Senate race: Enough already

Minnesotans are inclined to let the election process take its course, and so we've been patient beyond reason with the drawn out battle to determine a winner in the U.S. Senate race between right wing Republican Norm Coleman and Al Franken, whose position on the left-to-right scale is pretty much unknown.

(Republicans, of course, scream that Franken is a lefty extremist, probably somewhere near Leon Trotsky is his views. That's just for the nutter “base.” In fact, he's probably too far to the right for genuine liberals. He has thus far refused to back a single-payer health care system, for example, and there are indications that he'll join fellow Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar in slavish support of Israel, regardless of what evils it perpetrates.)

But the election is over. It's time to put away patience and start yelling.

It's been apparent for weeks now that the Republicans know perfectly well Coleman lost. The continued court charade has one purpose only: To keep Minnesota from getting its full representation in Congress, given that the newly elected senator is a Democrat. Coleman's own legal team admits they've lost. Some Republican officials also admit it, but, of course, their claim these days –- height of irony -– is that any election won by a Democrat was “stolen.”

Flat fact: We elected a Democrat, they don't want another Democrat in the Senate so long as they can prevent him from being seated. Democracy? Screw it. Full representation for Minnesotans? Screw it. Just keep the Democrat out as long as the courts allow the game to continue. It's the Republican Way.

Norm Coleman's career in elected office is over. He and the Republican machine know that, too. After the election court debacle, he probably couldn't be elected to the Apple Valley city council – although that may be overstating the case. At any rate, he couldn't be elected to any state-wide office or any Congressional seat except, no doubt, the one on which the incomparably ridiculous Michele Bachmann already squats like some crazed Easter bunny on a sparrow's nest.

There's no doubt that Coleman and those whom he really serves have come to some agreement about his reward for continuing the act; we'll learn what that is after the curtain finally drops.

But, c'mon folks. Enough is enough. Continuation of the farce should cost the Republicans more than legal fees. It should cost them votes, it should bring down a hard rain of contempt on the entire party.

You can email Minnesota party headquarters at Info@mngop.com. Better yet, email Republican State Chairman Ron Carey at Chairman@mngop.com

Keep it short, keep it clean, but make it bite.