The Hill advances baseless GOP claim that Dems are attempting to "steal" NY, MN elections
SUMMARY: The Hill advanced the baseless charge by the National Republican Congressional Committee that Democrats are attempting to "steal" the New York congressional and Minnesota Senate elections.
In an April 1 story posted on The Hill's website, reporter Jeremy Jacobs advanced the baseless charge by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) that Democrats are attempting to "steal" the New York congressional and Minnesota Senate elections. Jacobs wrote, "National Republicans are warning prospective donors that Democrats are trying to 'pull a Franken' and 'steal' Tuesday's special election in upstate New York." He also quoted NRCC executive director Guy Harrison claiming in a fundraising email: "Democrats have almost succeeded in stealing the election in Minnesota and seating Al Franken. ... We cannot allow them to manipulate electoral results to seat" New York Democratic House candidate Scott Murphy. Jacobs provided no assessment of whether the GOP claims were true, nor did he give any indication that he had contacted the NRCC and asked it to back up its claims.
By contrast, in an April 1 blog post about the NRCC email, St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter Rachel Stassen-Berger wrote with respect to the Minnesota election: "To be clear, political rhetoric aside, there is no evidence of a stolen election in Minnesota." During the March 11 edition of PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, former Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter and MinnPost.com blogger Eric Black similarly said of the Minnesota election: "We've had no evidence of any fraud. Even the partisanship of the various referees and judges has been very much in check."
The April 1 Hill story -- headlined, "GOP: Democrats trying to 'steal' NY-20" -- in its entirety:
National Republicans are warning prospective donors that Democrats are trying to "pull a Franken" and "steal" Tuesday's special election in upstate New York.
Republicans made the charges in a fundraising e-mail sent out early Wednesday morning after a too-close-to-call finish in the New York House race between Democrat Scott Murphy and Republican Jim Tedisco.
Murphy leads by 59 votes with all precincts reporting, but thousands of absentee ballots remain uncounted. Final results may not be known for weeks.
The GOP e-mail highlights Minnesota Democrat Al Franken, who appears likely to win a Senate seat after a state court gave him an important legal victory on Tuesday over Republican Norm Coleman.
"Democrats have almost succeeded in stealing the election in Minnesota and seating Al Franken," wrote Guy Harrison, the National Republican Congressional Committee's executive director. "We cannot allow them to manipulate electoral results to seat another tax-troubled liberal."
The e-mail indicates Republicans are gearing up for a legal fight over the election results, and suggests the party will pursue a more aggressive legal battle than in Minnesota. In that contest, Coleman was initially up after Election Day but Franken was able to overtake his lead in the recount and legal process.
SORE LOSERS.
SORE LOSERS.
SORE LOSERS.
SORE LOSERS.
say it again, loud and proud:
SORE LOSERS.
For once we agree. If we can just get Franken to agree, to count the votes, and stop trying to steal the election, we will actually get somewhere.
Who is Al trying to steal the election from?
Yeah, it's awful that he thinks he won just because he got more votes.
I don't think Franken disagrees.
SORE LOSERS
They are going to count 400 more ballots by April 7.
POV, I have to disagree. The election was decided the votes were counted and Franken won. Coleman should concede and leave the stage.
Franken is a detestable person, so is Coleman and the people of MN suffered because they had both of these vile people to choose from. But Franken won, he is the Senator, he should be seated and he should be doing the work he was elected to do. It is wrong to deny the people of MN two seats and that is what is occuring right now.
I'm curious, what did Franken do that was so vile?
Yeah, What did Franken do that was so vile? Nothing that I can see. And he got more votes. This is just the republicans being SORE LOSERS, keeping Franken out of his seat out of spite.
Same crime as Bill Clinton.
He's a democrat. And he won.
Worst crime you can commit.
Eddie what crime did President Clinton ever commit? President Clinton was by far the best President this nation had since 1968.
Your sarcasm-detector is on the fritz. Best see to that.
What is the sarcasm? Bill Clinton WAS our best President since 1968. Can you dispute this?
NiceGuy Eddie was being sarcastic. You, apparently, thought he accusing Clinton of commiting a crime when he said "Same crime as Bill Clinton." He was not. He was saying that Clinton is **guilty** of a **crime**. That **crime**? Being a Democrat.
You missed that sarcasm, and thought he was being serious. And then you missed the explanation of that. You ruin all the fun when you make us explain the jokes.
Ellie717 I did not find any humor in it. I don't think being a Democrat is a "Crime" it is something to be proud of. There was nothing funny about the smears and near coup the Republicans attempted on the President in the 90s. Grow up!!
Dude - take a deep breath. I'm on your side. From the idiot conservative's POV, being a democrat IS a crime, especially if you WIN an election. I am lampooning that nonsense. My point was your point - that Bill Clinton did very little wrong. That his only "crime" was being a Democrat that won, is the reason that the con's were so foaming at the mount over such minutia - they just souldn't stand that a democrat had won, and would stop at nothing to bring him down. Sheesh. I didn't realize I was being that subtle.
Ok, Sorry.
Both Coleman and Franken are mean spirited and in my view do things that are too partisan. As I said Franken won and should be the Senator, maybe I am wrong and he will do good . I just think the people of MN deserve someone like a Wellstone or Mondale again.
Um, that's nice. But in a DEMOCRACY, the people choose between the people who have placed their names ON THE BALLOT. And in this election, more people voted for Al Franken than any other candidate.
That you think that "the people of MN deserve someone like a Wellstone or Mondale again" is interesting, but also quite irrelevant. The point is that the people of Minnesota chose Al Franken, and Al Franken should now be seated. In 2014 the people of Minnesota will judge how Franken has done his job.
Of course my thinking that the people deserve someone like Wellstone or Mondale again is irrelevant. And you are right the people did choose Al Franken which is why I have said Coleman needs to concede.
Both Coleman and Franken are mean spirited
That's funny because Franken has been a true gentleman and statesman through all this. It is undeniable that he's played it totally above-board. He's just sat back, played by the rules, conceded to the power of the courts, and let Coleman dig his own grave.
To my knowledge he didn't even run any ads during the campaign that were half as vile as Coleman's. Perhaps a MN resident can confirm or deny. My only point of reference is that I was in Minneapolis for a couple days in early October. On the TV in my hotel room I saw 2 Coleman ads and 1 Franken ad. Both of Coleman's were over-the-top personal attacks (SOP for a Republican these days) and Franken's was about him and his wife and what they do for their community. That difference alone says a lot.
I hope Franken has changed, I just remember him from his partisan days on Air America.
As for Coleman, please don't expect me to defend him. I have said throught this thread he needs to concede and I think Coleman is scum.
Even then he was not vile and detestable. Being a commentator on a partisan media site is not a vile thing to do. Being politically active is not detestable. You need to come up with some reasonable examples or admit that you don't have a leg to stand on when you equate Coleman to Franken.
I'm glad I scrolled down, because that's what immediately came to mind when I read that comment. I didn't hear a great deal of his show, but what I did hear seemed quite civil. The word "partisan" is key. Apparently it's "mean-spirited" and even "vile" for someone to express ideological views on the radio.
Brabantio as I have said throughout the thread I want Franken to be the Senator and do well, if he is for all the people then he will be a great Senator.
I know he will be better than Coleman. If you and Ellie717 want to play word games be my guest. I am moving on today.
You called him "vile" and "detestable". Asking what you mean by that is not "word games".
Grow up and learn to take some accountability for what you say.
Why not ask me why I feel Coleman is vile ? Why just stick to my personal feelings based on what I have seen from Franken in his comedy, shows and radio show?
As I said you can pick and choose who I talk about but it is word games.
The one who needs to grow up is you.
Coleman saying that he would concede if he was behind and then turning around and dragging this through the court for months is detestable. There have been other issues brought up about his ethics as well, so I didn't really feel the need to ask about him.
You're not providing any examples of anything from Franken. There's no "he said..." or anything of that sort. That's what I find odd. Just that he's "partisan". And how was I supposed to know your personal feelings were based on what you've seen in his comedy when I asked the question? That's exactly why the question was asked, because you didn't specify anything of the sort. That wasn't very bright, Casey.
In any event, it's not "word games" to ask you about a damn aspect of something you said. Give me a break. If that was remotely defensible you should have said so right off the bat. The idea that it's somehow immature to ask you a specific question is utterly hilarious.
Take your medication and stop embarrassing yourself.
I don't take medication, but I find no humor in making fun of people that do or may have to.
Then don't act like you need medication. I don't care for being accused of playing "word games" when there's nothing to back it up. Apparently I'm supposed to be accountable for what I say, but you aren't.
On second thought, you're right. Comparing your writing to that of people needing medication was an insult to people needing medication. Most of them are more lucid than you.
My apologies to anyone offended.
Being a commentator on a partisan media site is not a vile thing to do
Then I guess you and I disagree.
So you think that Hannity, etc., are doing something vile?
Hannity is one of the worst offenders of partisanship and yes he is vile.
Many are detestable, very few are detested.
Franken is not one of those few, unless the one who detests him has been bested by him many times (Calling Mr O'Reilly, Mr Bill O'Reilly)...
Hahaha. Wow. Missing the point by that wide a margin could get you a job on Fox. (Or that level of ironic satire, could get you a job with Colbert.)
Darn voters. How dare they actually vote Franken into office!
Here's the facts. The remaining absentee ballots were reviewed for the original election by election officials and found to be invalid. Each and every one was reviewed a second time during the recount in a hunt for improperly rejected ABs. The vast majority of the remaining ABs weren't challenged or appealed by either campaign, so it's a pretty solid conclusion that they were properly rejected.
That leaves the ABs that each camp argued in court. The court, following MN law, went over all of those ballots AGAIN to determine the reason that they were rejected and whether that rejection was proper by law. The remaining 400 that the court called to have delivered to the courtroom represent the small sample of ABs that truly might not have been properly rejected.
I wonder what republicans have against applying the law.
Even if Coleman won on every other point he's contesting, the total number of votes it MIGHT gain for him wouldn't make up much of the difference. The math doesn't work for him. He lost. This is just a game financed and executed by the RNC for the purpose of delaying seating Franken for as long as possible.
Remember...
If Coleman is behind in votes, he actually wins, using the 2000 Formula. Luckily, neither Jeb Bush nor Katherine Harris live in Minnesota.
Pull A Franken: Declare Victory when the votes have counted, and you've won more.
Good lord. Clearly, there are only two possible outcomes to any election as far as the GOP is concerned:
1. Republican wins more votes than the Democrat, and is seated, OR
2. Democrat wins more votes than the Republican, and the Republican is seated anyway.
Ridiculous.
They believe that beacuse they do it, that the opposition would do the same thing. Thats the REPUKES for you.
This is the most salient point on this thread.
Accuse others of the exact detestable behavior you yourself would pursue.
Uhmm, So what? The Hill did not under any interpretation endorse that POV. So why point it out? I swear: as one who shares this organization's mission, I am really beginning to be ashamed at the out-of-context/clear misrepresentation hysteria emanating from Media Matters laltely. This tomfoollery only harms our credibility. Get it?
Do you really think it's appropriate for the media to go along with conservative talking points? Both sides should be presented.
Where did MMfA claim that The Hill endorsed anything? Where is anything taken out of context or misrepresented here?
Concern-troll much?