With 88 percent of ballots now recounted, Norm Coleman's lead
over Al Franken has swelled to 282 (from 215 when the recount
started). There are still over 5,600 ballots being challenged by
both campaigns, but an
analysis by the Star Tribune has indicated that
Franken will have a difficult time making up his deficit with
these challenged ballots.
Franken's prospects of gaining enough votes became more grim when
the state's Canvassing Board rebuffed his campaign's push to
include rejected absentee ballots in the recount. So, assuming
the Star Tribune's analysis is correct, there will be
two remaining avenues for Franken -- one would be to fight in
court for the rejected absentee ballots to be counted, or,
alternatively, to take the the fight to the
floor of the U.S. Senate, something that both Franken's
lawyer and Harry Reid have suggested could be a possibility. The
nuclear option would be a startling overreach by Senate
Democrats, and one that would be out of sync with Obama's pledge
to end partisan bickering as well as a departure from the
pragmatism exhibited by keeping Joe Lieberman in the Democratic
tent. It would be one thing if control of the Senate hung in the
balance or if there weren't other priorities, but Democrats will
have a solid majority in the Senate either way, and they're eager
to present Obama with a stimulus package he can sign immediately
upon taking office. It would be a huge mistake for them to spend
the early stages of Obama's administration instigating a partisan
floor fight in which Democrats try to overrule the verdict of
Minnesota voters, reaffirmed by an orderly recount process
supervised by a liberal Secretary of State and by courts, in a
desperate attempt to gain one extra Senate seat when they already
have 58 others.
