The obvious happens again

Judges rule Franken winner; Coleman to appeal

Three judges soundly rejected Norm Coleman's attempt to reverse Al Franken's lead in the U.S. Senate election late Monday, sweeping away the Republican's claims in a blunt ruling Coleman promised to appeal.

After a trial spanning nearly three months, the judicial panel dismissed Coleman's central argument that the election and its aftermath were fraught with systemic errors that made the results invalid.

"The overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates that the Nov. 4, 2008, election was conducted fairly, impartially and accurately," the panel said in its unanimous decision.

Not only does a three judge panel recognize Franken as the winner, not only does a three judge panel declare that Franken should be certified, not only does a three judge panel openly laugh at the merits of Coleman's case, not only does the three judge panel mock the "evidence" Coleman offers up, but then this same three judge panel goes ahead and uses the decision to start knocking out pillars from any supposed appeal Coleman would make to the Minnesota and US Supreme Courts. The result? Minnesota gets it's time wasted for another month or so as Coleman valiantly charges forward in his fruitless appeals and search for justice any way to keep Democrats from getting a 59th Senator.

How bad is it for Norm? Even Joe Scarborough is trying to talk sense into him. What's that old saying? "When you've lost Joe Scarborough, you probably lost most of rational America five months ago. Now you're just starting to piss off crazies."

For Senator Franken, he just gets to live out another day in what has become his own sequel to Groundhog Day. He keeps reliving a day where august legal bodies tell him he's the senator, but he never actually gets to that day where he is a senator. It's OK Al, Norm can only appeal his loss to two more places. Surely that can't take 5+ years.