Norm Coleman

No one wants you to be senator anymore!

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Monday rejected Republican Norm Coleman's request to count an additional 654 rejected absentee ballots in his weeks-old Senate showdown with Democrat Al Franken.

The ruling clears the way for the state Canvassing Board to certify results showing Franken the winner after the Supreme Court said the issue is best settled in a post-count lawsuit.

Coleman's attorneys have said they're likely to sue if he loses the recount, meaning it could be weeks more before the outcome is final.

Al Franken is now a Senator. Republicans need to stop dragging their feet, walking with their chins on their chests and allow Franken to be seated. Or is it the Republicans are willing to let one of our states go without full representation into the next Congress?

Not good news for Norm Coleman when the fate of his Senate re-election still hasn’t been decided:

Federal investigators are looking into allegations that a longtime friend and benefactor tried to steer money to U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, the Pioneer Press has learned.

Agents with the FBI have talked to or made efforts to talk to people in Texas familiar with the allegations, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Houston is where the first of two lawsuits was filed alleging Nasser Kazeminy, a Bloomington financier, tried to steer $100,000 to Coleman via his wife's Minneapolis employer. The second suit, filed in Delaware, alleges Kazeminy initially tried to get money directly to the senator.

Can you hear the cheers of happiness from the Franken campaign?

That’s what Norm Coleman’s lead has dwindled to in the Minnesota recount. That’s with 46% of the votes counted and the challenged ballots still awaiting their examination next month.

I really want to see a Senator Franken. Think of how much fun CSpan will be then:

According to data just released by the Minnesota Secretary of State, Al Franken has gained a net of 43 votes on the first day of that state's recount process. Norm Coleman had a lead of 215 voters over Franken in Minnesota's certified, pre-recount tally; that margin is now 172 votes.

Minnesota reports that it has thus far re-counted 15.49 percent of its ballots. If the first day's results are indicative of the pace that the candidates will maintain throughout the recount process, Franken would gain a net of 278 votes over Colmean, giving him a narrow victory. For any number of reasons, however, the results reported thus far may not be indicative of future trends.

Nate goes on to say that there are still the more Democratic strongholds to be counted and those could come out in our favor. Talk about a nail biter.

After watching John McCain try to calm down his crowds yesterday, I ended up having some reservations. I'm not saying McCain isn't serious about what he is saying, but I am now wondering if he is in control of his campaign. His campaign aides were out just a couple hours before supporting the violent calls from McCain/Palin crowds and Palin herself continued the attacks yesterday. The top of the ticket is in charge of the campaign, which is John McCain. So is he saying he doesn't have control of his campaign? If so that sounds an awful lot like Bush and his administration.

There is a chance though that McCain was just trying to save face yesterday and has no intention of calming the fires. Perhaps McCain did this because he is so much like George Bush now in the sense that Republican incumbents up for re-election are refusing to be seen on the trail with him now.

The next few days should be interesting to watch and see how all this takes hold. I'm sure a lot of hard core Republicans are pissed with McCain, so he will have to stop that bleeding. I also don't see what McCain did helping him with Independents, so the polls could quickly open up more in Obama's favor, in which case we would probably see McCain trying to reignite the fires.