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Minnesota Jewish battle for Senate narrows to 239 votes

[additional-authors]
November 7, 2008

Minnesota law requires a recount in any election where the margin of victory is less than 0.5 percent, which means Democrat Al Franken, who has narrowed the gap on incumbent Republican Norman Coleman to a mere 239 voters, or one one-hundredth of a percent, may still have won a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Both candidates are Jewish, and therefore won’t help or hinder plans to take over the Senate, but the Democrats certainly wouldn’t mind being one senator closer to a filibuster-proof supermajority. In my opinion, that would not be good for anyone.

I’m still amazed by Franken’s ascension from comedian to liberal talk radio host to being a few votes from the Capitol Building. I mean, I’d vote for Jon Stewart for president and Jay Bilas for Congress, but Al Franken? To be honest, I’m not even really sure who Franken is. But this 2001 article by Mark Hemingway for The American Spectator, through a conservative lens, sheds some light:

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