I try, as a matter of principle, to keep partisan watchfulness/cynicism out of how I view the exercise of democracy.  Pinky swear, I do.

It’d be a lot easier, in re Minnesota’s ongoing recount, if Minnesota’s Secretary of State weren’t someone who’d come into office pledging radical changes in our electoral system, and flaunting affiliations with ACORN, the liberal fraud mill. 

As it is?  Hanging on by the skin of my teeth:

With Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman clinging to a reed-thin lead over DFL challenger Al Franken — 180 votes as of Saturday night — the issue of how and when absentee ballots should be counted has election law experts everywhere closely tracking the Minnesota recount drama.

In a race this tight, the difference could come down to clerical errors on absentee ballots or even a challenge of Minnesota’s law governing such ballots.

“Campaigns over the years have challenged anything and everything,” said recount expert Timothy Downs, principal author of “The Recount Primer” who has been involved in most major recounts over the years, including the biggest: Gore vs. Bush in 2000. Downs’ co-author, Chris Sautter, hit the ground in Minneapolis last week as part of Franken’s recount team.

This recount – between a solid, moderate incumbent Senator and a facile polemicist with issues – is almost a bigger embarassment than having had Jesse Ventura as governor;  Ventura was the product of a more trivial time in politics, when states could afford the political equivalent of a drunken one-night stand. 

That Franken is even in the running, that he was even endorsed, should embarass us all.