All Over But The Spinning

Al Franken is going to be the next Senator from Minnesota. Norm Coleman is going to spend weeks trying to convince everyone that the election is illegitimate, when it's actually just close. Given our "first-past-the-post" electoral system and the relatively shoddy way in which elections are conducted, you can fairly successfully spin any close election into a betrayal, at least to your ideological counterparts. One solution is proportional representation; another is a philosophy of counting every vote. Coleman manifestly does not want to do that, preferring to cherry-pick what to count and what not to count, ensuring that the deliberations go on weeks into the new Congress. That too is a tactic, as there are important votes to be taken early in the year which it would be great to have another Democrat taking part in.

Coleman must know he cannot win, but when you make such a good living off of being a Senator, it must be a money spigot you really don't want to shut off.