The longer Al franken is delayed from taking office now, the longer he'll remain in office in 2015.

[Towlie]

Article 1, Section 3, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution says "The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote."

This was amended by the Seventeenth Amendment, which says "The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote."

Therefore, even if Al Franken isn't reelected in 2014, he's guaranteed his six years of service by the U.S. Constitution, no matter how long they manage to delay the beginning of his term.

[hobbit709]

1. You're wrong on that

The term is defined as six years from the normal starting time.

[hlthe2b]

2. I don't think the date slides... I think it is based on date of election.

not when he actually assumes the office.

[sofa king]

3. I... am not so sure of that.

I did find an article that might have a full answer (or might not), but I don't have time to read it. And, I don't know if the link is going to work. It's a .pdf file:

http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FSAP%2FSAP19_01%2FS0898588X05000039a.pdf&code=1cdcc9c335baf0957fc0936b8a4b398c

In case that doesn't work, Google will turn up the article from the title, Partisanship and Contested Election Cases in the Senate, 1789–2002, by JA Jenkins, Northwestern U.

In a quick brush-over of some of the tables, I jumped to this immediate conclusion: the more redneck jokes one can tell about a state seems to be the primary indicator of how likely that state is to have a contested election. In descending order, the states with the most contested elections include: Louisiana, West Virginia, Kansas, Maryland. However, a large number of states have had five contested elections since their inclusion in the Union, including Delaware, which is not known for its redneck jokes.

Edit: I should add that the paper makes note of another phenomenon: the person who "wins" the first time around keeps the seat over 70 percent of the time. The person causing the trouble appears to have won only twice since 1789 (can that be right?). Much more often the Senate simply votes to vacate the seat, which generally forces the states to hold another election. One could argue that Coleman's primary objective must be to deny Minnesota its representation in the Senate, for he has minimal statistical or historical precedent for pursuing his line of attack to victory.

[tom_paine]

4. Even if that was legally valid, law means nothing to the Bushies, and they nullify it

as the Nazis did, using both corrupted Bushified-Nazified Law Enforcement, and corrupted Bushified-Nazified-cowering M$M.

It's a nice sentiment you have there, Towlie, but I wouldn't put money on it.

Chance of it happening the way you said it would: 0% ok, I'll be fair: 0.00000000000000001%.

Sorry to be so blunt, but you really should learn what country you are living in.

HINT: It ain't the country we were taught about in school.

http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20080515_chalmers_johnson_on_our_managed_democracy/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml

(just a little taste to get you started on opening your eyes - but as they said in the movie "The Matrix", you may regret taking the Red Pill - somnolence in the face of oncoming terror and horror is often preferable to people)

[endarkenment]

5. uh no