One of only two Senators still standing up for the middle class

The problem is that Al and Bernie can't do it by themselves.

This is what a fighting Democrat looks like

And they thought Al Franken was just a clown.

The comedian vs. KBR: Guess who won

Best. Senator. EVAH:

A significant test case in the Supreme Court on the legal rules that govern military contractors’ liability for employee misconduct in war zones has now ended, without any action by the Justices. In an order now shown on the Court’s docket, the Court dismissed the case of KBR Technical Services, et al., v. Jones (09-864). This was done March 11 under the Court’s Rule 46, which allows parties to agree to end a pending case; no explanation is given for such dismissals. (The petition is here, and the brief in opposition is here.)

The case has drawn heavy publicity, and led to action by Congress to limit defense contractors’ legal rights toward their workers, because it involves claims of gang rape and serious injury of a female worker for KBR (a Halliburton Co. subsidiary) in employee housing in the so-called “Green Zone” in Baghdad, Iraq. The case now is headed for trial in federal court, currently scheduled to begin in Houston on May 16 of next year. Pretrial motions are due there in February.

>The former KBR employee is Jamie Leigh Jones, whose lawsuit contends that, three days after arriving in Iraq in July 2005, she was sexually assaulted in company barracks in Baghdad. Here is the way the Fifth Circuit Court described her claims: “Jones alleges that, following a social gathering outside her barracks, at which alcohol had been consumed, she was drugged, beaten, and gang-raped by several Halliburton/KBR employees in her barracks bedrooom.” She also claims that, after the attack, her supervisors placed her “under armed guard in a container.” After she was freed, and returned to the U.S., she complained to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and it confirmed the assault.

Initially, she sought to have her legal claims sent to arbitration but, with a new lawyer, filed her lawsuit in federal court. KBR then sought to send the entire dispute to arbitration, noting that, as an employee, Jones had agreed to arbitrate workplace disputes. A federal judge allowed some issues to go to arbitration, but ruled that others had to be tried in court. The Fifth Circuit agreed, leading KBR to file its petition in the Supreme Court in January.

The petition accused Jones of going “to great lengths to sensationalize her allegations against the KBR Defendants in the media, before the courts, and before Congress.” The reference to congressional action was to the so-called “Franken Amendment,” named for its chief sponsor, Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken. That provision, a direct response to Jones’ claims, bars some Pentagon contractors from receiving federal funds if they seek to enforce arbitration of claims against them involving sexual assault or harassment.

KBR insisted in its Supreme Court filing that “the legislation does not affect this case.” Jones’ lawyers, in opposing Supreme Court review, argued that the reach of the Franken Amendment remains unresolved. That, apparently, will be one of the issues that will be explored further as the case goes forward in federal District Court.

The KBR petition, limited to the arbitration question, argued that the Fifth Circuit had adopted “a narrow construction of standard arbitration language to exclude sexual assault claims,” setting up a conflict with other federal appeals courts and state supreme courts, and breaching the strong federal policy in favor of arbitration. Jones’ lawyers responded that the Fifth Circuit was right in concluding that her sexual assault claims were not related to her employment, and thus were outside the arbitration obligation. KBR had not filed a reply brief by the time the question of dismissing its petition arose.

KBR’s lead lawyer on the petition, Washington attorney Stephen R. Kinnaird of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker, on Monday declined a request for comment on the dismissal. Heather L. Brown, communications director for KBR Inc., in Houston, issued this statement: “KBR’s decision to withdraw its petition from the Supreme Court was related to the Franken amendment. It is our belief that the language of the amendment is very broad and vague. As a result, KBR did not want to risk being in violation of the amendment, so the company withdrew its petition.”

THAT, my friends, is what happens when Democrats stand up for what's right instead of who's powerful.

This may be the only time you will ever hear me say this

From David Brooks' mouth to Goddess' ear:

Franken has been in office for almost a year now and it has become clear over the past month that he has become a vocal and qualified leader and will continue to be for many more years. Everything started with the Joe Lieberman (Lie-berman) incident.

Now infamous, the Lieberman incident took place in the middle of December. On 12-18-2009 Franken denied Lieberman additional time to finish a statement. This is a very rare occurrence and John McCain noted that it was the first time he had seen this in the 142 years he has been in the US senate (really only 23 years).

Why is this important? Well, Franken shows his bulldog mentality here for the very first time in the senate. He doesn’t let Lieberman or McCain, members of the old republican political machine, beat him down.

Lieberman was talking about health care reform at the time and he is known as someone who flip-flops on the issues. Franken knew this and denied him time in a very professional manner. Killing him with Minnesota kindness!

[snip]

He won a highly contested election that cost millions and millions of dollars. He has overcome the image that he was a Hollywood outsider or a fake Minnesotan. It has become crystal clear over the past three months that Sen. Franken is able to become the aggressive and vocal leader the Democrats sorely need. Whether or not the political gods weigh in his favor, that has yet to be decided.

How does "Senate Majority Leader Al Franken" sound to ya? Sounds pretty sweet to me.

A rare bright spot in a year of Democratic sellouts

The Year of the Franken.

And yeah, this guy too.

He's good enough, he's smart enough, and doggone it, I really, really like him

Here's the context: Republican Senators Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma, the state where he says the school bathrooms are overrun with lesbians) and David Vitter (R-Diapers), are the co-sponsors of a Republican protest measure that would require Congress to go on the public health insurance option if it passes. Never mind that Congress is ALREADY on a public option, but that's beside the point. We already know what reality is where Republicans are concerned. The point of this whole thing is relying on the clubbiness of Congress to force Senators to say "Oh, no...that's good enough for the little people, but not good enough for us."

Enter Senator Sherrod Brown:

Whenever Democrats talk about their proposed federally backed insurance plan, or public option, in the ongoing health-care debate, critics pipe up. If you think this public option is so great, they say, why don't you demand that all members of Congress go on it, too?

Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown says that's a fine idea. And this morning, he forced his way onto a Republican amendment saying as much, becoming a co-sponsor of a Republican protest measure that would require Congress to go on the public option if it passes.

Fact is, Republicans pushing the amendment are using it as a form of rotten eggs to hurl at their opponents. But Brown, a key sponsor of the public option legislation, likes those eggs.

Brown has refused to participate in the government's array of health insurance plans for 17 years, saying they are more generous than the coverage choices that many other Americans get. Why should Congress get such sweet coverage? he asks.

[snip]

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma didn't seem to be in a hurry to bring on Brown as a co-sponsor. Coburn had Republican co-sponsors, but Brown's office says the Ohio Democrat never could get a commitment to be added, despite nine calls from his staff to Coburn's staff over the last week.

So this morning, Brown stood on the Senate floor and forced the matter. He asked for unanimous consent to be added as a co-sponsor to the amendment. This procedure is usually reserved for issues of little controversy because it bypasses a roll-call vote.

But in an open, televised proceeding, who's going to oppose a senator's genuine desire? So fellow senators granted Brown's wish. Next time someone asks why members of Congress won't go on the public option if it's so darn good, look for Brown to push his way into the fight and say, Yeah, buddy, you're darn right.

Nice work by Sen. Brown. I take back everything I thought about him back when Chuck Schumer forced Paul Hackett out of the race in which he won that Senate seat.

It would have been nice if Al Franken had been the one to call the Republicans' bluff, but he did a nice job of signing on. I especially like him reminding David "Hookers" Vitter of his own 34-year marriage. A nice touch. If we wondered how Franken would integrate comedy into his Senate work, here you go.

More like these, please.

Grayson/Franken 2016

Or Franken/Grayson. Or screw it, how about 2012? If, as I'm reading elsewhere, Barack Obama is willing to sell out public competition for insurance companies on the altar of the worship of Olympia Snowe, then the hell with it. Let's run these guys in 2012 and get our country back already:

(heh. "Captain Cojones.")

And for those who would say, "What about a woman?" Sorry, but mere presence of a uterus in the Oval Office isn't going to guarantee that this government is run for the people rather than lobbyists.

OK, I've decided

Al Franken: GREAT Senator:

Al Franken: Good Senator, or GREAT Senator?

I can't help but compare the early days of Senator Al Franken to the early days of Senator Barack Obama. Barack Obama sat on his hands rather than stand up for the black citizens of Ohio who were denied the chance to vote in the 2004 election and chose Joe Lieberman has his mentor. Yesterday Al Franken spoke about his amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations Act that would:

prohibit the use of funds for any Federal contract with Halliburton Company, KBR, Inc., any of their subsidiaries or affiliates, or any other contracting party if such contractor or a subcontractor at any tier under such contract requires that employees or independent contractors sign mandatory arbitration clauses regarding certain claims.

Franken's amendment specifically removes the free pass that the Cheney Administration gave to the company in which former Vice President had a significant financial interest. The amendment passed 68-30 yesterday.

One of the "Nay" votes came from Mr. Maverick himself, John McCain, who obviously thinks that KBR should be able to electrocute soldiers and give them tainted water, and allow its male employees to rape its female employees.

(h/t)

Al Franken: A better senator than we could have imagined in our most liberal dreams

From Blue Girl:

Senator Al Franken is proving his mettle as a United States Senator and leaving no doubt that he is absolutely cut out for the job and is doing it for the right reasons and the right people - the American people, not corporations.

To that end, he has offered an amendment to the annual Defense Appropriations bill that would prohibit the DoD from using contractors and subcontractors that requite their employees to resolve Title VII and sexual assault tort claims via forced arbitration.

Senator Franken's amendment is limited in scope, covering only Title VII and sexual assault cases, but if it passes the amendment will cover a major portion of employment cases that are brought by workers and would be an extremely important precedent for blocking forced arbitration of claims filed by employees.

The Amendment is set to come to the floor for a vote tomorrow afternoon. Call the Senate Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Senator's office and tell your Senators that you want to support Senator Franken's amendment.

Mandatory arbitration of employee-brought cases is pure evil, denying access to the courts to people who need it most. I find it especially galling when a woman who has volunteered to go work in a war zone as a medic or a firefighter or in any other capacity is sexually assaulted by a coworker in a war zone should not be doubly victimized by a system that denies her access to the courts, the only method of redress she has.

Attention U.S. Senators: This is how it's done

I wish Al Franken were my Senator:

Now maybe the teabaggers in this crowd were more inclined to listen to Al Franken because he's a celebrity. But the fact of the matter is that Al Franken, whom no one took seriously and everyone thought was a clown, had a serious conversation with people who were all prepared to disagree with him. He was prepared, he told them FACTS, he did it in a way anyone can understand, and while he might not have converted anyone, at least he made them think.

Al Franken may just be our next Lion after all.

I was right about the Chappaquiddick trolls, now let the Wellstoning begin

And it already has:

Hannity on
Kennedy's death: "a lot of this was the politicizing of -- remember Paul Wellstone's
death?" Discussing Kennedy's death during his radio program, Sean Hannity asserted, "We've got The Wall Street Journal reporting -- and by the way, a
lot of this was the politicizing of -- remember Paul Wellstone's death? You know,
'Let's do everything for Paul.' And we're now being implored to get behind Obamacare because it's what Ted Kennedy would have wanted." [The Sean Hannity Show,
8/26/09]

Savage fill-in Markowski on possible naming of health care bill after Kennedy: "It's political theater" like the "Wellstone memorial." Chris Markowski, filling in for Michael Savage on his radio program, took a caller who said that "if Ted Kennedy had wanted his name on this health care bill, I think that he would -- I would want to see where he said that in writing before he died. He had plenty of time." Markowski responded, in part, by asserting: "I don't think he's requested -- you got to understand, it's a show. OK? It's political theater. Like the Democrats thought that whole Wellstone memorial was going to -- it was going to force them to -- it was going to allow them to win the Senate race in Minnesota. This is political theater. It's a show." [The Savage Nation, 8/26/09]

Lopez on Kennedy's death: Wellstone service "turned into a political rally." The National Review Online's Kathyrn Jean Lopez wrote in an August 26 post to the blog The Corner titled "Re: The Politics of Ted Kennedy's Passing": "All politicos need to remember the Wellstone funeral when a well-known politician dies. Instead of memorializing his life, his service turned into a political rally. Some of the MSNBC coverage today I'm catching looks like a [sic] Obamacare convocation. Human life is about more than poltics. And politics isn't American Idol. Or, even, The Lion of the Senate."

Allahpundit "sure" Kennedy "eulogies won't be politicized at all." Hot Air blogger Allahpundit wrote in an August 26 tweet: "Looking forward to the Democratic line-up at TK's memorial service. I'm sure the eulogies won't be politicized at all."

Instapundit: "A Wellstone Memorial on steroids?" An August 26 post on Instapundit.com linked to a post by JammieWearingFool with the headline "A Wellstone Memorial on steroids? And how did that work out?" JammieWearingFool asserted in the post, written the same day, "While we have no doubt the Democrats will do all they can to exploit his death and will probably have a Wellstone memorial on steroids, we'll stay above that." The link on the words "Wellstone memorial" were to an October 30,
2002, Slate.com article describing Wellstone's memorial services as a "pep
rally."

Noting "conservative talking point," Politico's Smith says "[i]t would seem odd to bar politics" from Kennedy's funeral. In an August 26 post, Politico's Ben Smith referred to the comments by Allahpundit and Instapundit as "a conservative talking point [that] is emerging to counter the the hope on the left that Kennedy's death will advance his cause of health care reform," and commented:

More...

I'll say this for them, they are disciplined. The hate all flows exactly the same way from every last one of them. They are really good at goose-stepping together. It's that authoritarian thing they have.

But while the right is terrified that the Kennedy memorials may serve to underscore just how much this man did for the have-nots and the have-lesses and how much the Republicans take pride in screwing over the average working American (see also: Tom Coburn:)

...let's look at what Al Franken wrote in 2006, talking about the Coretta Scott King memorial and setting the record straight on the Wellstone funeral:

To this day, there are still a lot of people, including Democrats, who've bought the right wing line on the Wellstone Memorial. Specifically, that it was a cynical, premeditated political event that included endless booing of Republican politicians who came to pay their respects to their fallen colleague. I wrote a pretty detailed account of the Wellstone Memorial in my book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and nothing could be further from the truth. I did write that "reasonable people of good will were genuinely offended." The memorial was raucous and a couple of speakers said some things that were inappropriate - basically, let's win this (upcoming Senate) election for Paul.

There were also honest Republicans of good will, including Jim Ramstad - the Congressman from the Minneapolis suburban district I grew up in - who acted like human beings and cut the speakers who offended (Rick Kahn and, to a lesser degree, Mark Wellstone) a little slack because they understood that Rick had lost six very close friends and Mark had lost his father, mother, and sister.

The chapter was mainly about how cynically Republicans used the memorial politically as they complained that the Democrats had used it politically. And how the mainstream media, many of whom had neither attended the memorial nor seen it on TV, bought into the Republican spin.

Mainly, there was a lot of lying. Rush Limbaugh claimed that the audience was "planted," when, in fact, Twin Cities' radio and TV had to tell people to stay away because Williams Arena was jammed to capacity three hours before the Memorial was scheduled to begin. Thousands were crowded into an overflow gym to watch on a screen and thousands watched outside on a cold, late October night.

A pained Limbaugh asked his audience the day after the memorial: "Where was the grief? Where were the tears? Where was the memorial service? There wasn't any of this!"

This was a lie. I was there. Along with everyone else, I cried, I laughed, I cheered. It was, to my mind, a beautiful four-hour memorial.

I didn't boo. Neither did 22,800 of the some 23,000 people there. This has been a much discussed, much lied about aspect of the memorial. A number of Republicans, like Peggy Noonan and Weekly Standard writer Chris Caldwell claimed that 20,000 people had booed Trent Lott. (Caldwell claimed that 20,000 people booed a whole litany of people who weren't booed at all.) We'll never get an actual count - but I'd say about two hundred people booed Trent Lott when his face came on the Jumbotron. This was about a minute after 23,000 people cheered for Bill Clinton when his face appeared on the Jumbotron.

The Jumbotron was carrying the C-SPAN feed, and unless you were watching live, you almost certainly have never seen the moment that Trent Lott was booed. That's because none of the cable news shows repeated it. That's because you can't hear him being booed. And that's because so few people booed him. Also, I swear, it was a good-natured "kill the umpire" boo, (and Lott actually grinned) but I could never prove that. What I have proven is that you couldn't hear the boos on TV because on my book-on-tape I played the audio of the C-SPAN video to compare the 23,000 cheering for Clinton with the smattering of boos for Lott, and you CANNOT hear the boos.

Caldwell, who never saw the memorial, also wrote that there was almost no mention of the others who died on the plane. That was complete bull. There were beautiful eulogies for Will, Tom, and Mary.

Kellyanne (Fitzpatrick) Conway went on TV the day after the memorial and told a nationwide audience that the Jumbotron instructed the crowd "when to cheer and when to jeer." (The speeches were close-captioned and would indicate when there was LAUGHTER and APPLAUSE.)

Even though the words on the closed captioning followed the speaker's words by five or so seconds and were often misspelled, Sara Janecek, a Minnesota Republican lobbyist, said the speeches on the Jumbotron were proof that the speeches had been written and vetted by the cynically politically motivated Democrat who ran the event. Actually, the people who spoke at the Wellstone memorial were all chosen by the families of those who died. No one's speech was vetted. The Wellstone people had all spent the previous five days going to funerals. It never occurred to them to vet the speeches. The irony is that because they weren't thinking politically, they opened themselves to being accused of staging a political event..

It was the Republicans that tried to cheapen Paul Wellstone's life by dishonoring his death. It was the right-wing media, not the friends and family who spoke at the memorial or the people who came to it, that seized an opportunity to use a tragedy for political gain.

But as we know, with conservatives reality is immaterial. For the Republicans EVERYTHING is about scoring cheap political points with the very same frightened, down-sliding Americans they've spent the last nearly thirty years trying to push down into abject poverty so that they and their buddies can reap ALL the rewards of living in this country. If you liked feudal Europe, you'll LOVE Republican America. And we're well on their way there. It's only because of the efforts of people like Paul Wellstone and Ted Kennedy and Bernie Sanders and, we can only hope, Al Franken, that we aren't there yet.

But the wingnuts won't give up. The Republicans in Washington know who they're dealing with. They know that they are already reaping the fruits of the war on public education that they've been fighting since the 1960's:

American children aren't necessarily getting smarter or dumber, but that might not be good enough to compete globally, according to numbers cited Tuesday by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

He noted a special analysis put out last week by the National Center for Education Statistics that compares 15-year-old U.S. students with students from other countries in the Organization for Economic Development.

It found the U.S. students placed below average in math and science. In math, U.S. high schoolers were in the bottom quarter of the countries that participated, trailing countries including Finland, China and Estonia.

According to the report, the U.S. math scores were not measurably different in 2006 from the previous scores in 2003. But while other countries have improved, the United States has remained stagnant.

In science, the United States falls behind countries such as Canada, Japan and the Czech Republic.

Duncan told a room full of science and math experts of the National Science Board on Tuesday morning that this will hurt the United States as it competes internationally. "We are lagging the rest of the world, and we are lagging it in pretty substantial ways," he said.

I don't know how, when the media are willing to treat utter horsepuckey and demonstrable facts as two sides of an issue, we are supposed to fight back. It is beginning to dawn on me that perhaps the Great Experiement has failed after all.

I have a co-worker from China, who is raising a child here in this country. In China, parents are very strict with their children. My co-worker's parents, when they visit from China, are appalled at how permissive she is. And yet her daughter is already in rebellious teenager mode and she's not even ten yet -- because HER friends get to do whatever they want. This Chinese woman is stuck raising an American child, and American children are asked to do nothing they don't want to do. These are the adults of tomorrow. Their parents are the ones who can't be bothered to know what's going on in the world beyond the soccer team; the parents for whom Good Morning America constitutes news; the ones in my district who think Marge Roukema is still in Congress.

Republicans are reaping the rewards of the dumbing-down of America, and I'm not sure there is a damn thing we can do to reverse it.

Welcome Senator Franken!

He may be an Israel-loving Nazi (if that's even possible,) but hes our Israel-loving Nazi. Buy him for the humor and his lefty vote, and keep him because he is actually a guy who cares about the country!!
If we threw out every politician on our side that was not about to bash Israel, we'd have a pretty empty side of the chamber. Yes, to me personally, its a problem that deserves another discussion. But to hold Franken to a higher standard is a little like throwing the vote out with the kool-aid...or something like that.

h/t Joe Conason via facebook

c/p RIP Coco

"Political realities": Translation: Don't piss off the Blue Dogs because they're so mean we can't control them

In case you had any doubts that Washington DC was one giant hackocracy full of venal, greedy bastards from both parties who just want to shovel as much corporate cash into their pockets, and listen not one whit to the American people, here's your proof:

All was well within the Democratic Party, which had finally received that elusive 60th caucus member. The Republican filibuster would be no longer be a threat.

Or maybe not.

Franken is expected to come to Washington after the July 4th recess. But not everyone is convinced that his presence will make a huge political difference. The reality, which few in the Democratic Party are willing to talk about openly, is that there are really only 58 caucusing members. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-MA, has been out for nearly all of the current Congress on medical leave. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-WV, while released from the hospital on Tuesday morning, continues to face health issues of his own. Meanwhile, moderate Democrats like Mary Landrieu, D-La, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., have made it almost a point of pride in not allowing their votes to be taken for granted. And on specific issues, the party has proven strikingly allergic to philosophical unison.

"It is good news for the Democrats and it is bad news for the Republicans. That is a simple fact," said Mo Elleithee, a Democratic strategist who has worked on Hillary Clinton and Terry McAuliffe's campaigns. "Having said that, you don't want to get too far ahead of yourself here. It is not like the caucus is unanimous on every issue."

Talking on condition of anonymity, some Democratic strategists were even blunter. "Sixty is an imaginary number," said one operative. "You are always going to lose the Ben Nelsons and all the centrists. This is why 2010 proves to be so important because it can set a buffer for that 60 threshold."

The threshhold for a filibuster-proof majority is now exactly one more than the number of Democrats you have.

Useless sacks of shit.

Isn't it funny how Republicans never thought like this? They had 51 seats, they were king of the fucking world. But Harry Reid is folded in a fetal position in the corner, lest Ben Nelson and Evan Bayh and the other corporatist suckup say mean things.

Can we please vote these weasels out of office and get some Democrats with some stones in there? It's things that make me miss Paul Wellstone more every fucking day. And even though Al Franken has finally taken back that seat from the people who murdered Sen. Wellstone, I'm not convinced he's going to be significantly more progressive than the blue dogs.

I am hoping he'll surprise me.

Norm Coleman Finally Concedes....Finally!! Congratulations Senator Franken!

And congratulations to all of us for the majority and for the end of this circle jerk. Of course, Coleman felt like he had to do this for the people...just like my own Joementum Lieberman! Sometimes the people don't want your idea of justice!



c/p RIP Coco

So will Tim Pawlenty certify the 2008 election now?

The Minnesota Supreme Court delivered the smackdown to Smarmin' Normin' Coleman today:

The Minnesota Supreme Court has just ruled that Democrat Al Franken will be the state's next U.S. Senator bringing the months long contest against former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

The decision was a unanimous 5 to 0 ruling, finding that Franken was "entitled" to be certified by the state's Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and its Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.

Pawlenty has recently said he would sign the certification for Franken, if ordered to do so by the MN Supremes. The state requires a signature for certification from both the Governor and the Sec. of State before Congress members may be seated. State law also allows for all election contests to be settled in the state before certification is signed.

Here's the kicker, though. I'm not sure that this decision constitutes a direct order. It says that Franken was "entitled" to be certified, but is that an order?

UPDATE: MSNBC is reporting that Norm Coleman has conceded. Doesn't mean Pawlenty will certify the election, though...

Tim Pawlenty throws in the towel

Apparently Minnesota Governor and alleged Republican rising star Tim Pawlenty has decided not to hinge his 2012 hopes on depriving Minnesota of a second Senator.

Via Bradblog:

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) informed MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell:

I can't sign the certificate until the State court process is complete. We don't know who the winner is, but as soon as that process is complete and they give direction as to signing the certificate, I'm going to sign it…

Pawlenty's remarks are consistent with MN Election Law as interpreted [PDF] by the MN Supreme Court in Franken v. Pawlenty. MN law prevents either Governor Pawlenty (R) or Secretary of State Mark Ritchie (D) from signing the certificate once an election contest has commenced and before it is completed in state court. It is also consistent with the legal argument presented by Al Franken in his MN Supreme Court brief [PDF] that the MN Supreme Court should order the Governor and Secretary of State to perform what amounts to a "ministerial duty" to sign and countersign the certification of election upon the completion of the state court process. This statement follows, within one day, Pawlenty's announcement that he would not seek a third term as Governor.

It isn't over till Norm Coleman wins

Or so sayeth the Coleman camp tonight, after a 3-judge panel in Minnesota declared Al Franken the winner of that state's Senatorial election last November:

"More than 4,400 Minnesotans remain wrongly disenfranchised by this court's order," Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg said in a statement. "By its own terms, the court has included votes it has found to be 'illegal' in the contest to remain included in the final counts from Election Day, and equal protection and due process concerns have been ignored. For these reasons, we must appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court so that no voter is left behind."

The three-judge panel rejected Coleman's equal-protection arguments, saying that "errors or irregularities identified by contestants in the general election do not violate the mandates of equal protection."

The court's decision marks a new chapter in the race — one that will play out not just in the legal system but in the court of public opinion.

Even as the two sides were awaiting Monday's ruling, they were engaged in a message war — with Franken's allies amping up the pressure on Coleman to quit and Republicans blaming Franken for dragging out the process.

“The clock is ticking for Norm Coleman – and should he choose to drag this out longer with an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court, it ought to be the end of the road,” Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said before the court ruled. “It is time for him to stop allowing national Republicans to hold the seat hostage to pursue their ideological agenda.”

In the days before the ruling, Coleman’s allies were increasingly trying to highlight what they see as a constitutional violation — that Minnesota counties used varying methods for tabulating thousands of absentee ballots. Moreover, they were arguing that the delay in seating a new Minnesota senator falls on Franken for trying to limit the review of some 4,400 ballots.

“I think the bigger problem is that Democrats want to end the contest before it has run its course,” said Ron Carey, chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party, which launched a petition drive urging Coleman to continue fighting in the courts.

Coleman himself has been making the rounds on conservative radio and TV talk shows to make an appeal that he’ll win eventually – an effort strategists say helps bolster Republican support nationally in a bid to help raise funds. And he’s been making the rounds in Minnesota to keep his backers behind him in the ongoing affair.

Franken, meanwhile, is trying to show that his seating is imminent, with a spokeswoman saying before the ruling came down that he is “spending time listening to Minnesotans and preparing to tackle these issues the minute he’s sworn in.”

The case heads next to the Minnesota Supreme Court, and a decision there likely won’t come until the end of May at the earliest. At that point, the loser has a choice — seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court or wage a new battle in federal district court.

Norm Coleman's refusal to go away even though he has clearly lost and makes new arguments that often contradict the old ones are the first real test since the Bush/Gore race of 2000 of the new Republican doctrine of elections: disenfranchise as many Democrats as you can, and if that isn't enough, tie up close elections in the courts forever. Every day that Franken isn't seated is one less day of the Democrats being that one vote closer to the filibuster-proof Democratic majority that Republicans fear more than anything else.

And in regard to The Liberal Media, Brad Friedman reports on AP's refusal to call the person who received the most votes the winner.

Why are the people who run progressive talk radio such nimrods?

There are few people who have been bigger supporters of progressive talk radio than I am, and few blogs that have been more supportive than this one. Here at Casa la Brilliant, we started listening to Air America Radio from the very first day. Mr. Brilliant tuned in at noon on March 31, 2004, and we both started in with Morning Sedition the very next day. The trials and tribulations of Air America are now legendary, from the petty and preposterous Danny Goldberg first cancelling Unfiltered, which featured the creator of The Daily Show and some lesbian who'd never amount to anything named, uh, RACHEL MADDOW; and then Morning Sedition. The latter show will someday be listened to by radio cultists the way Jean Shepherd and Bob & Ray are today. I don't think Air America ever got its bearings back after that, as it has spent the last three years futzing around, first losing Al Franken to the then-unknown purgatory of running for Senate in Minnesota, screwing over the talented and loyal Sam Seder seventeen ways to Sunday, barely noticing as Rachel Maddow began her tiptoe out the door towards the greener pastures of MSNBC, and finally letting the one person who started out with actual radio experience walk over a contract dispute, deciding that William Kunstler's old protégè was somehow an improvement over the maddening, moody, but passionate and always prepared Randi Rhodes.

I'm not sure what's been going on over at NovaM the last few weeks, but one day I was downloading Randi's podcast and the next day she was gone. There's been much speculation as to exactly what happened, but it is now clear that Sheldon & Anita Drobny, co-founders of AAR who were forced out early on, and Randi Rhodes, have parted ways. And still none of Randi's listeners knows what happened. And the Drobnys and Rhodes are locked in a battle of "we said...she said."

I'm not one of the Randi worshippers that hang out on her messageboard and call her show and call her goddess, though I found that in the months since returning to Florida and syndicating through NovaM, she had returned to the form I used to listen to back in the days when my old job hadn't blocked streaming audio and I would listen to Mike Malloy on the now-defunct ieAmerica and Neil Rogers and Randi Rhodes over internet streams. Randi was tough, funny, and while not necessarily the sharpest knife in the drawer, always ferociously prepared. And apparently even more self-destructive than Marc Maron, who has managed to get himself fired from Air America twice and is only back in the fold now due to the inescapable reality of his own fiercely loyal fan base -- a fan base for which he has nothing but contempt, as this is a man who does not want to be part of any club that would have him as a member. But at least for the time being, until the suits at Air America decide that some lightweight, droning sleep-inducer needs to be paid instead, they've decided to run with the experiment that is Break Room Live, or as I wish it were called, Two Live Jews.

But back on the radio tubes, all is still crappy in the land of progressive radio. I had taken a Founders Club membership with NovaM after Randi landed there for the sole purpose of downloading her podcasts, since Mike Malloy has become unlistenable now that his show consists entirely of ranting about Israel as if nothing else in the world was going on. NovaM has alienated the only property they had in wide release, while Air America is, I suspect, more reliant than ever on the eyeballs that Marc Maron and Sam Seder are bringing to the company's Web site.

So what is the problem with progressive talk radio?

Senator Franken: The early years

Because Driftglass (and go vote for him after you read this) did it first. And because after watching Harry Reid this last week, I am more convinced than ever that we need more comedians in the Senate.

Al Franken interviews Jerry Garcia at Radio City Music Hall, 10/31/1980: