect that of Gov. Engler, who would be a stark contrast to Debbie Stabenow.
The past is the past, though. There are other current governors who deserve credit for being innovators. Jon Huntsman and Mitch Daniels are governors who can actually boast of still maintaining a budget surplus. Mitch Daniels won re-election in Indiana by 18 points. that's some trick considering Barack Obama won by 26,000 votes.
The best thing about the current governors is that they aren't associated in any way with the disastors that swept the GOP out of their majorities in the House and Senate. In fact, these governors have the opportunity to offer a competing vision of governance from Barack Obama's governing vision.
Finally, these governors deal almost entirely with kitchen table and/or pocketbook issues. That's exactly the message we need to tout from now until Election Day, 2010.
Posted Saturday, November 15, 2008 2:32 AM
Comment 1 by J. Ewing at 15-Nov-08 12:10 PM
Actually, there is ONE governor who just had his hat handed to him for being too tight with Washington insiders, and that is Tim Pawlenty. He was in the tank for McCain, claimed to share McCain's "good ideas" and McCain lost BIG in Minnesota. If Pawlenty wants a third term, he's got a lot of fence-mending to do.
Comment 2 by Gary Gross at 15-Nov-08 07:54 PM
Jerry, TPaw's got plenty of time to mend those fences. The damage from this campaign was minimal. Yes, he supported Sen. McCain but that's minimal compared with the DFL's issues that he didn't support & the GOP issues that he did support.
He didn't support the DFL's tax hikes. He didn't support the DFL's health care reform gimmick. He vetoed the DFL's inflation escalator bill.
He supported the GOP's market-driven health care reform. He supports voter ID, which will get signed this year.
That's alot of stuff for activists to agree with him on. Will he ever be a Phil Krinkie hardline conservative? Nope but that's ok.
People worried about him giving into the DFL after the midterm elections. He passed with flying colors. It's time to cut the guy some slack. He's EARNED that with his vetoes.
Lies And the Lying SOB's That Peddle This BS
I've reached the point where I think that Al Franken makes Joe Wilson look almost honest. Al Franken is the most disgusting, dishonest person I've ever seen in public life. I offer this Coleman campaign press release as proof:
COLEMAN FOR SENATE STATEMENT ON FALSE FRANKEN CLAIMS REGARDING BELTRAMI COUNTY VOTERLet's go through this step-by-step. Here's what the Grand Forks Herald reported Thursday:
ST. PAUL - Statement from Cullen Sheehan, campaign manager:
"Throughout the day, we've been contacted by a number of media outlets regarding the Franken campaign's accusation that an 84 year old stroke victim in Beltrami County had her absentee ballot rejected because of her medical condition. This story was first promoted by the Franken campaign yesterday when, in a highly publicized press conference, they represented a story about an 84-year old stroke victim whose absentee ballot had been rejected. However, we have now learned through media reports that this 'victim' was entirely fabricated. In fact, there are serious questions, based upon news reports, as to whether or not such an individual even exists. We are now learning that the Franken campaign had likely been notified of this matter prior to their press conference, and yet, went forward and provided the media and the public with known false information. Additionally, according to local news reports in Beltrami County, election officials reported that private citizens had been contacted by the Franken campaign and asked to sign knowingly false affidavits concerning their rejected absentee ballots. Today, the Franken campaign said they are 'investigating' the matter further.
"While we are not sure what there is to investigate since election officials state they have absolutely no record of such an individual, we do know that this fabricated story was presented to the media and the public as fact, when it was known to be fiction. We believe that this new information is both troubling and disappointing, and applaud local election officials in Beltrami County for efforts to ensure a fair, legal and transparent election."
An 84-year-old Beltrami County woman, whose election ballot was rejected, helped convince Al Franken's campaign to go to court seeking the names of all Minnesotans whose ballots were not counted last week.How can "an 84-year-old Beltrami County woman" "convince Al Franken's campaign to go to court seeking the names of all Minnesotans" whose ballots might not have gotten counted when this lady might be fictional? Andy Barr's statement that there may have been "some confusion about our earlier field report," and that the campaign is "still digging into the facts" is pathetic. Either they have specific information verifying the authenticity of a stroke victim's absentee ballot getting rejected or they didn't. If they're making her the cornerstone of their lawsuit, they should supply the court with the victim's name, the victim's place of residence and sworn affidavits attesting to the fact that her ballot was rejected.
Franken campaign officials said the woman, a nursing home resident, told a campaign volunteer that her signature had changed due to a stroke after she first signed her voter registration forms. Her signature on absentee ballot paperwork did not match her signature for this election, so election officials rejected the ballot.
That example is being used as why the U.S. Senate candidate, a Democrat, wants to know about every rejected ballot.
That's the minimum they should be able to produce at a moment's notice.
If they're filing a real lawsuit, they should have real, verifiable facts supporting their allegations. Andy Barr's pathetic statement verifies that they can't produce proof that verifies their allegations.
If Team Franken filed their lawsuit knowing that this alleged victim didn't exist, then it's my opinion that the recount is the least of their worries. I can't imagine that filing such a lawsuit wouldn't carry a stiff penalty for knowingly making false allegations.
I'd appreciate hearing from any legal eagle on this issue. Anyone with specific insight into this can leave a comment at the bottom of this post.
Posted Saturday, November 15, 2008 10:17 AM
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Now That the Election's Over...
Now that the election is over, the FMSM is publishing lots of self-examination articles. This article by Deborah Howell focuses on The Washington Post's not vetting Obama. This article by Howard Kurtz speaks to the depth of the media's infatuation with President-Elect Obama.
Here's the portion of Ms. Howell's editorial that irritated me the most:
Combine these with the drumbeat of polling stories saying Obama and the Democrats were likely to win, a few Tom Toles cartoons and TV critic Tom Shales's debate reviews, both are liberals who are paid to offer opinions, and conservatives decided that The Post was cheerleading, especially since they felt the paper hadn't sufficiently scrutinized Obama.As I told Ms. Howell in this email, it isn't just perception that the FMSM didn't "sufficiently scrutinize Obama." This isn't just confined to the Washington Post or to the presidential race either. The Strib's Lori Sturdevant essentially admitted that they didn't vet Franken during this Pigs Eye Podcast .
Kurtz's column is essentially a post-election catalog of the various publications worshipping Obama.
As I told Ms. Howell in my email , nobody vetted Obama until David Freddoso and Stanley Kurtz investigated him. If the Washington Post and other major publications want their readership to stabilize and rise, then they need to stop tilting their reporting in the Democrats' direction.
If the Washington Post had done their due diligence, Ms. Howell wouldn't've needed to write a post-election mea culpa editorial.
Posted Tuesday, November 18, 2008 4:48 AM
Comment 1 by Shoebox at 18-Nov-08 09:58 AM
Funny,
Isn't this the same MSM who has spent the last 7 years claiming they were dupped by Bush over Iraq and now say they should have dug deeper?
Maybe the MSM is more bipartisan than we thought?
Comment 2 by Gary Gross at 18-Nov-08 11:42 AM
They're lazy, inept & partisan.
Comment 3 by Shoebox at 18-Nov-08 12:07 PM
Maybe I should have noted my sarcasm in the previous note?
Their "bipartisanship" is only on display in their ineptness!
To: Ms. Deborah Howell
Ms. Howell, Something that you wrote today caught my attention. Here's what I'm referring to:
Conservatives decided that The Post was cheerleading, especially since they felt the paper hadn't sufficiently scrutinized Obama.It isn't that we thought that. It's that nobody vetted Obama, at least not until Stanley Kurtz vetted him for NRO. Reporters should report things. That means finding out what skeletons they have in their closets. If not for David Freddoso & Stanley Kurtz digging into the CAC's activities, we never would've known about Obama's radical past.
That wouldn't have gotten McCain elected but at least it would've been informative. It comes down to the people having a right to know about a person's professional relationships & decisions.
It's time that the Times & the other major news outlets had differing perspectives in the newsroom. Right now, there's an echochamber within the newsroom & editoial rooms. It's time that people had to defend their ideas & opinions. They might find that conservatives have the better argument.
Without the discussions, the thought process dies. That's what's happened with so-called dea tree media. It's time to reverse that trend.
Let me close by saying that I appreciate you digging into the subject. That's the thoughtful thing to do. You're to be applauded for that. I'll be watching to see if this is just a onetime guilt-clensing column or if it's something that's implemented.
Gary Gross
Let Freedom Ring Blog
www.letfreedomringblog.com
Originally posted Sunday, November 16, 2008, revised 18-Nov 4:21 AM
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State Canvassing Board Rejects Franken's 11th Hour Bid
According to this Strib article , the 5-member state canvassing board will reject Al Franken's 11th hour gimmick and certify Norm Coleman the winner of the US Senate election. This isn't what Franken wanted by any means. At 1pm this afternoon, Minnesota SecState Mark Ritchie will certify Norm Coleman the winner for a second time. It also means that Al Franken, if he's to get more ballots included, will have to win a court fight to get those ballots included. Here's what the STrib is reporting:
DFLer Al Franken asked Monday to have rejected absentee ballots be considered in the U.S. Senate election results that are to be certified today by a state board, a move later blunted by an attorney general's opinion that the issue should be left to the courts.Franken faced an uphill fight before this. Post-certification fights are tougher because they necessarily include the courts. The Minnesota Secretary of State's office issued a three-page opinion requested by Ritchie. Here's the money quote in the opinion:
The eleventh-hour maneuvering occurred as the five-member state Canvassing Board prepared to meet at 1 p.m. today in St. Paul to review results showing Republican Sen. Norm Coleman with a lead of 215 votes out of more than 2.9 million cast.
That margin includes the canvassed results submitted by Minnesota's 87 counties, plus an additional nine votes in Coleman's favor that emerged from a post-election audit conducted in a sampling of about 200 precincts to check the accuracy of voting machines.
Wrote Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Raschke Jr.: "Courts that have reviewed this issue have opined that rejected absentee or provisional ballots are not cast in an election." Improperly rejected absentee ballots can be challenged in court, he wrote.Ritchie's office also issued additional recount information, including a list of recount locations .
Here's some of the additional information:
The board also will approve a list of recount procedures, already reviewed by the rival campaigns and state legal officials, that assigns duties for officials at each location, details how the ballots will be handled and documented, and allows the public to attend the counting. The panel also will serve as the canvassing board for the recount.The Coleman recount starts tomorrow in 35 Counties. The recount is scheduled to end Dec. 3 with Wright and Winona counties. Most of the recount should be finished before Thanksgiving.
Check back here later this afternoon. I'm certain the second Coleman certification will have its share of highlights.
Posted Tuesday, November 18, 2008 1:42 PM
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Franken: Election Workers Broke Election Law
That title isn't a direct quote from Franken. After you analyze their 11th hour attempt to get additional ballots include, though, that's their unintended message. Here's what Coleman for Senate Campaign Manager Cullen Sheehan said in his press release:
"In a last minute attempt to stop the recount, directly contradicting what they said yesterday, the Franken campaign has now clearly shown they will do anything and everything they can to turn this Minnesota recount into another Florida. They insultingly charge the majority of Minnesota county boards with failing to comply with state law, and denigrate the legal ruling of the Minnesota Attorney General's Office. The Franken Campaign's scorched earth legal strategy is now fully in view for all Minnesotans. Win at all costs, regardless of who or what laws get in their way. Minnesotans expect a legal and transparent recount, and it is time for the Franken Campaign's legal team to give way to the thousands of volunteers and dedicated election officials who are to begin the recount tomorrow across our state."Here's what the Strib reported yesterday:
The 18-page legal brief that the campaign filed Monday with the state Canvassing Board included four examples of absentee voters said to be disenfranchised when their ballots were rejected. Jessup Schiks, of Kandiyohi County, had his absentee ballot rejected because officials ruled the signature didn't match the registration card; campaign officials said Schiks later signed an affidavit confirming the ballot was his.Rejecting those ballots would either be an act of incompetence or a criminal act. Neither explanation is bound to please the officials charged with overseeing elections. Let's remember that Franken has already lost credibility on this issue .
In another case, Bruce Behrens, a Goodhue County resident, said his absentee ballot was rejected because officials believed his girlfriend, who vouched for him, wasn't a registered voter even though she is.
Check back here later this afternoon for more updates.
Posted Tuesday, November 18, 2008 1:57 PM
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Coleman Campaign to Team Franken: Start Naming Names
Coleman campaign chairman Cullen Sheehan issued this statement immediately after today's canvassing board hearing:
"As the Canvassing Board rejected the Franken Campaign's brazen attempt to stop the recount, it's clear the Franken Campaign now has to answer questions about which counties they accuse of failing to do their jobs. We find these last minute accusations to be an insult to every election official who has worked diligently to complete the work they were called upon to finish prior to today's canvassing hearing."I wrote here that David Lillehaug made the assertion that they'd found errors in handline of absentee ballots in 49 of Minnesota's 87 counties. I noticed that Mr. Lillehaug didn't cite any documentation that Team Franken had sent that pointed at this information. I think it's odd that they didn't cite a report showing this.
What I recall is that Mr. Lillehaug kept saying that he could point to many more incidences than the 4 Team Franken has already mentioned. I thought it sounded like John Kerry in 04 saying that his plan was on Kerry-Edwards04.com and John McCain this year saying that "I know how to fix these problems", then noticeably not providing specifics on how he'd fix the economy. If Mr. Lillehaug is capable of citing specifics, now's the time to do it.
Another thing I recall from today's hearing is the repeated use of the term "flurry of documents" provided by the Franken campaign. Judge Gearin mentioned that some of the documents arrived minutes before their departure for the meeting. Lillehaug must've known that they couldn't have reviewed this material, much less rule on this information.
If the Franken campaign had that information, they should've made extra copies of the documentation, which they could've given to the press to dutifully investigated.
Posted Wednesday, November 19, 2008 2:08 AM
Comment 1 by eric z at 19-Nov-08 07:51 AM
Thanks again for the live blogging.
It seems the absentee ballot focus is because the statute says they are counted after election day, separate from where each party has election judges. By the "county canvassing board."
I think the Franken strategy is to contest county processes where the Coleman vote far outranked the Franken vote, as where I live, Anoka County, where people vote like idiots [for GOP candidates].
It is a perogative, but with a manual recount the entire worry should be ballot security over the intervening time between election day and when absentee ballots are handled, to point of recount.
Am I missing something. It is largely irrelevant what the machines said, since people will review and override anything the machines said.
If sheriffs have trouble with losses from their property rooms, and seized drugs often weighing less and less the more times handled and weighed, what if a pack of papers in official custody loses pages here, pages there, and all the lost ones say one name not the other?
Isn't ballot security pre-recount the only real worry?
Comment 2 by Gary Gross at 19-Nov-08 08:33 AM
as where I live, Anoka County, where people vote like idiots [for GOP candidates].
CORRECTION: Where people vote like geniuses. LOL
Liveblogging Canvassing Board Hearing
1:15 -- Gary Poser is making his presentation. He's pointing out the 4 elections that will go to an automatic recounts.
1:16 -- Ritchie moves to accept Poser's report. Seconded and approved.
1:17 -- Poser now reviewing equipment audits. The equipment is audited by a manual recount .
1:20 -- After the canvassing reports, Sen. Coleman still leads by 215 votes.
1:21 -- Mark Ritchie states that this post-election equipment audit verifies the accuracy of the equipment.
1:23 -- The report is accepted.
1:29 -- Performance review lottery completed. Motion made & seconded approving of this lottery.
1:33 -- Mr. Poser is outlining the recount plan.
1:38 -- David Lillehaug is now speaking on Franken's behalf. He's stating that every valid vote be counted. "The state canvassing board has been given authority" to determine whether administrative errors were made. He's now citing 4 affidavits of voters. He's arguing that 49 of Minnesota's 87 counties didn't perform their jobs. Lillehaug is asking that all ballots cast, not just ballots counted, be counted. He's citing Bush v. Gore as the precedent for his argument.
1:43 -- Lillehaug is arguing that the canvassing board examine all of the allegedly illegitimately rejected on Election Night. This is Lillehaug's attempt to circumvent the judicial process.
1:48 -- Fritz Knaak is now speaking. He's saying that he agrees with the opinion cited by the SecState's office. He's arguing that the 1962 recount wasn't based on current law. Mr. Knaak states that the school board precedent cited by Mr. Lillehaug isn't on point.
1:52 -- Judge Magnuson makes a motion to accept a recount plan. Motion seconded by Judge Gearin. Motion is approved.
1:54 -- Judge Gearin moves that the motion related to Mr. Lillehaug's request for another review of the ballots that were allegedly improperly rejected be revisited at a date to be determined.
Posted Tuesday, November 18, 2008 4:50 PM
Comment 1 by eric z at 18-Nov-08 02:59 PM
It takes a real political junkie to sit through all that. Good for you.
This is a public service and I am glad to see someone dedicated enough to do the live blogging.
Are there any other live bloggers you know of doing the same?
I hope you can stay as dedicated as the beach rock resisting the persistent tide, the grinding sand.
Comment 2 by Gary Gross at 18-Nov-08 03:15 PM
Michael at MDE also liveblogged it.
This is next generation media stuff. It's what bloggers can do compared to what's been aptly named Dead Tree Media. They can't put things like this in the newspaper.
Thanks for the kind words, Eric. They're much appreciated.
Krueger-Fobbe Recount Update
This morning, I joined Team Krueger in Little Falls for recounting the ballots cast in Morrison County. We started with a total of 1241 votes cast for Alison Krueger and Lisa Fobbe. When we finished recounting the precincts, 1 vote for Lisa Fobbe was subtracted due to an overvote and 1 vote was challenged because the oval was filled in for both Lisa Fobbe and Write-In.
The Fobbe team lawyer challenged it, saying that it shouldn't be an overvote because they didn't fill in the name of the write-in candidate.
The person doing the initial sorting for our process was Russ Nygren. Russ was a total professional in his conduct. A handful of ballots were initially marked with an X in the oval, then filled in afterwards. Russ would highlight these ballots, then he'd follow up by saying that this was the patter throughout the ballot. None of those ballots were challenged by either side.
Andy Lokken oversaw the process. He was also responsible for counting the ballots in the 'Alison pile'. After each precinct count was finished, Mr. Lokken would sort the Alison ballots into piles of 25. At the end of each stack of 25, he'd turn to the Fobbe representative and to the Krueger representative for their approval that it was a stack of 25 ballots.
The only counts that were tracked were Fobbe, Krueger and other. Other consisted of write-in votes for Mark Olson and undervotes. I was impressed with how efficient the process was. The voters, for the most part, followed the instructions to a T, filling in the oval.
It should also be said that the people who designed Minnesota's ballots should be complimented. As far as I'm concerned, the design is essentially flawless. The instructions for filling out ballots was straightforward.
Posted Wednesday, November 19, 2008 3:46 PM
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