Al Franken should be sitting in the United States Senate today. But, instead, he's got one more court hearing -- this one is the big one. The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear Norm Coleman's last-ditch effort to win in the courts what he couldn't win at the ballot box:
Now it comes down to five votes.Coleman is fighting this battle at the behest of Republican leaders in D.C. They don't want Democrats to have a 60th vote. That matters to the GOP and they've been funding Coleman and his lawsuits for the past seven months.
Almost seven months after a U.S. Senate election that was too close to call, five justices of the Minnesota Supreme Court will hear arguments today on whether problems with absentee ballots justify reversing a lower-court ruling that declared DFLer Al Franken a 312-vote winner over Republican Norm Coleman.
Partisans across America will be watching, pronouncing judgment on a thousand blogs. The case may cast a blinding national spotlight on the state Supreme Court.
A decision upholding the lower-court ruling could end the protracted struggle and allow Franken to join the Senate, giving Democrats an invincible majority. A ruling for Coleman wouldn't return him to the Senate, but could keep his hopes alive and delay a final decision for months.
Minnesotans want the dispute to end, recent polls show. Most people say Coleman should concede. Nearly two-thirds believe that Franken ultimately will be declared the winner.
Coleman should have conceded already. He has the burden of proof to show the lower courts were wrong. It's a high hurdle. We'll monitor what the court watchers are saying after oral arguments and hope for a good decision soon.
