Worst Bush Moments: #15, Re-Election
By Jeff Fecke | January 6, 2009
I can kind of forgive America for making 2000 close enough for Bush to slip into the White House. Al Gore ran an uninspired campaign, Bill Clinton was still viewed as Slick Willie, and the media seemed far more concerned that Al Gore occasionally sighed during a debate than the fact that George W. Bush didn’t seem so much to know what the hell he was talking about.
But 2004 — that’s totally different. We had invaded a country that didn’t have the weapons of mass destruction that were the reason we’d invaded that country. We had found out that we were torturing prisoners in custody. The president was already showing himself to be more petulant lightweight than brilliant leader. And America still picked him, because John Kerry misremembered some stuff he did in Vietnam and wind-surfed.
It was reckless and unforgivable, and you can draw a direct line from that decision by our country to the disaster we inhabit today.
Topics: Bush Administration | No Comments »
Big Conservative Media Me
By Jeff Fecke | January 6, 2009
I will be on the Dennis Prager Show tomorrow — yes, you heard me right, the Dennis Prager Show — discussing his wonderful advice on how it’s a good wife’s duty to endure marital rape. I’ll be on with the redoubtable Megan Carpenter, so I’m thinking we should be able to take him.
The appearance is scheduled for Noon in Minnesota; Minnesotans can listen on The Patriot (1280 AM) and then burn their radios to rid them of the taint. Other stations are listed here, and you can also pick up the live stream here.
Topics: Feminism | 5 Comments »
The Next Phase
By Jeff Fecke | January 6, 2009
Okay, I’ve had fun declaring Al Franken the winner, and for now, he is. And that had important legal ramifications — the challenge that Norm Coleman seems intent on filing will be challenging that certification; that is to say, it’s Norm’s job to prove that Franken is not the winner.
But I don’t want to indicate that Norm shouldn’t file a challenge. I think it’s foolish for him to do so unless he’s got lead-pipe cinch evidence that he should have won — but if he does have that kind of evidence, then he absolutely should present it and try to win a challenge. Even if he doesn’t have any evidence, it’s still ultimately good for Franken if he files suit, and loses. It won’t eliminate the dark conspiracy theories of the right — nothing will — but it will keep those theories consigned to the fringe, where they belong.
Norm’s team has thus far indicated that they’re going to go after Franken on the terrain they’ve been playing with thus far — the lost ballots in Minneapolis, the 654 ballots that Norm wants added, the 130 “duplicate votes.” And yeah, this is pretty thin gruel. I’m surprised, I guess, that Norm isn’t seeking to redo the whole recount — which he could do, if he wanted. Frankly, he’ll have a better chance that way. But it’s also far, far more risky politically.
Norm’s campaign has also talked about using equal protection issues to get this into federal court; that, I think, would be a mistake. Not that Norm couldn’t win that way; the old Bush-Gore majority is still on the court, after all. But it would kill him politically in Minnesota. I think most Minnesotans can accept this going through the usual processes, including going to the Minnesota Supreme Court. But if Norm feels the need to have non-Minnesotans decide who’s going to represent Minnesota — well, let’s just say that Norm wouldn’t win against me in 2014. He would be done as a political figure, whether he would win or lose in court.
But we’ll worry about that when we get there. Until then, Norm has every right to walk into court tomorrow and try to prove he did, in fact, win. Who knows? Maybe he did. And if so, then he should ultimately be returned to Washington. Because that’s what a fair and open system demands.
Incidentally, it now appears that Democrats will not try to seat Al Franken tomorrow; that’s the right decision. Franken won’t be officially certified as our next Senator until next Monday at the very earliest. Maybe, at some point, Franken should be sworn in without prejudice, as Mary Landrieu was back in 2003. But that time isn’t on us yet. And while I think the term Senator-elect appropriately applies to Franken, Senator doesn’t. Not yet. Soon. But not yet.
Topics: Al Franken, MN-SEN, Norm Coleman | No Comments »
My New Senator…
By Jeff Fecke | January 5, 2009
…is this guy:
Somehow, I find that a cheery thought.
(Via P. Zeddy)
Topics: Al Franken | No Comments »
Franken Wins
By Jeff Fecke | January 5, 2009
Al Franken has been officially certified as the winner of the recount by the Minnesota Canvassing Board. He will not be certified as the winner officially before next Monday at the earliest; Minnesota law gives that grace period to allow a loser to file an election challenge.
I think that’s good; Coleman should be able to file a challenge, even if it’s frivolous. It may be foolish of him to do so, but that’s his right, and I don’t believe he should be stopped from exercising those rights just because he’s unlikely to come out a winner.
But as of right now, Al Franken is a Senator-Elect.
Topics: Al Franken, Election 2008, MN-SEN, Norm Coleman | 3 Comments »
A Very Fine Whine
By Jeff Fecke | January 5, 2009
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board is widely considered to be one of the most insane in existence, choosing in all cases to make arguments made not based on facts, but instead on crazed partisan interpretations of events that only Sean Hannity fans believe. Don’t get me wrong, a conservative editorial board is fine — take the Pioneer Press, at least until it goes under later this year. But the WSJ is not so much conservative as delusional, making arguments that have no basis in reality, at least any reality that most people are familiar with.
Today’s case in point is this rambling anti-Minnesota diatribe, in which the Wall Street Journal declares that eeeevul Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has been stealing poor Norm Coleman’s senate seat from him:
Strange things keep happening in Minnesota, where the disputed recount in the Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken may be nearing a dubious outcome. Thanks to the machinations of Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and a meek state Canvassing Board, Mr. Franken may emerge as an illegitimate victor
Yes, Mark Ritchie has been a schemer! And he’s completely outschemed the canvassing board, which is made up of poor, pathetic creatures like:
- Minnesota Chief Justice Eric Magnusuon, an appointee and former law partner of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Magnuson has drawn praise from pro-life groups and is known as a “lawyer’s lawyer.”
- Minnesota Associate Justice G. Barry Anderson, an appointee of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is know in the state as a conservative stalwart.
- Ramsey County Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin, first elected in a non-partisan election in 1986, Gearin has been re-elected three times; she was promoted to Chief Judge in 2008 after serving as Associate Chief Judge for four years.
- Judge Edward J. Cleary, a Ramsey County judge appointed by Independence Party Gov. Jesse Ventura in 2002, he received the Graven Public Service Award from the Minnesota State Bar Association in 1998.
So, clearly, we have a bunch of weak-willed simpletons who are all willing to cave to an evil Secretary of State. It’s just too bad that Ritchie couldn’t have chosen someone who’d accomplished something in their lives, and of course, the fact that he appointed two Republicans, one Independent, and one Democrat to serve with him proves that he was out to fix things so only Franken could win.
Mr. Franken started the recount 215 votes behind Senator Coleman, but he now claims a 225-vote lead and suddenly the man who was insisting on “counting every vote” wants to shut the process down. He’s getting help from Mr. Ritchie and his four fellow Canvassing Board members, who have delivered inconsistent rulings and are ignoring glaring problems with the tallies.
Yes, if by “shutting the process down,” you mean, “Opposing a last-minute attempt to stuff the ballot box with 654 questionably selected absentee ballots that local officials say were properly rejected.” The Canvassing Board, meanwhile, has inconsistently ruled that they do not have the authority to require absentee ballots to be counted, that they do not have the authority to require absentee ballots to be counted, and that they do not have the authority to require absentee ballots to be counted. Crazy, weak-willed idiots.
Under Minnesota law, election officials are required to make a duplicate ballot if the original is damaged during Election Night counting. Officials are supposed to mark these as “duplicate” and segregate the original ballots. But it appears some officials may have failed to mark ballots as duplicates, which are now being counted in addition to the originals. This helps explain why more than 25 precincts now have more ballots than voters who signed in to vote. By some estimates this double counting has yielded Mr. Franken an additional 80 to 100 votes.
And by coincidence, those 25 precincts just happen to be DFL-leaning districts! Who knew?
Now, I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I’m sympathetic to this argument, if Coleman can present any actual evidence that there’s anything to it. But he hasn’t so far. And if he has evidence, now’s the time to show it. Instead, the Coleman campaign has theories, rumor, and innuendo, and they’ve yet to back any of this up with anything resembling facts.
This disenfranchises Minnesotans whose vote counted only once. And one Canvassing Board member, State Supreme Court Justice G. Barry Anderson, has acknowledged that “very likely there was a double counting.” Yet the board insists that it lacks the authority to question local officials and it is merely adding the inflated numbers to the totals.
This is, of course, because the board lacks that authority. The Minnesota Supreme Court agrees with that. Rule of law! Rule of law!
The rest of the editorial continues in that vein, raising the kind of detail-free arguments that would wow you if you only read MDE. The missing ballots in Minneapolis get noted, while the fact that state law indicates missing hand ballots require a machine count to be used is ignored; the Supreme Court ruling on absentee ballots is decried, never mind that if Coleman had gotten his way, no absentee ballots would have been counted and Al Franken would have a secure 46-vote victory.
The WSJ muses:
The question is how the board can certify a fair and accurate election result given these multiple recount problems. Yet that is precisely what the five members seem prepared to do when they meet today. Some members seem to have concluded that because one of the candidates will challenge the result in any event, why not get on with it and leave it to the courts? Mr. Coleman will certainly have grounds to contest the result in court, but he’ll be at a disadvantage given that courts are understandably reluctant to overrule a certified outcome.
It couldn’t be that the Canvassing Board ran a fair, above-board process where votes were counted in public, where debate was open, and where most decisions were made unanimously, and that now what there are no ballots left to count, the board should conclude its deliberations. No, the board must just be lazy or something, and totally anti-Coleman.
It’s ridiculous, and it’s an insult to the thousands of Minnesotans, from all political parties, who have worked to make this recount fair. I disagree with Eric Magnuson and Barry Anderson, I suspect, on almost everything. But both men have conducted themselves with honor and dignity, and both men put the interests of their state first in this process. Both men are Republicans, but so what? They weren’t trying to steal the race for Coleman or Franken. They were just trying to do what judges do — rule fairly on tough questions.
In the end, Minnesotans can be justifiably proud of this recount — unfortunately, Norm Coleman and his allies seem wiling to replace that pride with shame, if that helps them win. They do this based on nothing more than a desire to win at all costs. And that is shameful.
Topics: Al Franken, Election 2008, MN-SEN, Norm Coleman | No Comments »
Lest We Forget
By Jeff Fecke | January 5, 2009
Norm Coleman, back when he had a smaller lead than Al Franken has right now:
Sadly, it doesn’t look like Coleman is going to take his own advice.
Topics: Al Franken, Election 2008, MN-SEN, Norm Coleman | 2 Comments »
Al Franken Decade
By Jeff Fecke | January 5, 2009
The Minnesota Supreme Court and its dastardly Republican majority rejects Coleman’s demand to count 654 cherry-picked absentee ballots. That clears the way for Franken to be declared the winner today, and pretty much sinks Coleman’s chances of winning an election contest.
Topics: Al Franken, MN-SEN, Norm Coleman | No Comments »
Worst Bush Moments: #16, The Conscience Exception Rule
By Jeff Fecke | January 5, 2009
We forget, because it happened in the pre-9/11 world, but one of George W. Bush’s earliest controversies was his decision to block federal funding of stem cell research in all but a few cases. It was a bouquet to the fundies, disguised as “serious compromise.” And there were plenty of people who bought it at the time.
Bush is going out of office as he went in — by using his office to push the fundamentalist agenda while simultaneously claiming to be on the high road. In the waning weeks of his term, Bush added the Conscience Exception Rule for health care, that — well, let’s let Emily Douglas explain:
The Department of Health and Human Services today published a new regulation broadening protections for health care providers who refuse to provide health care services based on religious or moral grounds. The new regulations, which have been widely denounced by women’s health groups, physicians’ groups, members of Congress, President-Elect Obama, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and by over 200,000 individual commenters filing opposition to the regulations, expand the definition of health care providers protected by provider conscience regulation and allow dissenting providers to refuse to refer patients for treatment in addition to refusing treatment itself.
For a more direct explanation, here’s Amanda Marcotte:
Surprising absolutely no one, the Bush administration told the vast majority of the population that uses or has used contraception that we can fuck off, and that we are dirty whores who deserve a dressing down from perfect strangers that are supposedly hired to provide service. In fact, the administration responded to complaints from over 200,000 letter writers by tossing two fingers, by keeping the proposed regulations and adding contractors to the list of people who can obstruct you if you want contraception, sterilization, or abortion.
Yes, the Bush Administration said that they’d allow health care providers to decide if their consciences prevented them for providing treatment for someone making a decision they disagree with, like, say, exercising your Constitutional right to use birth control.
This, of course, has me now pursuing my pharmacy degree, so that I can follow the following plan:
1. Get a pharmacy degree.
2. Become a pharmacist.
3. Convert to Christian Scientist.
4. Declare that I can’t in good faith fill any prescription, and that I should be paid to sit in the corner and shake my head sadly whenever anyone purchases medication.
I think it’s air-tight!
Fortunately, this should be drop-kicked back to the netherworld by the Obama Administration (and if it isn’t, Obama supporters should booze up and riot). But still, it’s a nice parting gift to the women of America to tell them that should they be raped at age 16, their doctor can refuse to write them a prescription for Plan B because everyone knows only sluts use Plan B.
Topics: Abortion, Bush Administration, Feminism | 5 Comments »
Coleman Has to Weigh the Future
By Jeff Fecke | January 4, 2009
It’s all-but-certain that Tim Pawlenty is going to decline to seek a third term as governor. Gov. Timmy has squeaked through two elections in blue Minnesota, and a third is not assured. If Pawlenty retires, he’s got plenty of time to get ready for that presidential run he’s been planning since 2005. And even if he decides not to go after the presidency in 2012, he could come back tanned, rested, and ready to face Al Franken in 2014. If he loses in 2010, both become tougher — just ask George Allen how his presidential run went.
But back to Al Franken — the man who will be Minnesota’s next senator. Because Al Franken will be Minnesota’s next senator, as soon as tomorrow. Tomorrow, he will be declared the winner by the State Canvassing Board; he could be sworn in on Tuesday, if his opponent, now-former-Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., doesn’t file another legal challenge.
And that’s the big if, of course — Coleman has been threatening to contest the election since he fell behind, and he may well do so. But his odds of succeeding are long, and failure could be fatal to Norm’s political future, one that could have another act as soon as Gov. Timmy clears the decks.
Coleman is 0-fer at the Minnesota Supreme Court thus far, but that shouldn’t be surprising. While Franken’s campaign has maintained an essentially stable legal theory since day one, Coleman’s campaign has bounced from urging Franken to concede, to arguing that absentee ballots shouldn’t be counted, to arguing that abesntee ballots should be counted, plus this other pile of absentee ballots we just found. They’ve asserted evidence of “double” votes, but they’ve never really showed any such evidence. They’ve asserted that 650-odd absentee ballots were improperly rejected, despite statements of local officials to the contrary. In short, Coleman’s been spinning furiously since day one, looking for a way to talk his way back into the Senate.
In a different state, that might have worked, but Minnesota is a bit more above-board. Coleman cherry-picked 634 absentee ballots from Republican areas to bolster his claim that they were wrongly rejected — but ignores the fact that opening these ballots back up to scrutiny also opens up all the other counties in the state, where Franken will presumably be able to find at least 634 ballots that favor him (and based on Saturday’s count, maybe more). Coleman has asserted that some precinct’s ballot numbers don’t appear to add up, but he hasn’t yet shown concrete evidence that there actually were duplicate ballots counted. In short, Coleman has a whole lot of spin, but not much tangible to show for it.
In an election contest, Coleman will have to show it. Franken will be the presumptive winner; the burden of proof will be on Coleman to show that these extra ballots should be counted, the burden of proof will be on Coleman to show that precincts were double-counting ballots. Given that Coleman has offered no hard proof of this so far, it’s hard to see where the proof comes from.
And of course, even if Coleman succeeds in getting the 130 “duplicate ballots” tossed, he loses.
Coleman will face a Herculean task in trying to get the election overturned. Now, maybe I’m wrong and he’s got some super-secret evidence he’s been hiding, but I think he would have brought it out at some point; if all he has is spin and guesswork, he’ll lose the challenge. And that will be the end of Norm Coleman as a viable political force in Minnesota.
Nobody likes a sore loser. If Coleman can win the court challenge, then all will be forgiven. But if he loses, he’ll be forever remembered as the guy who couldn’t deal with losing. He’ll never get out from under that by 2010. Maybe he’ll be able to run a rematch with Franken in 2014, but you can ask Rudy Boschwitz how well rematches work out.
If Coleman wants to have a political future beyond March, he needs to be very careful about contesting the race. At this point, were I Coleman, I’d take my own advice, and step aside. The odds of success are low, and the risk of damage is high. If he gives a strong, forthright speech, like he did after losing to Jesse Ventura in 1998, he could come out of this in good shape.
But if he goes down swinging to the last, keeping Minnesota from having a second senator for months, all for naught? Then Coleman is politically dead, killed by his own hand. That’s what Coleman will have to consider come Tuesday — and given that Norm has a pretty well-tuned political ear, I’m guessing that he’ll consider, and drop out “for the good of Minnesota.” And for the good of Norm, too — but even this DFLer will forgive him if he omits the last part.
Topics: Al Franken, MN-SEN, Norm Coleman | No Comments »
Inhuman
By Jeff Fecke | January 4, 2009
Michael Goldfarb comes out in favor of killing children to make a point. In reaction to news that Israel, in the process of killing senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan, also killed Rayan’s four wives and nine of his children, Goldfarb says this:
The fight against Islamic radicals always seems to come around to whether or not they can, in fact, be deterred, because it’s not clear that they are rational, at least not like us. But to wipe out a man’s entire family, it’s hard to imagine that doesn’t give his colleagues at least a moment’s pause. Perhaps it will make the leadership of Hamas rethink the wisdom of sparking an open confrontation with Israel under the current conditions.
As Matt Yglesias correctly notes, “he’s not saying that it’s sometimes okay to kill a bad guy’s innocent children as part of a military operation directed against the guy. He’s saying it’s better to kill his children than it would be to avoid killing them.”
There’s a word for people who think killing children is a good way to achieve a political end. Those people are called terrorists.
As some of you may have noticed, I’ve attracted a troll of late, one who appears convinced that I’m totally in love with Hamas and totally hate Israel because I’m critical of the Israeli incursion into Gaza. Sorry, Nachman, but I’ve got no love for Hamas; an organization that targets civilians is reprehensible, and Hamas is only going to drive its people further into degradation, until and unless it renounces violence and begins dealing with Israel as if Israelis have a right to exist.
But the sentence can be reversed. When you advocate killing, not just your enemies, but your enemies’ families, you’re on no higher moral ground then the cowards lobbing rockets into Israeli neighborhoods.
The fact is that too many on both sides view the other as subhuman. One cannot express satisfaction at the murder of children if one views them as children, and not simply pawns in a game. One cannot target civilian neighborhoods with death if one views those as neighborhoods full of human beings, rather than targets who need to be eliminated. Time after time, whether we’re talking about the 1948 ethnic cleansing in Palestine or the Passover Massacre, belligerents on both sides have chosen to view their opponents as others, as aliens, as non-humans.
Well, I’m sorry, but both sides are made up of people, people with legitimate claims on the same land, people who deserve what all people deserve: the right to live in dignity and peace, secure in their lives, free to live their lives according to the dictates of their consciences. There are too many on both sides of this conflict who simply do not believe this applies to the other side. But the truth is that both Israelis and Palestinians must be treated as humans, first and foremost. And both groups can only be secure when both groups recognize that. Until then, we’ll have more massacres, more attacks, more counter-attacks, more solemn moralizing that the other side deserves death because of what they’ve done. And all it will lead to is more death, more destruction, more hate, and more fear.
Topics: Middle East/Persian Gulf | No Comments »
Richardson Out
By Jeff Fecke | January 4, 2009
Guess Bill Richardson shouldn’t have taken that left turn at Albuquerque:
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has withdrawn his name from consideration as commerce secretary for President-elect Barack Obama, citing an ongoing investigation about business dealings in his state.
Richardson, 61, who competed unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination, was secretary of energy and U.N. ambassador during Bill Clinton’s presidency, and also the first high-profile Latino named to Obama’s Cabinet.
But a grand jury in New Mexico is currently looking into charges of “pay-to-play” in the awarding of a state contract to a company that contributed to Richardson.
The importance of the inquiry was apparently dismissed when Richardson was first nominated. But it may have taken on more weight in light of the “pay-to-play” allegations involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
“It is with deep regret that I accept Governor Bill Richardson’s decision to withdraw his name for nomination as the next Secretary of Commerce,” the president-elect said in a statement released early this afternoon. “Governor Richardson is an outstanding public servant and would have brought to the job of Commerce Secretary and our economic team great insights accumulated through an extraordinary career in federal and state office.
While there’s nothing to indicate thus far that there was a quid pro quo in this case, one has to wonder if something’s changed to make Richardson more vulnerable. Certainly, the Blagojevich scandal can’t help him here, and from an optics standpoint, it’s probably best he dropped out.
Will this be a big deal? No. From Zoë Baird to Linda Chavez, it’s pretty common for at least one of a president’s appointees to drop out or fail. Obama’s better off with an appointee with a clean bill of health. Besides, Commerce isn’t State or Defense; it’s unquestionably a second-tier appointment, and certainly there are other vaguely pro-business Democrats out there that can fit the bill.
Topics: Barack Obama, Bill Richardson | 3 Comments »
Worst Bush Moments: #17, Cheney’s Got a Gun
By Jeff Fecke | January 4, 2009
There’s really no way you can make a list of worst Bush moments without including a few of Dick Cheney’s greatest moments. After all, Cheney is, in many ways, a more important figure than Bush in the grand scheme of things. He set the tone for a Bush Administration that was bellicose, secretive, given to shoot first and ask questions later.
And that’s why Cheney shooting a guy in the face has to be on this list. Because it’s such a perfect distillation of everything wrong with Dick Cheney and the Bush Administration.
Do we have a reckless disregard for human life? Check. Buck-passing galore? Check. An attempt to hide the truth? Check. The only thing we didn’t have was a self-serving explanation of why we’d do this even knowing everything we know, but Rob Corddry helpfully provided that: