Samhain New (Thanksgiving) Moon
Though I’ve adopted patience and perseverance as my attitude to this election, here’s an item from Politics in Minnesota that makes my hair stand on end:
“Recount II: This time we win!
Nine thousand votes is a very tough nut to crack, and most Republicans realize they’re unlikely to prevail in the looming gubernatorial recount. (my emphasis) But there are other fish to fry here, as there were in the Coleman/Franken recount: to undermine the legitimacy of a Dayton administration from the start, and to delay the installation of a DFL governor who figures to block most GOP legislative initiatives. Already many Republicans are exulting, and Democrats cringing, at the thought of a few months’ worth of Gov. Tim Pawlenty paired with a conservative Legislature.
That wouldn’t happen in the course of a normal recount, which should be completed a few weeks ahead of Inauguration Day. But it’s entirely plausible in the event of a court battle following the recount. Both sides are amply lawyered up: Tony Trimble and Michael Toner for Emmer, David Lillehaug and Charlie Nauen for Dayton. All but Toner are veterans of the Coleman/Franken recount. But Toner strikes us as the telling figure here: He has a gleaming national GOP resume — the Bush II-appointed chair of the Federal Election Commission, before that chief counsel to the Republican National Committee, and before that the lead attorney for the Bush-Cheney 2000 transition team — and his inclusion gives Team Emmer a pipeline to top national GOP election counsel and a rainmaker to help fill its legal coffers. You don’t hang a legal gun like that over the mantel in Act I if you aren’t prepared to fire it.”
