This morning I participated in a conference call with Senator Norm Coleman and attorney, Ben Ginsburg. The call has been covered here and here but I would also like to make a few observations.

The current Al Franken lead may very well be artificial. Why? It includes the double counted ballots. The Franken team has ignored the canvassing board statements that there were inconsistent standards applied to absentee ballots and because of this, the election case was and is a legitimately contested case. The ballots covered by the canvassing board were predominantly from strong DFL areas. By reviewing the additional 4800 absentee ballots, the universe of ballots that should have been reviewed is increased. We on the conference call, do not know where these ballots come from, nor do we know their votes. However, it seems that it is entirely possible that with a more consistent review of absentee ballots, the election result will be legitimate.

The Minnesota Court is quite aware of the equal protection issues involved in this election.

Other topics: one asked if Al Franken's tax problems had been solved and if the Coleman team was going to pursue it. As Senator Coleman stated (I paraphrase), "That is the media's job, not mind." Interesting that the media has no interest in pursuing the Franken tax problems. Then again, so many Democrats have had problems with taxes, perhaps it's just too much work to cover any more. Just ask yourself, though, if a Republican had not paid taxes in 17 or so states, would the press have been quiet? I don't think so.