Al Franken Wins...

...8 months after he was elected U.S. Senator from Minnesota. Today, the Minnesota State Supreme Court ruled that he did so by a margin of 312 votes and finally, excruciatingly so, Republican incumbent Norm Coleman, otherwise known as sore loser, conceded defeat after countless recounts. Now the U.S. Senate can legitimately undertake the business of the nation.

We in New York State, however, continue to wait for our Senate to resolve a similar power struggle between Republicans and Democrats. Even though the Republicans have controlled the NY Senate for 40 years, yes 40 years, they could not accept their defeat last November. They staged a coup this spring to regain leadership by appending two, but then losing one, Democratic rope jumpers, unfortunately and inadvertently creating a 31-31 tie.

Power-sharing resolutions are expected but have failed to materialize. And, despite orders from the Governor to return to the business of the state, the Senate having first engaged in separate but equal attendance have failed to maintain even these feeble attempts at conducting business. The only successful action has been separate but ratifiable orders to ensure that they get paid. Sad but true but, I digress.

Al Franken's win delivers a 60 vote Democratic quorum to the United States Senate. Hopefully this leads to something good but the rising and inescapable bad sportsmanship of the GOP is starting to reach indefatigable proportions. Must the rich and powerful make mockery of everything we thought we had a stake in? The saga continues...