Franken-Coleman Update: This Is Not Florida in 2000

Posted by Phoenix Woman, Firedoglake at 4:51 AM on December 2, 2008.

As we watch the recount process unfold in Minnesota, bear this in mind: The persons screaming the loudest about "chaos" (which is apparently what would happen if all the votes were honestly counted, to judge from their squawking), and how icky everything about the recount supposedly is, and comparing the Minnesota recount to that of Florida in 2000, are the ones with the most invested in delegitimizing the results.

Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi has sussed this out from the get-go, noting both Norm Coleman's frantically sleazy campaign and even more frantically sleazy post-campaign aren't exactly helping him here -- not when that notorious weathervane Tim Pawlenty had to tell him off in public for being a dorkwad.

What's been rather amusing lately is how the quasi-apocalyptic predictions of Steven Smith, a political-science professor from Washington University in St. Louis, have been elevated almost into Holy Writ because for some reason Minnesota Public Radio tapped him for instant analysis, rather than going with any of the local political observers. Smith decided to take this statement by Harry Reid -- that the Minnesota state canvassing board's refusal to admit that it does have the authority to rule is "a cause for great concern" -- and turn it into an alleged willingness to have the Senate decide who gets to sit in Paul Wellstone's seat come January. What it looks like to me is that this is more of an effort by Reid to back up Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's trying to get the canvassing board to do its job.   In any event, several counties are still counting and a handful haven't even started yet.  This will take a while, but that's how recounts go.  

Phoenix Woman is a regular blogger for FireDogLake