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The Republican National Committee will be holding an election for RNC Chair in a few weeks and things are not going smoothly. Politico has a description of all the goings on. This quote from an RNC consultant was particularly interesting:
"Some people are pissed off at [Americans for Tax Reform President] Grover [Norquist]. Some people are pissed off at the Conservative Steering Committee. Some people are pissed off at [current RNC chair] Mike Duncan. Some people are pissed off at social conservatives. The social conservatives are pissed at leaders in Congress,” said a Republican consultant who has worked with the RNC. “Everyone is basically pissed.”
I realize that I am not the kind of person they would seek advice from or much less want advice from, but I do have a simple solution.
The media has been a little lax in its reporting on the recount... especially the national media. Just as some examples, I offer the following:
Let's start with a "breaking news story" from Roll Call:
Court Deals Coleman a Major Setback January 5, 2009, 1:29 P.M. In yet another setback for Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), the state Supreme Court on Monday denied his third lawsuit to include more than 600 previously improperly rejected absentee ballots in the recount in his race with comedian Al Franken (D).
Now what's wrong with that summation?
How about the description of the ballots? They are not simply "improperly rejected absentee ballots"..... no, a better description is this:
....the Supreme Court denied the inclusion of 600 rejected absentee ballots that the Coleman lawsuit contends were improperly rejected.
Listening to the steady drone of the absentee ballot count giving vote after vote to Al Franken was not surprising...except for the numbers. The early voting was more favorable to Franken than first anticipated and now the pressure moves to the Coleman camp.
A 225 vote lead is not very big...but its value increases when you become a campaign searching for new votes. The official recount tally is over and even with the court challenges that Coleman has been talking about, there just doesn't seem to be enough numbers to overturn what is officially in the books now.
Coleman must begin to assess the very thing he was hoping that Franken would seemingly have to contemplate on the day after the election..... that is, deciding on reality.
Forget about the Democratic numbers in the Senate. This is about representation for Minnesota. Senator Klobuchar can only keep . . .
