SPEAKERS: SEN. JOHN CORNYN, R-TEXAS

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR

[*] CHETRY: Texas Senator John Cornyn is chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee and he joins me from Capitol Hill.

Senator Cornyn, thanks for joining us this morning. CORNYN: Good morning, good to be with you.

CHETRY: So it does look like -- I mean, after a lot of back and forth and two months after the election -- that the state of Minnesota is going to be declaring Al Franken the winner of the race -- of the recount today. You say that Republicans are going to block Democrats from seating him. What is your argument?

CORNYN: Well, there’s the Senate rules, which require an election certificate, which won’t be issued for seven days after the canvassing board makes its announcement. Its work is concluded. And then of course, there are the issues that have been raised in the Minnesota Supreme Court and which will be raised in front of a three- judge panel about double counted ballots and other irregularities in the process which are important to make sure that every vote counts.

CHETRY: So you’re saying that the legal avenues for Norm Coleman have not been exhausted. You don’t want Al -- Al Franken to be seated, or anyone to be seated, until all the legal challenges in Minnesota are up?

CORNYN: That’s correct. And the -- and the the rules to the Senate -- rule two of the rules of the Senate require an election certificate. In Minnesota that has to be signed by both the secretary of state and the governor, and it can’t be issued before seven days have expired after the canvassing board’s decision. So we’re getting closer to a resolution but we’re not there yet.

CHETRY: All right. So -- I mean, how much of this is just stalling, then, the inevitable? I mean, if -- if they’re claiming that this is done, they’re claiming that they’ve decided that Franken is the winner after recounting some of these ballots, aren’t you just delaying the inevitable?

CORNYN: No, not necessarily. There’s a matter of the lack of a uniform standard by which to count the absentee ballots. The Coleman campaign still contends that there are about 700 absentee ballots that were not counted, and it’s pointed to the likelihood that about 133 ballots were double counted in Franken’s favor.

So these sorts of issues needed to be sorted out. The best place to do that’s in court where the rules of evidence apply, so we know with confidence at the end of the day who got the most votes in Minnesota in the Senate race.

CHETRY: You know, a lot of people have watched this race for a number of reasons. One of them, though, is that, you know, some are asking how did the GOP get into this situation? You guys lost seven Senate seats. Norm -- Norm Coleman was, at one point, a pretty popular incumbent and he’s doing everything he can now to hang on to a seat by a political newcomer. What happened in Minnesota with this Senate seat?

CORNYN: Well, I think it’s what happened nationally. It was a tough year for Republicans. You correctly point out that Republicans have lost -- if this seat goes down, we lost 13 -- if this seat goes down, 14 Senate seats in the last two years. We’re in a pretty tough spot with 41 Republican senators, hopefully 42 if Coleman prevails in the litigation. But that’s almost a filibuster-proof Senate, which means that the White House, controlled by President-elect Obama, the democratic majorities in the House and the Senate can pretty much do what they want.