What Are The Odds?

by digby

… that the GOP would pull this?

A state court could rule any day now on Norm Coleman’s challenge to Al Franken’s 225-vote lead in Minnesota, but the race may be far from over no matter what the judges say.

Top Republicans are encouraging Coleman to be as litigious as possible and take his fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if he loses this round, believing that an elongated court fight is worth it if they can continue to deny Democrats the 59th Senate seat that Franken would represent.

And in pushing a possible Supreme Court conclusion, Republicans are raising case history that makes Democrats shudder: Bush v. Gore.

Since the same lawyers who argued for Bush are representing Coleman, it seems like a no-brainer to me. Everyone thinks that this is mostly a delaying tactic to keep the Dems from their 59th seat, and maybe it is. But the fact that Republicans are willing to bring up Bush vs Gore shows once again that they have absolutely no shame.

“The Supreme Court in 2000 said in Bush v. Gore that there is an equal protection element of making sure there is a uniform standard by which votes are counted or not counted, and I think that’s a very serious concern in this instance,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “I’m not making any predictions, but I wouldn’t be surprised” if it ended up in federal court.

[…]

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday first blessed the idea of encouraging Coleman to take his fight into federal appeals court and potentially all the way up to the Supreme Court. On Monday, several top Republicans continued pushing the federal courts angle, which could delay the Minnesota Senate race for several more months.

“The state court is not the final word on that, because the question in federal court is whether the guarantee of equal protection under laws in the U.S. Constitution has been violated by an inconsistent policy with regard to counting ballots,” said Judiciary Committee member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). Sessions said he “absolutely” would encourage Coleman to take his fight to federal court if he loses.

“From what I can tell, there are legal issues well worth taking up in the [Supreme] Court,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “I think the whole Bush v. Gore — using the same standards to count votes is a big issue.”

Of course the court also said “our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities,” not that it makes any difference to hypocritical Republicans. There are just as many hard core partisan wingnuts on the court today as there were then, so the only thing stopping them is their own consciences, which I doubt extends to electoral fairness. Rigging the vote is in their DNA.

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