Sure, the election was over a month ago. But I have a life, gosh darnit! Or, as the currently-in-the-lead-after-the-fourth-or-so-recount Al Franken would say, "I'm smart enough, I'm talented enough, and gosh darnit, people like me." Only, in Al's case, he only seems to be liked by people who can't seem to fill out their ballots correctly. Or they just work for Franken and have to be sure he wins so they still have a job in this crazy economy.
In following the Minnesota race (which, by the way, what up Minnesotans? First Jesse "the Body", now Al "the no-talent hack"? What is wrong with you? Though, granted, we have the Governator, so I'm not really in a position to pass judgement), I have seen some striking resemblences to a few other closely contested races. The first being the most obvious, the 2000 Florida general, which was called for Algore, then Bush, then Algore fought it, then was politically murdered with a hacksaw by the Supreme Court. No more recount for you!
But the more striking resemblence is to an apparently little-followed election in 2006 for the govenorship of Washington. I say little-followed because, at the time, I didn't follow it. I was more concerned about my congress going to the asses that are in there now. And I mean ass in the biblical sense, so don't get your panties in a twist.
See, the democrat who was running was in the same position that Franken is currently in: he was losing, but it was very close. Now, granted, the laws they have to abide by are different: Franken's state requires a recount in close calls like this, so he's not entirely to blame. But what happened in Washington was that when the first recount happened, the democrat lost. So he asked for a second recount. It was granted, and he lost again. So he asked for a third recount, and somehow, he magically came out on top, which of course meant that he could stop asking for recounts. Now, I'm not saying he broke any laws; it's certainly within his rights to ask for as many recounts as he wants, and lord knows there's a lot of stuff that happens with ballots that I don't know about. But it seems to me that, if it takes four times to count the ballots in your favor, and the other three times the result was against you, something's not quite on the level.
Now we have Franken challenging ballots that are very clearly designated as to who they wanted to vote for. The voter may not have learned how to bubble in answers (hey, standardized testing IS relevent to modern life!), but it's clear enough to get the point across. This reaks of political opportunism, and having a temper tantrum until he gets his way. Franken is acting like a spoiled two year old who doesn't want to leave the toy section of Walmart!
All I'm saying is this. You don't see Republicans demanding recounts until the vote goes their way; their above that. When they lose, even if it's close, they concede gracefully. If nothing else, on election night John McCain proved that he's a standup guy. I don't agree with him on a lot, but he's a guy that I would want in my corner. It always seems to be the democrats who whine, demand, and scheme their way into office. This is especially bad when a person's trying to get into the only government entity that has a worse approval rating than the President.
Congress has a long way to go to clean up its image, and elections are only proving to most people what they already know: the people we currently have in office won't ever be able to do it. Not surprising considering they're the ones who tainted the image in the first place.
P.S. I hate San Francisco for returning Italian Grandma Barbie to office yet again. I mean, seriously; get a clue.