Why did Norm Coleman concede instead of appealing in federal court? NT

[Eric J in MN]

NT

[Love Bug]

1. My guess is he got a phone call from his republican overlords

telling him they weren't going to fund what would be a futile appeal. They've been watching the spineless Dems in congress lately and realized having that "magic" 60th Dem wasn't going to make a difference because they can't seem to get their shit together anyway.

[trotsky]

2. That is my guess as well.

Hearing the news reports about "Now the Democrats will have a filibuster-proof 60 seat majority." Bullshit. With senators like Nelson, Lincoln, Lieberman, and the like, we have nothing of the sort. Any or all of those and others will join with the Repubs to support a filibuster on many issues. Dems just don't have the party discipline Repukes do.

[indigo32]

3. that about sums it up -NT

[question everything]

4. He wants to run for governor and he will need more than the rabid

Republican voters. After all, he was a Democrat, once.

And most voters got sick and tired of this charade and blamed him.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. The Supreme Court opinion was pretty airtight

and he and his lawyers probably figured they'd look like even bigger fools and losers if they tried to take it any further. And it's likely that Normie doesn't want to give up politics, so by cutting his losses and not making a bigger douche of himself he might preserve a few shreds of political capital to be used later.

[Bjorn Against]

6. I think Pawlenty also had something to do with it

I think the Republicans are putting a lot of stock into Pawlenty and are trying to groom him to be their next Presidential candidate and they would prefer avoid seeing him get into big controversies. He had largely been able to avoid being too closely tied to the Senate race because up until yesterday he could just say that the law did not allow him to sign the election certificate. If Coleman had pursued an appeal it would have put Pawlenty in the position of having to choose between pissing off your base by signing the election certificate or pissing off all the independents who don't want to see partisanship keep us from being represented by a second Senator. If Coleman would have kept going it would have hurt Pawlenty, I don't think the Republicans want to sacrifice Pawlenty for a battle they knew they would eventually lose anyways.

[CatholicEdHead]

7. True, and their previous top choice, the governor of SC

disgraced himself pushing Pawlenty to a higher level as Sanford's hopes withered in Argentina.