No, it wasn’t a Republican being rude. She thought that Obama, and later Emanuel were pranking DJs trying to punk her.
I really don’t blame Ros-Lehtinen, but it is way too funny not to mention.
Category: Congress
Election Update
Well, the Franken campaign is now explicitly claiming that it is in the lead over Coleman, maintaining that his campaign is using bogus challenges to keep their numbers up.
They say that their lead is somewhere in the mid 20 vote range (here and here)
Basically, they took notes of all the challenges, and recorded the precinct staff’s opinion as to the clear intent of the voter.
Additionally, it appears that 133 ballots have gone missing from a solidly Franken precinct.
Even if the missing ballots are a clerical error, and I doubt it, it’s been clear from the start that Coleman is going full Bush 2000 on this.
Chambliss Defeats Martin in Senate Runoff
Damn.
Disappointing, but not unexpected.
No 60 Dem Senators.
2010 Midterms Update
Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) will not run for re-election in 2010.
No word on whether or not he will finish out his term, or resign to allow Governor Crist to appoint a successor to run in 2010 as an incumbent.
Link to Original Cartoon
Election Update
Nothing on Georgia, polls haven’t closed, and I don’t have access to exit polls, this is all him, Al Franken,* in Minnesota.
The lede has to be that they found 171 uncounted ballots in Ramsey County, a Franken stronghold, and heads are exploding in the Coleman campaign.
Based on the percentages there, that should net around 30 votes for Franken.
Even so, there are indications that the two campaigns are trying to make nice, or at least appear to, as they are suggesting withdrawing some of their more stupid ballot challenges.
My suggestion: never trust a smiling Republican, and Norm Coleman is always smiling.
Meanwhile the good folks at TPM Election Central have a rundown on recent developments, in addition to the found ballots, we have a further narrowing in the vote, and the
Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie, has instructed local election officials to separate rejected absentee based on the reasons for rejection, which indicates that he is taking Franken’s challenge to the rejection of about 1K ballots seriously.
My take is that it will all come down to the challenges, and that the Coleman campaign has been much more aggressive with these, so I would give a very slight advantage to Al Franken.
*It’s a roughly 30 year old reference to a running sketch on Saturday Night Live.
Elections Updates
The State Canvassing Board, a panel of five arbiters charged with determining the winner in the overtime election tussle between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic rival Al Franken, unanimously voted this morning to deny the Franken campaign’s request that rejected absentee ballots be included in the recount.
I still say that it will come down to the challenges.
Election Updates
The recount in Minnesota is getting increasingly conentious in Minnesota, with ballot challenges on the increasing on both sides, (click image for current graph) and the Franken campaign expressing concerns about missing ballots to the Secretary of State.
Additionally, the Franken campaign is claiming that Norm Coleman and His Evil Minions&trade are using bogus challenges to keep his total above Franken to influence the canvassing board, which will make the final decision on challenged ballots.
It’s going to be a while before this is all sorted out.
Not Good for Chambliss
Doesn’t anyone remember what happened the last time Palin was in close proximity of a large turkey?
January, 20 bitches.
Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is looking at a $500-700 billion package, and he wants it on Obama’s desk for inaugeration day.
Election Updates
Well, Franken is still down, but Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com says that his math has Franken to winning the recount by 27 votes.
He notes that his number have error bars much larger than 27 votes though, but Nate did call a Begich win the day after the election.
That being said, he is also not considering either the thousands of challenged ballots or rejected absentee votes, and those numbers dwarf his error bar too.
Meanwhile, in the Georgia Senate runoff, the ‘Phants fracked up big time. They sent out a mailing to Republithug voters to get thm to vote by absentee ballots, and neglected to mention that they should sign the applications:
Many of the unsigned requests came in the form of cards printed by the Republican National Committee and mailed to voters. Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss is in a tight battle to retain his seat by beating Democratic challenger Jim Martin.
The signature line on the RNC cards is easy to miss since it appears after an entry asking voters to enter an address different from their permanent one. Georgia doesn’t require voters to give a reason for voting by absentee ballot.
OOPS.
We also have Tom Perriello certified as defeating racist scumbag Rep. Virgil H. Goode by 745 votes. Goode is likely to ask for a recount, but the margin is actually large enough that it’s unlikely to matter.
One interesting thing about all this is that because the certification was so late, Perriello couldn’t take part in the office lottery for freshmen.
Not to worry though, he gets what’s left and that’s Virgil Goode’s office, which, because Goode was a 6 term incumbent, is a very nice office. Heh.
Finally, though not technically an election, but Biden aide Ted Kaufman has been selected to replace the him when he becomes Vice-President.
MN Election Update
There are indications that the Coleman Campaign is being aggressive with challenges, probably to attempt to ensure that they go into the canvassing board with a lead, because they do not like the trend.
In any case, the Colman campaign is now eschewing its earlier statements about not talking the canvassing board’s decision to court.
So Coleman is definitely nervous….I would note that the swings are much smaller than in Florida, indicating a better balloting process.
Elections Update
Well, the Strib running count of the Minnesota Senate race has the margin at 170, with 977 Franken challenges, and 1005 Coleman challenges.
It’s clear that this will turn on the challenges.
This is About Pork, Nothing Else
Well, it looks like the US Navy is looking at moving a carried from Hampton Roads, Virginia to Mayport, Florida, near Jacksonville, and the Virginia Congressional delegation is throwing a fit over this.
This is not surprising, the presence of that carrier pumps something like ½ a billion dollars into the local economy.
The Navy is arguing that, “The five East Coast carriers should be dispersed as a hedge against a natural disaster or attack that could shut or cripple the sprawling Norfolk base.”
So, in order to hedge against natural disaster, you want to move the ships into hurricane alley, otherwise known as Florida.
Of course the idea that foreign power will launch a sneak attack on the base is ludicrous.
SecNav John Lehman did this in the 1980s, on the argument that it would make more difficult for Soviet subs to shadow fleet movements, but it was a crap argument then.
Of course, these days the USSR is no more, and the Russians can’t deploy a significant portion of their fleet and the Chinese are a decade from a meaningful submarine fleet, so there is no risk of attack.
The reality was that Lehman wanted to do this because it created more constituencies for his vision of a 600 ship navy, because a large number of small bases gets you the support of many congresscritters, where as one large base just gets you 1 or 2 districts support.
With the Navy claiming that their ships and aircraft are wearing out and need to be replaced, they still want to drop a billion dollars on the move, not because of military need, but because of political need.
Election Updates
The recount in Minnesota proceeds apace, though it appears that the number of ballot challenges from both sides is increasing, and Coleman is is still ahead by around 140 votes.
In the Georgia runoff, Barack Obama has now recorded an ad on behalf of Jim Martin.
The CIA Brings Back the 1970s
It appears that the good folks at Langley are murdering people again, and not over terrorism, but over drug trafficking.
And they are lying to Congress and investigators about it.
The more things change….
Senator Harkin To Introduce Bill to Force Derivatives Onto Regulated Exchanges
I think that it’s a good idea, because the markets need transparency:
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin plans to introduce a bill Thursday that would force all over-the-counter derivatives, including credit-default swaps, onto regulated futures exchanges.
The problem for some folks, like hedge funds and former Lehman employees is that this will shut their business model down, because it is predicated on secrecy.
It’s not a problem for me, though. Just shut it down, and the stuff that continues, let a Commodity Futures Trading Commission with serious teeth aggressively enforce this.
Any business model that is predicated on information asymmetry and secrecy is dishonest at its foundations, and should be restricted.
Election Update
Well, the current count from the Strib has the margin down to 142, with Coleman having 1,211,419 votes, and Franken havings 1,211,277.
A noteworthy development is that Franken’s campaign got a judge to order that Ramsey County turn over the names of the absentee ballots that it rejected, because they believe that some of them had been improperly rejected.
Waxman Ousts Dingell as Head of House House Energy and Commerce Committee
Waxman won the vote 137-122.
This is a good thing for Congress and the nation. Dingell has been doing exactly what the Big 3 (Big 2½) wanted for 50 years, which is why they are in such a mess.
He was such a lapdog that he never did what they needed, just what they wanted.
Waxman is much better pretty much all the issues.
Bush Caves On Unemployment Extension
He’s been fighting this for months, but now he’ll sign it, because he’s afraid of an override.
Minnesota Recount Update
The Strib has real time numbers here.
So far, Franken has gained 41 votes relative to Coleman, though both have lost total votes, with 279 votes being challenged by one side or the other, and 18% of the votes counted.
It will likely come down to the challenges, and it will be very close.