Campaign 2008: Over At Last?

Erstwhile incumbent Senator Norm Coleman has finally conceded defeat in his campaign for re-election after a Minnesota court ruled unanimously today that his rival, Al Franken, was entitled to certification from the state's governor as Senator-elect. Such has been the intensity of feeling in this struggle that it is still not certain whether Gov. Pawlenty, a Republican, would certify Franken's election unless the court has explicitly ordered him to do so. Republicans nationwide may still urge him to refuse, convinced as many remain that a steal of near-Iranian proportions was perpetrated in that state by the usual suspects of the reactionary imagination. If Pawlenty decides to make a final stand against Franken, whose arrival in the Senate would give the Democrats a filibuster-proof majority in league with that body's two independents, it may prove necessary to secure a writ of mandamus or something comparable to compel the governor to finally conclude the election. In a case like this, Yogi Berra's wisdom applies: it ain't over until everyone says it's over, and even then it may never end in the minds of those for whom politics is always an ideological blood feud.