Fox hosts on Franken victory: "in denial"; Franken and nation crazy; Coleman originally won
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SUMMARY: Several Fox News hosts have expressed bewilderment, disappointment, and denial about Al Franken's victory in the Minnesota Senate race.
After Norm Coleman conceded the 2008 Minnesota Senate race to Al Franken (D), several Fox News hosts expressed bewilderment, disappointment, and denial about the outcome. For instance, Glenn Beck said of Franken's victory, "[I]t shows how crazy our country has gone." He added: "[I]t shows that we've lost our minds." Sean Hannity claimed that Franken is "not all there," and later claimed, "I, in my heart of hearts, do not believe that Al Franken won that election." And Brian Kilmeade said he's "in denial" about Franken, who he said was "barely sane." Gretchen Carlson responded to Kilmeade by again falsely claiming that Coleman "won in the original election."
As Media Matters for America has documented, Fox News personalities have repeatedly promoted baseless claims of fraud in the Minnesota race and claimed that there was a lack of impartiality in the recount process to accuse Franken of "stealing" the election. However, in its unanimous 5-0 ruling, the Minnesota Supreme Court stated that "[n]o claim of fraud in the election or during the recount was made by either party" and that "Coleman's counsel confirmed at oral argument that Coleman makes no claim of fraud on the part of either voters or election officials." The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that experts said there was a "lack of crookedness in the election" and that Loyola Law School election law professor Rick Hasen "said the court's ruling Tuesday was so thorough that it also ruled out the possibility that either candidate -- or their lawyers -- could be accused of stealing the election."
Beck said on The O'Reilly Factor: "You don't want me as a senator. This is -- what is that? I mean, this is the -- it's -- it shows how crazy our country has gone. You don't want me as a senator. You don't want Al Franken as a senator." Beck added: "[I]t shows that we've lost our minds. It's like we've slipped through a worm hole. It's like this looks like the country I grew up in, but, no -- Al Franken would never be a senator." Beck also claimed that "Franken coming into office" means we "have entered a place to where there isn't statesmanship anymore."
During the June 30 edition of his program, Hannity suggested vote fraud by claiming, "[Y]ou have counties as they did in Minnesota where you had more votes than you did people registered to vote on Election Day." While Hannity did not expand on his claim, a May 28 Minneapolis Star Tribune article reported that a conservative group, the Minnesota Majority, sued Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, claiming that "vote totals from [Minnesota election] canvassing boards exceed the stated number of registered voters by 406,398." The Star Tribune article stated that Minnesota Majority's report on registration listed one county as "having zero registered voters." The article also said that "Ritchie disputed the claims" in the lawsuit. From the article:
Ritchie said Thursday that his office updated voter registration lists in April and continues to do so. "All lists are updated every day of the week," he said. "People die, people move. The counties continuously update the lists."
He said the goal was to match voter registration and the certified canvassing board totals within 1,000 names. "You'll never get a perfect correlation between the two," he said. "We were at 40,000 in April. We're at about 30,000 now."
[...]
Ritchie said he didn't know why some counties turned up with zero registered voters in Minnesota Majority's report. "Their number is so far different from the actual number in the database that it's not possible for me to speak to it," he said.
Aitkin County was listed in the report as having zero registered voters and 9,455 certified ballots. But Auditor Kirk Peysar said his county had reported its registered voters and that the number matched the ballots.
Previously, as Media Matters noted, on January 5, Hannity said of the recount, "We've got one county -- ended up with 177 more ballots." Hannity's guest, Fox News contributor Dick Morris, added, "Yeah, Ramsey County -- 177 more ballots than people voted." In fact, according to a December 14 Star Tribune article, which cited election officials explaining human and technological errors in the voting process, a "machine jammed in Maplewood, resulting in 177 ballots going uncounted until the final day of the recount in Ramsey County."
On the July 1 edition of Fox & Friends, Kilmeade said to his co-hosts, "Just don't tell me Al Franken won until the end of the show." After Carlson noted that Franken won, Kilmeade said, "I'm in denial still." Kilmeade later said that Franken is "barely sane if you read his books, and quite angry in every facet of his life." When Kilmeade asked former Minnesotan Carlson to "explain yourself," Carlson said: "Excuse me, I'm under personal attack. I haven't lived there since I was 17, but I do still consider it home, and I have nothing to do with the political process there."
Carlson then falsely claimed that "Coleman won in the original election, but after the recount that some considered suspicious, Franken is now the new senator." Carlson previously claimed on April 3: "[T]he last time I checked, Norm Coleman won the election after election night." However, while Coleman was ahead in the vote count after election night, he was not certified the winner; state law mandated a recount because of the closeness of the results. Fox News' Bill O'Reilly has similarly repeatedly falsely claimed Coleman "was certified the winner" in the race.
Later during the program, Kilmeade said of Franken: "[L]et's talk about who's safe now that Al Franken's going to be in the Senate. He's a senator from Minnesota -- yes, I said it out loud, and it hurts, but I said it."
From the June 30 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
BECK: It makes me very sad that we are living in a country -- look, I have no problem when President Bush did something wrong, saying he did something wrong, and saying he did something right. Same with President Obama. President Obama is my president. I didn't vote for him. I think that he is way off base.
But he's still my president. I still support the office of the United States. It is -- we have entered a place, I mean, with Al Franken coming into office, we've entered a place to where there isn't statesmanship anymore. The president has not elevated himself to a higher standard.
[...]
MONICA CROWLEY (guest host): All right, let's move on to Al Franken.
BECK: Yeah.
CROWLEY: So, we've got Norm Coleman, the incumbent Republican senator who put up a very valiant effort over many months. He has now conceded. The governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, now says he will certify Al Franken as his replacement in the Senate. This gives the Democrats a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority. What does this mean?
BECK: This is like having me in the Senate. You don't want me as a senator. This is -- what is that? I mean --
CROWLEY: Al Franken.
BECK: -- this is the -- it's -- it shows how crazy our country has gone. You don't want me as a senator. You don't want Al Franken as a senator.
CROWLEY: Glenn, doesn't it show that anything is possible in America?
BECK: No. It seems -- it shows that we've lost our minds. It's like we've slipped through a worm hole. It's like this looks like the country I grew up in, but, no -- Al Franken would never be a senator.
From the June 30 edition of Fox News' Hannity:
HANNITY: Well, do you think now, with a filibuster-proof Senate, and our good friend -- who, by the way, folks --
MICHAEL STEELE (Republican National Committee chairman): Yeah.
HANNITY: -- this guy, Franken, he's not all there. All right. But do you think with him in a filibuster-proof Senate, do you think this is now problematic for the Republicans to stop it in the Senate?
STEELE: No, I don't think it's problematic for this reason: because unlike the House, the Blue Dogs in the Senate do not have the cover that Nancy Pelosi gave the Blue Dogs in the House.
They could afford to vote against this bill because they had the votes they needed to get it passed. And the Senate is a different story. You're much more exposed. Every vote counts, every vote is on the board, and I think it's going to be a lot harder for those Blue Dogs, especially, to stand up there and then go back home and justify --
HANNITY: Yeah.
STEELE: -- raising people's utility bills as they want -- as this administration plans to do.
HANNITY: All right. What do you think -- I believe that Norm Coleman -- when you have counties as they did in Minnesota where you had more votes than you did people registered to vote on Election Day, and when you have different standards apply, I understand why he took it this far, and I understand why he stopped it today. He did it for the people of Minnesota.
STEELE: Yeah.
HANNITY: But I, in my heart of hearts, do not believe that Al Franken won that election. Do you?
STEELE: I don't either. I think that this is just craziness at its worst here. You have one part of the state that voted where the ballots were accepted, and other parts where ballots weren't accepted with the exact same vote.
It makes no sense. They were counting folks who, you know, in counties that didn't exist. I mean, the whole thing is suspect at best. But, look, my hat goes out to my good friend Norm Coleman.
He fought the good fight. He really was a good public servant for the folks of Minnesota. I think they're going to rue the day on this vote. I think they already have, Sean, quite frankly. I've talked to enough Democrats in the state --
HANNITY: Yeah.
STEELE: -- who said, you know, if we could do a do-over, the results, I think, would be a little bit different.
From the July 1 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:
STEVE DOOCY (co-host): Meanwhile, it's only taken eight months, but Minnesota finally knows who their next senator will be. But it's more than just a victory for Al Franken. Can you say supermajority? We're going to explain all that.
KILMEADE: Just don't tell me Al Franken won until the end of the show.
[...]
KILMEADE: Meanwhile, at the top of the hour, so much going in all facets of the news world, from Michael Jackson to Honduras and more.
CARLSON: And to Al Franken in Minnesota, the new senator.
KILMEADE: I'm in denial still.
CARLSON: But let's start with -- let's start with Iraq.
[...]
KILMEADE: I would relabel that. How about this bizarre -- you thought it was crazy when a wrestler became governor of your fun city. I thought that was a little --
CARLSON: State.
KILMEADE: -- insane -- state. And then all of a sudden we got a chance to meet him, and he was even crazier than we thought. Now we find out that Al Franken, who's barely sane if you read his books, and quite angry in every facet of his life, is now the senator from Minnesota. Explain yourself, Gretchen.
CARLSON: Excuse me, I'm under personal attack. I haven't lived there since I was 17, but I do still consider it home, and I have nothing to do with the political process there. But Al Franken is the new senator from Minnesota. Norm Coleman said enough is enough yesterday.
The Minnesota Supreme Court came back and said that those couple hundred votes that Franken got in the recount -- remember, Coleman won in the original election, but after the recount that some considered suspicious, Franken is now the new senator, and Coleman says I'm not going to take this to the United States Supreme Court.
COLEMAN [video clip]: I just had a conversation with Al Franken congratulating him on his victory, and I told him it's the best job that he'll ever have, representing the people of the people of the Minnesota.
FRANKEN [video clip]: I received a very gracious call from Senator Coleman a little while ago. He wished me well. I wished him well. And we agreed that it is time to bring this state together.
DOOCY: So they got a comedian in charge -- the junior senator from the great state, the land of 10,000 comedians, Minnesota.
[...]
KILMEADE: But straight ahead, let's talk about who's safe now that Al Franken's going to be in the Senate. He's a senator from Minnesota -- yes, I said it out loud, and it hurts, but I said it. The huge impact on the balance of power in Washington.
All together now... 60! 60! 60! 60! 60! 60! 60!60!...
Yeah, the American electorate has divorced the far right - "We just don't love you anymore.... We've grown apart...."
Denial and and anger are the first two stages of loss based grief.
And, in my experience, people do some pretty strange stuff in those stages.
I believe we should be responding to their excesses by demonstrating empathy for their loss <G>
You're NOT good enough;
You're NOT smart enough;
And doggoneit, people DON'T like you...
;o)
On August 22, U.S. District Court judge Denny Chin heard arguments from attorneys representing the plaintiff and the defendant regarding Fox News's request for an injunction to prevent Franken from releasing the book with its current title. In a hearing punctuated at times by laughter from the assembled spectators,[6] Chin questioned Fox News attorney Dori Ann Hanswirth harshly about her contention that the phrase "fair and balanced" on the cover of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them was likely to confuse consumers into believing that the book was produced or endorsed by Fox News Channel. At one point he asked Hanswirth, "Do you think that the reasonable consumer would believe, seeing the word lie above Mr. O'Reilly's face, that Mr. O'Reilly or Fox were endorsing this book?"
Chin denied the injunction and said that the case was "wholly without merit, both factually and legally". He went on to suggest that Fox News' trademark on the phrase "fair and balanced" could be invalid. Three days later, Fox News Channel filed to drop the lawsuit.
Go to Washington and represent the majority and the few.
You are making the transition from comedy to something new.
Always vote your conviction, and don't forget to stick it to Fox News.
Speak truth to power.
Mr. News
All Franken has to do to "stick it" to Fox News, is to tell the TRUTH.
So, when something's ratings grow by "leaps and bounds" (more like "staggers and stumbles" in the case of Fox) means it is an accurate source of news? I wonder how many people get their news from "Two and a Half Men..." It's ratings dwarf those of Fox.
That's dangerous, don't ya think?
See what happens when your logic comes back to bite you in the butt?
That's why I never paid much attention to him.
Personal responsibility is merely a narrative device that cons use to make themselves look good. When it comes to owning up to the consequences of their eliminationist trash, they run like little cowards, screeching, "It wasn't me! You can't blame me!"
;o)
Perfectly said...thank you.
He ain't foolin' nobody!
Thanks MM for allowing me to keep my meals down.
Of course the upside of that would be the silencing of the poison and lies that spew from Fox on a daily basis.
Beware Baucus and the Blue Dogs.
Let Baucus and Blue Dregs BEWARE of VOTERS majority.
... or is it maturity ....
He's been pretty frickin' weak so far. He let the stimulus bill get negotiated and compromised down to the point where it was too weak to do enough good. Then he let the jerkwad Repubs turn around and blame his economic policies for the still stagnant employment numbers. And he has barely fired back at these chumps.
Obama needs to get his damn head out of the clouds thinking he can find middle ground with a GOP that is swarming with far right extremists. They are not interested in compromise in the least, they are out for power. Period.
Public option looks doomed, and not by Republicans.
If conservatives love freedom so much why is it they go out of their way to DENY freedom to those who aren't a part of their "white, christian, male" power structure?
The only people in any distress are rightwingnuts because they are no longer in power . . .
"Liberal hate America"!? Right on. That well-known liberal, Michael Scheuer was hoping for a WMD attack on America the other day, on that liberal Fox News, as he was being interviewd, and agreed with, by that uberliberal Glenn Beck. Pull your head out, laddie.
There are some substantial differences. Liberals believe that in 2000 the US SC halted the recount process based on fabricated legal standards so that the true count couldn't be determined. This is a question of legal interpretations. In the MN Senatorial race, conservatives are charging that there was fraud in the count and process in spite of a complete and total lack of evidence to support those claims. This is also in spite of the fact the the entire process was completely transparent and exceedingly thorough. So the conservatives are challenging facts without evidence.
I cant here you, lalalalalala. I'm not listening, lalalalala.
There is no double standard, because both sides will complain. Simple enough.
When Bush "won" in 2000, the wingnut talking heads told Gore, "Bush won -- shut up!" And he largely did.
As displayed in the article above, not only are the wingnut yattering heads NOT telling Coleman to "shut up", they can't shut up themselves . . .
The Minnesota count, by contrast, completed a mandatory recount as required by their state law and reviewed all ballots held in dispute by either candidate, the final result withstanding several court challenges by Coleman. Unlike in Florida, any voting irregularities were at least reviewed by canvassing boards and the courts, including the state's Supreme Court on more than one ruling. I would be perfectly okay with the 2000 results had Florida held itself to anywhere near that level of scrutiny.
No selectivity here.
BUSTED
This is a class opening sentence a la Tommy. A quick little snipe at "liberals" followed by yet another hair-brained broadbrushing.
"Liberals are a curious bunch. They can't scurry away from religion fast enough when it's associated with certain tenets they feel will be imposed on their "morality"..."
And from his "JamesB" phase:
i love liberals. there is always some barrier or some excuse against someone bettering themselves, can't do it, no jobs, no time, no money, too hard, impossible.
Schultz blew a gasket, accusing Franken of being in the "mushy middle," deciding that Franken's comments meant that health care reform is dead, declaring that "if the Democrats turn their back on the American people, I'm done with them.." blah blah blah. All this for a guy who was just declared elected, who was making a perfectly appropriate comment to the media at the end of a long legal battle.
Meanwhile, which Senator does Schultz have on pretty much every week, to get treated with absolute deference and respect? KENT CONRAD. That's right- KENT CONRAD.
Now, I ask you, Mr Schultz: If True Health Care reform is defeated in the Senate, who is more likely to deserve blame: Al Franken or Kent Conrad?
Until you can answer that honestly, take a pill and stow the faux outrage, ok?
Sadly, I don't know how much they'll have to worry about. I'm sure Franken will push certain issues, but the Democrats have been so spineless. Cripes, they're in power and hardly anything has changed!
Say it ain't so, Joe!
Randy
The Florida Supreme Court ordered that the recount be widened to include every county and every vote. They called for a complete hand recount of EVERY vote. That was why Bush's team went to the Supreme Court, because they were desperate to stop the recount because every time they were allowed to count Gore ended up getting more votes.
I recommend you see the movie they made about it. It's a great way to understand Florida 2000 in 90 minutes.
Randy
Sean Hannity said that he doesn't believe that Franken won. The Supreme court of Minnesota believes it though.
Having Rush question Franken's sanity is crazy.
Some people got a lotta nerve.
This is something that even Franken's supporters (of which I am one, even though I don't live in Minnesota) seem to have overlooked - that and the fact that he graduated cum laude. This makes him better qualified to be a senator than Bush was to be president. As I said when he announced his candidacy, better a comedian in the senate than the clowns they already have (and real clowns, with the exception of a certain RMcD, you have my apologies).
Good.
And as far as Mr. Bouncy-Bouncy's comment, pot meet kettle; kettle meet pot.
Technically that is correct. After the polls closed Coleman did have the lead. It wasn't until they started counting the absentee ballots that he lost the lead. Please note that if either Franken or Coleman had won by a sufficient margin there would have never been a recount and they would have never even looked at the absentee ballots. Because that wasn't true, two things happened.
1.) A recount started, as required under Minnesota law.
2.) The absentee ballots were counted. These had to meet certain requirements (under Minnesota law)and that is where this all started.
Coleman lost his lead and, being a poor sport (my opinion only), decided to take it to court in order to hopefully wrest victory from the jaws of defeat. (sorry, couldn't help myself)
I do, however, respect him for his intelligence and putting his money where his mouth is and running for elected office instead of just talking about it.
Here's hoping that he represents the people of Minnesota well.
Meanwhile, progressive radio is foregoing the old corporate terrestrial radio nonsense and cold kickin' it on the world wide interwebs.
So, a local talk station got Rush's show for zilch. In exchange, Premiere took for itself much of the local station's available advertising time (roughly 15 minutes an hour) and packed the show with national ads it had already pre-sold.
Think Gold Bond Medicated Powder."
Most of the people who view or listen to that are either jobless rednecks or retirees who want their narrow world view reinforced.
And if liberal talk radio is so poor why is Thom Hartmann adding more stations that he is broadcast on almost every month?
Then, hypocrite that you are you come in with both guns blazing insulting us in post after post then whine like a little girlscout that we call YOU names. You are so brainwashed you just HAVE to respond the way you are programmed to. So even though you have been rude and done nothing but heap contempt on us when you are treated the way you have been treating us your knee jerks and as automatically as one of Pavlovs dogs your give us canned answer # 7 liberals just call people names. Of course that would be just like you but since you are so brainwashed that doesnt occur to you. You are a sad little, not very bright person and I am through wasting my time with your tossing out of every talking point Rush and company have put in your sad and empty head
So monopolizing markets is good business? Talk about using both sides of your mouth to make an argument given you market fundies are always screeching, 'competition is king.' You con jobs are just a bunch of corrupt corporate frauds masquerading as free marketers. Pathetic.
And spare me the emotional argument jab. It's been the inability of liberals to speak the language of values that has doomed us to years of post election distress syndrome. Meanwhile, Limbaugh and the GOP have been scaring the crap out of people and demonizing the left with emotional language as a means to garner support. So screw that jive. Republicans are the originators of the emotional argument, in fact, it's why you turkeys win so many elections. You know how to communicate at a bone deep level with the language of anger and resentment.
ps. condescend to the mass messaging power of the internet and kiss corporate media butt all you want. It's just another sign of how far behind you guys are in making your into the information age.
The recent focus on Fox News is due to them going bat-crap crazy over the shift in leadership. Fox News has always been an abundant source of BS, but now they're working overtime to spur that shift back that you speak of. I bet MMFA is working harder than ever to keep up.
Conservatism only works in the minds of conservatives. The rest of us can attest to its catastrophic consequences.
The guy who deficit spending percentage was even WIDER than George W. Bush? THAT Reagan?
Oh yeah. The Republic party sure knows how to pick a golden calf for the masses to worship.
Down 3.8% for the first half of 2009. Up 11% in the second quarter.
Black Monday: DOWN 22.6% IN ONE DAY.
Yep, that's just a blip on the radar alright.
I don't know where you're getting your information, but according to mine, the Dow hasn't been above 12,000 for over a year.
And Obama is responsible for the drop between Oct and January because???
"falling 223 points today"
A 2.6% drop. Again, absolutely no comparison to Black Monday.
If in 25 years Obama is mentioned 1/10 of the amount that the members of the Republic party mention Reagan or they put a gold statue up of him in the capital (I seem to remember another story about golden statues...goat or something wasn't it?) then you can come back with "Libs worship Obama" BS.
Reagan sucked. It was Reagan's resurrection of Hoover's rigid economic ideology that has precipitated the current crash of a consequence free Wall St. It was Reagan Repubs who have allowed those Wall St. thugs to take huge risks with other people's money and lose big. Reagan killed unions and the commons. He killed the institution that created the actual greatest expansion the middle class in the history of the civilized world: the New Deal.
Shove your revisionist history where you keep your head.
And self-reliance my foot, more like, "you're on your own." Your medical insurance provider denied you because cancer is pre-existing condition? Sorry, you're on your own.
Can't make a living wage because the executives think they're worth 500 times more than you? Sorry, you're on your own.
And one last thing, if government is the problem and can't do anything right, then you market fundies should have nothing to worry from an inefficient, bloated public option. God you twerps are such a gaggle of phonies. It's all about destroying effective government, giving loopholes for the rich, privatizing the commons and funneling as much income upward as possible.
You guys suck.
Oh no, Republican votes are bought and sold in other ways.
Corporations hire people so that they can meet demand, plain and simple. They don't suddenly decide to hire people because their taxes just got lower.
Even if you can conclusively attribute more jobs to lower taxes in this day and age, chances are it's more jobs in China, India, or Mexico.
As far as 2010 goes, whatever. Your Party has fewer registered voters than anytime in the history of its existence. Better give it a few more cycles brother. I say that because your side has no ideas, they stand for nothing except standing against Obama right now
No, do you REALLY disagree with everything the democrats have to say?
Of course not. This is about the crazy people at Fox. You know, "Fair and Balanced". Even though just a cursory glance at their coverage would show that they are not "Fair or Balanced".
BTW Just to destroy that strawman, again. It has been shown time and time again that America is Center Left. You can scream as much as you want that it is center right but; it doesn't make it so.
And, just so you know, I don't consider myself to be a "Liberal". Yes, I do have certain viewpoints that can be called liberal but; I also have certain viewpoints that can be call conservative. When I go to the polls, I vote based on what I have learned about the individual canidates and their records. Come next election I will do the same, as will most Americans. Whether Republicans gain or lose more offices will reflect this, not whether they are "conservative enough" or are "center right".
The election was legit, franken is legit, but you're not. that or you're under-aware of the facts.