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It looks as if Al Franken is going to win the contested Senate race in Minnesota. No, check that. I mean “awarded” the seat. The situation in Minnesota is a symptom of what is wrong with the Republican organization in this country today. It is easy to blame Norm Coleman’s loss on shady elections practices, but the reasons behind his defeat run much deeper than that.
Being a resident of King County in Washington state, I have seen this scenario before in 2004. The Gubernatorial race that year was a total disaster for both the Republican party and the electoral process. The results of that race seesawed back and forth for some time beginning with the Republican candidate winning the election. The vote totals were close enough to require a recount and after numerous ballots were “found” in offices and under voting machines, the vote swung Democratic. It is totally amazing how “lost” and originally disqualified ballots lean heavily toward the Dems. The County elections office eventually counted more ballots than there are registered voters, a strange situation indeed. We all complained about the sloppy/criminal handling of the election. We winked, we nodded, we made jokes, but in the end we lost. The same outcome as in Minnesota. And, I predict, as in Washington, the Republicans in Minnesota will eventually let it slide. No real efforts by the local Republican committees and nothing from the RNC. Coleman should not have to stand there with his single attorney threatening to file suit. The RNC must have an entire stable of legal eagles ready, willing and able to descend upon Minnesota and tie up the Democrats and their crooked election for some time. Are they afraid the Libs will call them mean or unpleasant? Or do they just not care? Do we want to take this Country back from the crazy Liberals or not? I understand the desire for a certain level of civility, but damn it, at some point conservatives have got to embrace the tactics of the Left and use those tactics to work toward our goals. Having said all that, there are two other issues that affected the results in Minnesota. The vote was fragmented substantially by the Libertarian and Constitutional candidates. At least that can’t happen in Washington anymore, since our “top two primary” eliminates all but the two most popular candidates in any race. The second issue is one of quality. Many years ago when my son played baseball, he often complained that the umpire “made a mistake” on a certain call.. My consistent response was always: “You need to be good enough, that you don’t allow the umpire the opportunity to make a mistake.” The same philosophy applies to conservative candidates for office. They need to exhibit a clear and substantial difference between themselves and their opponent and in addition, Conservatives need to field candidates that are so good that they don’t allow the electorate or officials the opportunity to make a mistake. In Minnesota, the Republican candidate should never have been in that close a race with someone like Al Franken and if we have to depend on the courts and election officials to produce fair and impartial results, all is lost.
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