Governor Headline Latches On To The ACORN Story

The wingnutosphere has been in high froth the last week or so about ACORN, the community organization dedicated to helping low-income Americans. The freak-out concerns a series of videos showing ACORN employees engaged in nefarious schemes (it took lots of shoots for the right-wing activists to get the footage they wanted, incidentally). This has led to the Census Bureau distancing themselves from ACORN and the Senate to block HUD funding for the group. It's interesting in and of itself that the right has decided the source of all ills in America is a relatively small community organization and not the banking and financial interests who destroyed the economy and took hundreds of billions in bailout money for good measure. But never one to miss a pile-on, the Governor has requested an investigation of ACORN:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger apparently has been captivated by recent news stories about a conservative filmmaker who exposed misdeeds at ACORN, the national organization that serves low-income residents and has been involved in controversial efforts to register Democratic voters.

The Republican governor sent a brief memo Wednesday to Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown asking him to investigate ACORN's activities in San Bernardino. Two conservative activists have posted videos of their visits to ACORN offices around the country in which they posed as a prostitute and a pimp seeking advice.

In San Bernardino's ACORN office, a volunteer who claims to be a former prostitute is shown offering advice to the two activists on how to set up a brothel using underage girls from El Salvador. She tells them that they would be breaking various laws, but also explains ways to get around those laws. At one point, she claims to have connections to various Democratic lawmakers in the state Legislature and Congress.

It's amusing that the Governor has honed in on the San Bernardino case. Because that would be at least one instance where the guerrilla filmmakers - and now, the Governor - got totally played. John Santore explains:

Most critically, it is clear that Fox News has made virtually no attempt to verify the authenticity of the tapes before broadcasting them -- something no self-respecting journalistic organization would dare do. Consider the case of the San Bernardino ACORN office, which was featured in the most recent video to be released. The words of ACORN employee Tresa Kaelke appear to be damning. Not only does she offer assistance to Giles and O'Keefe, but she claims that she murdered her former husband following a period of domestic abuse.

On September 15, Beck and Sean Hannity both broadcast Kaelke's assertion. Beck, who had reported breathlessly on the supposed confession during his radio program, added on Fox, "She never spanked her kids, but she did shoot her husband dead." Later that night, Hannity played the same clip before commenting, "Specifically, now, she goes into this scenario about her husband and the killing of him."

The following morning, on September 16, Fox News' Gretchen Carlson repeated the allegation, saying, "She killed somebody? Despite this, some lawmakers want to keep funding the group."

The problem, of course, is that Kaelke was deliberately lying. The San Bernardino Police Department itself has now confirmed that her claim regarding her husband was untrue. A department statement released on September 15 reads: "The San Bernardino Police Department is investigating the claims made regarding the homicide. From the initial investigation conducted, the claims do not appear to be factual. Investigators have been in contact with the involved party's known former husbands, who are alive and well."

Furthermore, Kaelke has claimed that when she made the statement, she was seeking to mislead the undercover videographers, whom she was suspicious of. "They were not believable," Kaelke is quoted as saying in an ACORN press release. "Somewhat entertaining, but they weren't even good actors. I didn't know what to make of them. They were clearly playing with me. I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me."

But none of these simple facts stopped anyone at Fox from running with the story. Any cub reporter would have thought to actually call the San Bernardino police before effectively alleging that ACORN was staffed by murderers. But such an act never occurred to people like Beck, Hannity, or Carlson. (In her defense, Carlson later added that the husband was still alive, "according to ACORN," but ignored the police report.)

Some of the other allegations have shown what may be wrongdoing, if the tapes are legitimate and not doctored (they are certainly edited for effect, and we know they were in some cases obtained illegally and therefore inadmissable as evidence). It may even warrant an investigation. But Schwarzenegger is specifically riffing off the San Bernardino incident, in which the main offense described there has been proven to be a lie. This apparently doesn't matter. I'm wondering what other provable falsehoods have led to the Governor urging a criminal investigation.

This is at least not as embarrassing as Tim Pawlenty, who ordered agencies in Minnesota to "cancel all state funding for ACORN," when there... is no state funding of ACORN in Minnesota. But it's pretty weak nonetheless. And par for the course for a headline-chaser like Gov. Schwarzenegger. But if he wants to get in line with far-right extremists with an obvious racial agenda who want to demonize people of color and the organizations that provide help for them, go ahead. It did a lot for Pete Wilson.

Department Of The Obvious

Tim Pawlenty walked back his tentherism today. I think it's dangerous to advance the idea that states can nullify federal laws based on a misreading of the Tenth Amendment - Civil Wars have been started over essentially that - but this brand of Republican hypocrites wouldn't dare go through with it. In fact, they're far more likely to parade around their states taking credit for expanding health care access based on the same exact policy they condemned when Obama was trying to pass it through Congress.

...Here's lead teabagger in Congress Jim DeMint with pretty much the same kind of statement:

Asked whether states should use the 10th Amendment to prevent health care reform from taking effect, he replied that an assertion of states’ rights was “probably the only way we’re going to stop this reckless spending.” He continued, “There’s no constitutional authority for the government to actually do [the reform proposed by Democrats], but whether the courts take it up is a different matter.”

The rules change, however, when it comes to Medicare.

DeMint expressed doubts as to the legality of Medicare under the Constitution, but said, “Regardless of constitutionality, it is a promise that we have to keep. … I think Medicare and Social Security have to be protected.”

Tenthers aren't just hypocrites, they're cowards, afraid of the consequences of their own nutty ideas.

The Al Franken Decade

It took almost a decade for this recount to resolve itself, but the Minnesota Supreme Court rendered their verdict in the Franken-Coleman Senate case, and it's a sweep for Franken, as expected.

In the Matter of the Contest of the General Election held on November 4, 2008, for the purpose of electing a United States Senator from the State of Minnesota, Cullen Sheehan and Norm Coleman, contestants, Appellants vs. Al Franken, contestee, Respondent.

1. Appellants did not establish that, by requiring proof that statutory absentee voting standards were satisfied before counting a rejected absentee ballot, the trial court's decision constituted a post-election change in standards that violates substantive due process.

2. Appellants did not prove that either the trial court or local election officials violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection.

3. The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it excluded additional evidence.

4. Inspection of ballots under Minn. Stat. § 209.06 (2008) is available only on a showing that the requesting party cannot properly be prepared for trial without an inspection. Because appellants made no such showing here, the trial court did not err in denying inspection.

5. The trial court did not err when it included in the final election tally the election day returns of a precinct in which some ballots were lost before the manual recount.

And here's the money quote:

For all of the foregoing reasons, we affirm the decision of the trial court that Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled under Minn. Stat. § 204C.40 (2008) to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota.

Tim Pawlenty has said all along that he would certify the winner of the election if the Minnesota Supreme Court told him to do so. They have now told him. But all along he gave himself an out, that he would certify it as long as another court didn't tell him to stop pending another appeal. Coleman could proceed to the federal courts at this point, and national Republicans have been happy to bankroll him on that fruitless quest and keep Al Franken out of the Senate as long as possible. Also, Senate Republicans could actually filibuster Franken's entry into the Senate, even with a signed certificate. I'm skeptical that this will move so smoothly from here.

More from Eric Kleefeld.

...Here's the head-of-a-pin dance that Pawlenty could spin:

The bottom line is that the Court says that Franken is entitled to an election certificate, but there is no direct order to the state's governor to sign one. We'll see what the governor does, if Coleman does not concede, as he well may at this point. If not, the opinion is not final until the period for rehearing ends (see the final footnote of the opinion). That's a ten day period, enough time to file an emergency stay application in the U.S. Supreme Court. It would go to Justice Alito, now circuit justice for the Eighth Circuit.

Pawlenty Will Seat Franken - Unless He Doesn't Have To

Roll Call relies on some sources in the Coleman camp and concludes that the former Senator may give up the fight on appealing the election victory of Al Franken if the State Supreme Court comes down against him, because "Coleman anticipates that Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) would ultimately sign Franken's certification papers."

Maybe Coleman knows something I don't, and probably so. But it looks to me that Pawlenty has given himself plenty of outs.

Pawlenty appeared this afternoon on the Neil Cavuto show, and Cavuto observed that Pawlenty's decision to not run for a third term, which many people see as a possible lead-up to a presidential campaign in 2012, also frees him up to fight for Norm Coleman. Pawlenty denied that he would behave in such a manner -- but he did point out some possible circumstances that could hold things up further:

"So you could be signing a certificate that would turn that Senate seat over to the Democrat Al Franken?" Cavuto asked. "And that would probably not suit you well."

"Well, I hope not, but you know I have to follow the law," Pawlenty responded. "You know, Neil, if the Minnesota Supreme Court says, 'You sign the certificate' -- and there's not an appeal or some other contrary direction from a federal court -- you know, that's my duty." (emphasis mine)

In other words, he'll sign the certificate as long as Coleman doesn't appeal to federal courts. And there's no real time-sensitive limit on how long Pawlenty could wait for that appeal to transpire.

I just don't think it's a closed deal, and Democrats need to keep up the pressure to get Franken seated.

...Kevin Drum is pretty skeptical of the sourcing on Coleman's wavering.

Pawlenty Readies To Defy Minnesota Courts

That's how I read this announcement:

Two sources have confirmed that Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will announce that he will not seek re-election in 2010.

The sources confirmed to WCCO-TV political reporter Pat Kessler that the announcement about Pawlenty's future plans will include an announcement that he will not seek a third term.

The announcement is expected to be made at a 2 p.m. press conference.

Pawlenty wants to run for President, and maybe wants to free his schedule for 2011 (although that didn't exactly work out for Mitt Romney). He also might want to avoid a re-election fight in a blue state after years of budget deficits and recessions. This is a bad time to be a Governor.

But clearly, not having to face Minnesota voters again frees him up to do whatever he deems necessary with respect to the US Senate election. Al Franken will probably get approval from the state Supreme Court within a couple weeks as the winner of the election. At that point the Court will, in all likelihood, request a certificate of election for Franken to be seated. The people of Minnesota want two Senators again. Pawlenty, by taking himself out of the running, removes himself of accountability and can now be free to show Republican primary voters what a good soldier he is. He'll refuse to sign the certificate. Heck, he makes this announcement THE DAY after the Supreme Court heard arguments in the Franken-Coleman case. He's practically begging you to make the connection.

DNC Finally On The Offense

They had to wait until the decision was handed down, but now that a three-judge panel has ruled that Al Franken won the election, and now that the conservative movement is fracturing, they can cleanly come out and tell Norm Coleman to go home.

Gov. KAINE: Norm Coleman lost on Election Day, he lost the recount, now he's lost a stinging rejection in court. My sense is the only reason anybody is prolonging this is they're trying to delay putting somebody in the Senate who will be willing to vote with President Obama to accomplish what is right for this nation. It is time to stop disenfranchising Minnesotans, put a second Senator in for that state, and set this behind us.

And the DNC is putting its money where its mouth is by running radio ads in Minnesota, saying that Franken is "entitled to receive the certificate of election."

It's well beyond time to put this pressure on, although the ask shouldn't have been to call Norm Coleman but to call Gov. Pawlenty and tell him to sign that certificate immediately.

MN-Sen: Pawlenty Lets His Slip Show

It was quite fun watching Joe Scarborough jump off the Good Ship Norm Coleman this morning. And I agree that the lack of any statement from the top Republican campaign arm in the Senate or the RNC is quite telling. But ultimately, the conservative movement has shown no ability to be swayed by the media or public opinion, and I'm confident that they will continue to obstruct for obstruction's sake:

For weeks, Pawlenty has said he would take direction from the courts, but is now suggesting that he could wait beyond the conclusion of state appeals if the case heads to federal court.

"I don't know whether [the certificate] would be required to be issued. I think it could be issued at that time," said Pawlenty. "I'm not saying I wouldn't issue the certificate. I'm just saying we should have all of the facts in front of us before we precommit to something like that." [...]

For his part, Pawlenty said the loser may decide against appealing in federal court. But if an appeal is filed, Pawlenty said he may wait to see how the courts handle Coleman's argument that there was not a uniform standard used to count the votes.

"I also would want to look at what the courts did with the case in terms of leaving issues for potential appeal, the strength of those issues, how directly and effectively they addressed them," said Pawlenty. "I'm not saying that I'm going to, or not going to, issue the certificate at that point. I just want to make sure I have all the facts in front of me before I made a decision like that."

"With all due respect to Gov. Pawlenty, it's not his job or his role to try to second-guess or Monday-morning quarterback the State Supreme Court," said Marc Elias, an attorney for Democrat Al Franken.

Pawlenty can issue the election certificate as soon as the Minnesota Supreme Court rules on the appeal (which I'm sure Coleman will wait the full 10 days to file). He's threatening here to drag it out as Coleman tries his luck in the federal courts. And even if he goes ahead and signs the certificate, the obstructionist caucus in the Senate will probably filibuster Franken's seating. If that doesn't argue for fundamental change in the Senate rules, nothing will.

...in a conference call, the Coleman campaign affirmed that they will appeal, but of course they haven't filed the appeal and will probably wait the full 10 days to drag it out. BECAUSE THAT'S THEIR ENTIRE M.O.

MN-Sen: The End of the Beginning of the End

Today we may get a final count in the race from 23 years ago between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. As Keith Pickering notes, Coleman has already been virtually mathematically eliminated by virtue of the total of the votes that will be counted today. Originally 400 were to be counted, but 13 were found to be duplicates yesterday.

That leaves 387 absentee votes remaining in Coleman's ever-shrinking ballot universe. Based on prior returns, we can expect 16% of them (62 ballots) to be cast for Dean Barkley and other candidates, leaving 325 ballots for either Coleman or Franken.

But we already know that there are 35 votes for Franken from the Nauen group, plus another 12 subject to prior summary judgement that are also from Franken's team. And this morning's Star-Tribune also revealed that one absentee ballot from Aitkin County is definitely for Franken. That's 48 known Franken votes. After those votes are counted, the Franken lead will be
225 + 48 = 273

... and the remaining votes to be counted will be:

325 - 48 = 277

So Al will lead by 273 votes with 277 left to be counted. With just 3 votes out of those 277, Franken will win.

Of course, "winning" isn't everything, in this race. Coleman seeks only to prolong the court battles and delay the outcome. A cushy lobbying job surely awaits him anyway, and his Republican minders will look well on this obstruction of Al Franken. Minnesota's Republican governor Tim Pawlenty, himself a possible 2012 Presidential candidate, said yesterday that the race would last "a few more months" while the appeals process is exhausted.

"It's frustrating that this has taken so long, but we need to get a proper and just and accurate and legal result," said Pawlenty. "It gonna take, it looks like, a few more months to get that."

"I know that you -- a few more months, huh?" answered Norah O'Donnell.

A governor truly interested in full representation in Washington for his constituents would demand a speedy conclusion and a fast-tracked appeals process. Tellingly, Pawlenty has not done that.

MN-Sen: Counting Into 2009?

On one level, I think both sides of the Minnesota Senate recount would be happy if they just up and declared a winner already, by whatever method - coin toss, thumb wrestling, a dart thrown at a board. But given that we live in a "democracy" where the party with the most "votes" is declared the winner, that's not going to happen. At least not yet.

So we wait for the counting to finish. The canvassing board is likely to wrap up their review of all the challenged ballots today, and so far things have been going extremely well for Al Franken there, enough for some folks to declare him the likely winner. The latest projections will show him to be up anywhere from 50-150 votes at the end of that process, if the withdrawn challenges are equal on both sides. The problem with that projection is that we don't really know what the deal is with those withdrawn ballots, but those who have taken a look are pretty confident that things look solid for Franken.

But the Minnesota Supreme Court threw a monkey in the wrench with their decision on a handful of absentee ballots (maybe 1,600) that were improperly rejected. They basically asked the campaigns to come up with a uniform counting standard for them, with both sides agreeing that the ballot has been rejected in error. You know, because they've been so helpful to one another so far.

Of course, what happens when a campaign stalls or withholds agreement, such as the Coleman campaign and any Minneapolis precincts? Well, the court threatens Rule 11 sanctions against the lawyers who abuse the process. Big freakin' deal. A Senate seat is at stake. Lawyers will risk fines in order to try and win this.

Ultimately, unless Coleman decides that democracy is good and all improperly rejected ballots should be counted, the Franken campaign will have to go back to court to ensure every properly cast ballot is counted.

So it seems the decision will lead to the right call -- counting all ballots, but makes the process unduly painful.

Coleman's lawyers actually cited Bush v. Gore in his hearing, a ruling so indefensible that the SCOTUS decided it would only be applicable "to the present circumstance". They didn't get what they wanted, but the courts put enough of a fog on the process to be almost as indefensible.

Nate at 538 has more. What this means in practice is that the legal wrangling over the remaining ballots will extend into the new year. And since those absentees have been unopened, it's impossible to predict the outcome without them, unless Franken surges into an unexpected lead or something. Ultimately, I'm reasonably confident that he has this won, but it could go beyond the swearing-in of the new Congress, and we may only have 98 seats at the beginning of the 111th Senate. There's some thought that Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty could in that case appoint a temporary Senator while the recount is being hashed out, but I find that extremely unlikely (the Senate would probably refuse to seat the replacement).

Oh Yeah, Well I Didn't Want To Be Vice President Anyway!

If I didn't know better, I'd say John McCain was being intentionally cruel.

Most, if not all, Minnesota politicos expected that McCain was set to tap our very own Tim Pawlenty to be his running mate. In fact, there was ample evidence that Pawlenty was on the cusp of veepdom. Most striking was the fact that he had canceled his public schedule for Friday and Saturday, returned to Minnesota from Denver earlier than planned and had booked an “exclusive” interview on Meet the Press Sunday morning. Multiple sources I spoke to indicated that Pawlenty was not acting unilaterally - he was instructed to take these steps. Behind the scenes there were more signs. Republicans sources I spoke to indicated that Pawlenty loyalists and family members were on their way to Minnesota and that Pawlenty’s inner circle was gearing up for a major announcement. One person I spoke to reported that Charlie Weaver, a key member of Pawlenty’s inner circle, was seen at MSP on Thursday waiting for a flight to Ohio. I’ve even heard rumors that a Secret Service detail was assigned to Pawlenty before being reassigned late Thursday (though I have found very limited evidence supporting this particular rumor).

So what happened?

Some people believe that Pawlenty was used as a decoy by the McCain campaign in an effort to distract attention away from their favored candidate, Sarah Palin. This theory has led to widespread anger in the uper echelons of Minnesota Republican circles. Many, many Republicans I spoke to were irate with the McCain campaign today.

The Washington Post reported the same thing with respect to Pawlenty and Mitt Romney. Using colleagues as pawns in a media game is one thing; that those colleagues are in swing states that you need in November is quite another. I think Minnesota just moved firmly into the blue column. The GOP up there is unlikely to lift a finger for John McCain.

YKos '07: Screening Series

So we just screened "Crashing The States," the netroots film that follows two bloggers through the 2006 election, touring 20 campaigns, 26 states, and over 10,000 miles. It was very well-received (though the white levels looked way hotter on the projector than on the computer). It was a bigger group watching it than I expected, too.

OK, so I'm completely out of touch with the news, but this bridge collapse in Minnesota is ominous. E. coli conservatism strikes again. 30 years of tax cuts at the expense of infrastructure and here's what you get. Here's a good rundown.

But it was all a moot exercise anyway. Literally wielding a big red VETO stamp to appease the no-tax crowd that remains hell-bent on a something-for-nothing relationship with government, Gov. Tim Pawlenty deep-sixed the bipartisan transportation bill. "How dumb can they be?" he sneered of the lawmakers who dared approve a tax hike to fix the state's roads.

"The governor hammered through a plan that doesn't pay for itself," says state Sen. Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing), "and so now for the first time in the history of the state, the Department of Transportation is broke. What that means is if someone drives through a guard rail it is not going to be replaced very soon. If someone breaks an axle on a pothole, it is not going to be filled very soon.

Damn.