Festina lente

Mark Kleiman writes:

If I were a Minnesotan, I think I'd be pretty angry about the way that Norm Coleman and his friends in the national Republican Party have deprived the state of half its representation in the Senate. It's now clear that Coleman can't win, but the Republicans are happy to spend a few million bucks to make Obama find two Republican votes rather than only one to break filibusters and do other things for which Senate rules impose a super-majority.

This prompts a question and a suggestion:

1. Has there been any polling on this?
2. Democrats ought to do everything they can to whip up outrage, especially in Minnesota. Start a "Minnesota Held Hostage" clock with the number of days the state has been deprived of its equal representation in the Senate by what amounts at this point to vexatious litigation.

To state the obvious, of course he'd be pretty angry.  He'd have voted for Franken.  Hell, he's angry now, and it's not his state.

To state even more obvious facts, the reason that this is in litigation is that half of Minnesotans did not vote for Franken--indeed, the measurement error being what it is, there is a decent chance that more Minnesotan voters desired Norm Coleman in the senatorial seat.

Given that, it is not good politics to get snippy at people because they're not giving up soon enough to suit you.  Moreover, I seem to recall that the Gore campaign's endless new plans for lengthy recounts polled pretty well.  As, of course, does divided government.  The state Democrats would be very, very foolish to complain that Norm Coleman needs to knock off these challenges because Obama now has to get two whole Republican votes to pass legislation and we deserve to have the whole Senate to ourselves, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!