Al Franken has always been an idealist, albeit an idealist of the far left kind. So, deep down, I hope he feels terrible about stealing the Senate election.
To an extent, it was beyond his control. The race was close, and a recount was justified. But I suspect it was more the Democratic engine in Minnesota that engineered this victory for Franken by gradually taking votes away from Coleman and giving votes to Franken.
But I said "to an extent." A true idealist would insist, "Hey, 650 citizens submitted absentee ballots in good faith, and we can't just discount them."
So, Al--congratulations. Welcome to the world of dirty politics. Now go take a shower.
(It's not actually official until the governor--Republican Tim Pawlenty--cosigns the election certificate. So I'm wondering what he'll do.)
Career-wise, I've been hanging around and writing about and cheering on churches and pastors for the past 25 years as my denomination's Communications Director.
I'm also curious to know how an idealist deals with ballot "clarification" involving whiteout and markers while observers are kept far enough away they can't observe. Or the precincts where there were more votes than voters. Or unsecured ballots that appeared days later.
All those seem to clash with idealism.
Given several close elections recently, it seems that we could do better. (Of course there has always been accusations of vote tampering - consider Chicago and Kennedy).
I suppose the challenge is the "ideal of every vote counts" vs. the "ideal of fair and obviously legitimate elections".
I lean to the latter. I want every vote to count, but recognize that the problem is that not every vote is legitimate and valid. Otherwise all precincts just need to keep finding unsecured ballots and divining/interpreting intent.