There is a growing movement out there for Norm Coleman to throw in the towel, and it’s not just limited to the right. Ramesh Ponnuru, a senior editor for the National Review and right wing pundit writes a simple one line post regarding Coleman:
I think it’s time for him to give up this fight.
Scott Johnson from Powerline has a much more verbose article, which also appears on the National Review, about the entire recount and concludes the following:
And I don’t think it can exactly be said that he (Franken) won the election fair and square. Indeed, I can’t find a single good thing to say about him except that he didn’t steal the election
While that is kind of a sinister statement, it pretty much sums it up by saying Coleman is done.
If Coleman continues the fight he is going to not only hurt himself, but also his own party. The governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, is considered a front runner for the GOP in 2012. Now he might have to make a very tough decision – certify the election for Franken, or not. If he does he will certainly upset party insiders, and that hurts his primary chances. If he doesn’t he will risk any chance at winning a general election, already a battle against a highly admired incumbent President.
But Coleman is also committing political suicide. He should take this chance and be the statesman. Bow out of the race and then plan a rerun, or even run for governor – chances are the seat will be vacated. But the longer Norm continues this fight and deprives Minnesota of a Senator, the harder his chances of a political comeback become.
Norm is now in a lose-lose situation, so he does need to do the right thing. Don’t listen to people like John Cornyn, who only worries about building his numbers in the Senate, but rather bow out. The race is over and he lost. Time to move on.