Minnesota, the one Senator state

i've been kinda sorta following the epic drama of the minnesota senatorial election recount... i essentially lost interest once it became apparent that the proceedings were going to drag out ad infinitum... i simply do not understand why, with votes being cast nearly five months ago, this couldn't have been resolved by the end of the year at the latest...

A three-judge state panel convened to review an election contest brought by former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman (R) in his race against entertainer Al Franken (D) has dealt the Republican a serious setback in its ruling this afternoon.

The panel will allow the consideration of only 400 wrongly rejected absentee ballots to be reviewed and possibly counted -- making it very difficult for Coleman to make up the 225-vote deficit he currently carries.

[...]

The ballots will be opened, sorted and potentially counted by the Minnesota Secretary of State on April 7. It remains unclear how many of the 400 votes will actually be counted. It's also unknown whether Coleman will appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court, which is within his rights.

[...]

National Republicans have pledged to fight -- and filibuster -- any attempt to seat Franken as the 59th Democratic Senator in the 111th Congress prior to Coleman exhausting his legal rights.

... [W]atch to see whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) moves forward with seating Franken or whether he continues to wait Coleman out.

leaving minnesota with only one senator during perhaps one of the heaviest periods of critical votes in the nation's history seems to me to be a gross violation of everything the democratic process stands for, and i just don't get why that's been allowed to happen... i know coleman and the repubs are determined to fight to the death and will appeal all the way to the supreme court if necessary, but that still doesn't explain why the courts could not have made a serious effort to fast-track the process...

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