Obama Announces HUD Secretary, Discusses Financial Crisis
Barack Obama used his Presidential YouTube Address today to announce the appoint of New York City housing commissioner Shaun Donovan to be his Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and to discuss the importance of housing issues in solving the financial crisis:

"He knows that we can put the dream of owning a home within reach for more families, so long as we're making loans in the right way, and so long as those who buy a home are prepared for the responsibilities of homeownership," Obama says.

No Obama Or Biden Events Today
Barack Obama is in Chicago today, while Joe Biden is in Delaware. There are no public events scheduled for today.

Trib: Rahm Spoke With Blago
The Chicago Tribune reports that Rahm Emanuel did have discussions with Rod Blagojevich about Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat, giving Blago a list of candidates that were considered to be acceptable appointees. "The revelation does not suggest Obama's new gatekeeper was involved in any talk of dealmaking involving the seat," the Trib is careful to point out. "But it does help fill in the gaps surrounding a question that Obama was unable or unwilling to answer this week: Did anyone on his staff have contact with Blagojevich about his choice for the Senate seat?"

Report: Blago Could Announce Plans As Soon As Monday
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Rod Blagojevich could decide as early as Monday whether he should resign. "He was blindsided by this," a source told the Sun-Times. "He needs some time to digest what's going on. He's going to make his position clear shortly."

Senate Dems Plan Quick Confirmation Hearings
Senate Democrats plan to move quickly to confirm Barack Obama's cabinet appointments, once Congress reconvenes on January 6. Most of the appointments should sail through very easily, though there is one sticking point: Senate Republicans have been asking for a delay in the confirmation hearings of Eric Holder for Attorney General.

Bayh Forming Senate "Blue Dog" Group
Evan Bayh is trying to create a new caucus for moderate Democrats in the Senate, modeled on the Blue Dog caucus in the House. "I think we have a wonderful opportunity to break the gridlock that has existed in Washington for too long," Bayh told Roll Call. "We need to do that in practical ways that will solve problems."

Rat Warning Sign Disappears From Near Blago's House
This is funny: Chicago officials believe Rod Blagojevich or an aide may have removed a warning sign noting the presence of rats from an alley outside his house, after he was photographed with the sign in view of the camera. The city plans to put up another sign.

In a press briefing just now, a very exuberant Franken campaign put forward a clear message about today's big news that the wrongly-rejected absentee ballots can be counted, which the Coleman campaign is trying to halt by going to court: Norm Coleman is desperate, because he knows he's going to lose.

The shift in tone from the Franken camp, compared to their more defensive posture in previous calls, reflects just how suddenly the dynamics of the race have shifted in his favor today.

Franken's lead recount lawyer Marc Elias said to not believe the Coleman camp's spin that they're not trying to stop the vote count. "But just read the papers that they file when they file them, and don't look past what they file," he said. "They are seeking an injunction, they are seeking to stop counties from counting lawful ballots."

Elias rebutted the Coleman camp's legal arguments that the sorting of rejected absentees will lack uniform standards, pointing out that the canvassing board handed down a clear procedure under state law. "They are hoping to run out the clock, delay the counting of these ballots," Elias later added.

When a reporter asked if the Coleman camp's legal maneuvers could work -- that is, if counties might end up holding off on counting absentee votes -- Elias sounded confident: "I don't believe it will. I don't see there is any reason why a county would forego making sure that its citizens have their vote counted in order to allow Norm Coleman's legal team an opportunity to further disenfranchise those voters."

Here's the response from Norm Coleman's campaign to the big news today that the Minnesota state canvassing board sided with Al Franken on re-examining and counting wrongly-rejected absentee ballots: We're taking it to the state Supreme Court.

The Coleman camp is asking the state Supremes to stop any counting of the ballots, delaying it until such time as a standard procedure for reviewing them can be drawn up, which the Coleman camp appears to claim doesn't exist yet -- basically invoking a key legal argument from the Bush v. Gore decision back in 2000.

The problem with this argument: A standard procedure was already set forth by the canvassing board a week and a half ago.

Read more »

New Fox News poll:

Overall, how would you rate the quality of the people President-elect Obama has selected to be in his cabinet?

Democrats: Excellent 40%; Good 44%; Fair 10%; Poor 2%

And nearly four our of five of Dems say the picks represent "real change." Not so angry.

Hillary has officially agreed to the Obama transition team's request that she install former Clinton administration official James Steinberg as her Deputy Secretary of State, and Steinberg has accepted the post, according to a Democrat familiar with ongoing discussions over the appointment.

"It's done," the Democrat tells us.

The move has been widely anticipated since Politico reported that Democrats "expected" it to happen, but it's significant that it's now a done deal.

It means Obama and Hillary have successfully agreed on a major personnel appointment, installing a Deputy that will act as a good bridge between the Clinton and Obama camps. Steinberg was deputy national security adviser under Bill Clinton, but he was also an early skeptic of the Iraq War and a key adviser to Obama during the Democratic Primary.

The Democrat familiar with the discussions says that the Steinberg appointment was fundamentally Obama's decision, but that Hillary is happy with the pick. "She's excited by it," the Democrat says. "He's a knowledgeable longtime public servant. He's very smart, very good."

Steinberg was reportedly the author of a big speech Obama gave to AIPAC during the primary and helped craft Obama's positions on the Israeli peace process and Iran, among other things.

Spokespeople for Hillary and Obama both declined to comment.

Yet another poll is suggesting that Chris Matthews could have a real shot at being elected to the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, if he decides against renewing his contract at MSNBC and in favor of mounting a campaign.

The numbers from Research 2000: Matthews is in a near-tie with GOP Sen. Arlen Specter, with Specter at 45% and Matthews at 44%. In a three-way Democratic primary with Reps. Patrick Murphy and Allyson Shwartz, it's Matthews 24%, Murphy 19%, Schwartz 15%, with "undecided" leading the race at 42%.

This internal might surprise people: Against his lesser-known potential opponents in the Democratic primary, Matthews currently has a plurality among women voters, and is doing better with them than men, though obviously it's hard to draw any solid conclusions when the undecideds are this high.

Here's another number that should seriously worry Specter: He's under 50% in the Republican primary, with 43% against 2004 primary opponent Pat Toomey's 28%. Specter just barely won his 2004 primary 51%-49%, and could be in for another dogfight if Toomey or another conservative challenger mounts a bid -- and if he were to lose his primary, a Democratic pickup would become very likely.

A previous Rasmussen poll showed Matthews only three points down against Specter.

Al Franken's chances of winning the Minnesota recount may have just gone up astronomically.

The state canvassing board just voted unanimously that absentee ballots that were initially rejected because of clerical errors -- and the current estimate from the hearing is that there could be nearly 1,600 of them, based on some extrapolation -- should be counted, probably the single biggest issue that the Franken campaign has been hammering ever since this recount began, and which really seemed up in the air going into this hearing.

The board can't directly order the county officials to do the counting, only making a formal request to go back and count the votes and then submit amended totals. But many counties have already begun or finished the process of sorting the rejected absentees at the board's request, and board members did castigate any election officials who wouldn't do so, with some of them even leaving open the option of seeking a court order if necessary.

Because of all that, it seems very likely that the vast majority of these ballots will be counted before this is over -- and it could possibly seal the deal for Franken. Pre-election polling showed him winning the overall pool of absentee ballots by a solid margin, so it seems pretty reasonable to assume that the newly-counted votes will break for Al. If that proves to be correct -- and if Norm Coleman is unable to stop it through further litigation -- Franken will probably pull ahead of Coleman and win the election.

Late Update: Just to clarify, this was a separate question from the missing Minneapolis ballots, which they ruled on earlier and we posted on below. The board took on two crucial issues this morning, and on both of them ruled in favor of the Franken camp's position.

Some good news for Al Franken: The state canvasing board just voted unanimously to compensate for the loss of those 133 missing ballots in Minneapolis by going back to the recorded Election Night vote totals for this precinct, sparing Al the loss of a net 46 votes.

This means Franken has survived a major threat, as his campaign's calculations of how the race would go ultimately depended on the ballots being found or compensated for.

The Coleman campaign had been arguing against this move, on the grounds that the state can't count ballots that no longer seem to exist -- they were believed to be in a ballot marked "1 of 5," but can no longer be found -- while the Franken camp said that to do otherwise would be to disenfranchise the 133 people who had the poor luck of having their ballots end up in a lost envelope.

The board, made up of a mixture of Republicans, Democrats and independents, has sided with Franken on this one.

More to come.

Late Update: To be clear, we're watching the hearing over here on a streaming video feed.

Late Late Update: State Atty. Gen. Lori Swanson (D) just gave her advisory opinion on another very big issue, whether absentee ballots that appear to have been improperly rejected should be put back in the count. Swanson told the board that they have the authority to request (but not order) that counties meet again to count those ballots. If the board sides with Swanson, this could be a huge boost to Franken, as he had a good-sized lead among the overall absentee ballots, and introducing new votes into the count would probably net him some more in the total.

Obama, in a new statement just out, professes his disappointment and frustration at the collapse of the auto-bailout in the Senate late yesterday:

"I am disappointed that the Senate could not reach agreement on a short-term plan for the auto industry. I share the frustration of so many about the decades of mismanagement in this industry that has helped deliver the current crisis. Those bad practices cannot be rewarded or continued. But I also know that millions of American jobs rely directly or indirectly on a viable auto industry, and that the beginnings of reform are at hand. The revival of our economy as a whole should not be a partisan issue. So I commend those in Congress as well as the Administration who tried valiantly to forge a compromise. My hope is that the Administration and the Congress will still find a way to give the industry the temporary assistance it needs while demanding the long-term restructuring that is absolutely required."

With Democrats and the United Auto Workers now locked in a fierce spin war with Senate Republicans over who was to blame for the bill's catastrophic collapse, Obama takes pains to say that the larger issues at play shouldn't be "partisan."

Also note that Obama didn't call on the Bush administration to step in and bail out the automakers by itself, now that Congress' efforts have gone belly-up. He's been urging general action but can't thrust himself into the fray in earnest as he waits to take office.

Illinois Dems are stepping up their efforts to impeach Blago:

Key Illinois Democratic legislators are circulating a letter urging support for the impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested this week on federal corruption charges relating in part to the selection of President-elect Barack Obama's successor as a U.S. senator.

State Rep. John Fritchey, head of the House Civil Judiciary Committee, sent out the letter Thursday asking Democratic colleagues to say by Friday whether they support a move for impeachment and would like to be added as a co-sponsor of legislation.

This is significant, because it could mean that the political will might be weakening for a special election to fill Obama's Senate seat -- and that support is growing for clearing away Blago to make it possible for his successor, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, to appoint someone to the seat.

This would force many legislators, and Quinn himself, into the awkward position of backing an appointment after having declared support for a special election, but it could also mean the seat gets filled much faster, putting the mess behind everyone.

Crucial Hearing In Minnesota Senate Race Today
The state canvassing board in Minnesota is meeting at 10:30 a.m. ET to decide two crucial issues: Whether to count the mounting number of absentee ballots that appear to have been rejected because of clerical errors, and whether to revert to the Election Night totals for that Minneapolis precinct where they lost 133 ballots in the recount. A decision in favor of either proposal would immensely benefit Al Franken, while deciding against them would significantly boost Norm Coleman.

No Obama Or Biden Events Today
Barack Obama is holding private meetings in Chicago today, while Joe Biden is doing likewise in Delaware. There are no public events scheduled.

Powell: GOP Can't Keep Listening To Limbaugh
Colin Powell told CNN that if the Republican Party wants to succeed again, it has to take a very hard look at its recent strategies of political polarization. "Can we continue to listen to Rush Limbaugh?" Powell said. "Is this really the kind of party that we want to be when these kinds of spokespersons seem to appeal to our lesser instincts rather than our better instincts?"

McCain's Top Pollster: "We Were Happy it Was Over"
At a forum last night at Harvard, top McCain pollster Bill McInturff was asked whether McCain could have pulled out a win if he'd had a few more weeks. Give McInturff credit for this honest answer, delivered without hesitation: "No -- we lost. We were happy it was over."

Feds: No Camping Out For Inauguration
In another effort to control the expected enormous crowd for Barack Obama's inauguration, federal officials have now announced that people will be forbidden from camping out overnight on the Mall. Furthermore, spectators will not be allowed to shot up to get a spot on the parade route until 7 a.m. that morning.

D.C. Councilman Proposes Modifying Extended Bar Hours
D.C Councilman Tommy Wells, who originally voted for the controversial law to allow bars to remain open for 24 hours a day in the run-up to the inauguration, now wants to modify the proposal to accommodate objections over public safety. Most notably, he would require bars to register with the city and pay a small fee for extending their hours, so that police will have a list of establishments to keep a close eye on.

McCain: Blago "A Rare Combination" Of Stupid And Nuts
John McCain appeared last night on the David Letterman show, where among other things the two swapped jokes about the Rod Blagojevich scandal and Blago's previous stated ambitions of being a reformer. When asked by Letterman if he thought Blagojevich was either stupid or nuts, McCain responded: "I think a rare combination of both."

Looks like the notion that Republicans might try to get Bill Clinton to testify at Hillary's Secretary of State confirmation hearings, as had been reported today in various places, is shaping up as a complete non-starter.

A spokesperson for Senator Richard Lugar, the head Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which will hold the hearing, tells us that he isn't proposing to call Bill as a witness -- making it all but certain not to happen.

"He is not proposing it," Lugar spokesperson Andy Fisher emails us. "The agenda for the hearing will be determined by Senator Kerry."

The notion that Bill might be called to testify started making the rounds today after Politico reported that some conservative Senate Republicans were privately pushing the idea. Cable news has since been babbling about the possibility intermittently today.

But Lugar's office threw cold water on the possibility. "We know nothing about it other than what was reported in The Politico," Lugar's spokesperson emailed.

The quotes from Lugar's office pretty much ice the idea. While it's still possible that conservative Republicans on the committee could try to call Bill as a witness, the procedure holds that a majority of the committee would have to support the idea, Senate staffers point out.

When the hearings commence next year, Dems will outnumber Republicans on the committee (as they do now). The notion that Dems would back the calling of Bill as a witness, and the attendant media circus that would result, is daft, to put it charitably.

So don't expect Bill to be called to testify. Not gonna happen.

We now have a declared Democratic candidate in the expected special election to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat, with Rep. Jan Schakowsky -- a liberal who has been a vocal Obama supporter going all the way back to his primary campaign for Senate -- throwing her name in the ring.

Schakowsky's political director confirmed to Election Central that assuming there is a special election, she will be a candidate.

Expect this race to have a very wide field, for one important reason: Since it will be held out of sync with regularly-scheduled elections, none of the candidates will have to give up their current elected offices to run. And with a prize as big as a U.S. Senate seat, there is every reason to run with no actual risk being undertaken.

With a special election apparently looming for Barack Obama's Senate seat from Illinois, do Republicans have a chance to snatch a Senate seat from the Democrats -- and in Obama's home state, of all places -- thanks to the Blagojevich scandal?

National Democrats say they're optimistic that they'll be able to hang on to the seat in this very blue state. "No one's gonna blame a Democratic candidate for that man's outrageous, illegal, and over-the-top conduct," a national Dem told Election Central.

Here's a quick rundown on where the race stands.

Read more »

Howard Dean, in a statement, says it's time for Blago to go:

"The arrest of and complaint against Gov. Blagojevich raises serious concerns about his ability to effectively represent the people of Illinois. The conduct alleged represents a disgraceful abuse of the public trust. In the interest of the people of Illinois and all Americans, he should resign immediately. If he does not, I hope the Illinois legislature will take action."

With the Repubs attacking Obama daily over the Blago mess, it's obviously in the Dems' interest for Blago to be gone already. So Dean is lending a hand, though it's not clear why it took him until today to do so.

Still more poll numbers have just been released suggesting that the supposed "angry left" isn't so angry about Obama's transition choices after all.

The new Pew poll finds that 89% of Democrats approve of Obama's cabinet choices, versus only four percent who disapprove.

Even better, only one percent of Democrats say Obama's cabinet choices are "too conservative," and 86% say they're "about right."

Where are you, angry leftists? Where are you?

Here's still more new info suggesting that the outcome of the Al Franken race is still impossible to predict.

It's looking like there could be even more wrongly-rejected absentee ballots from across the state than anyone had guessed, potentially even 2,000 of them, based on numbers from some key counties. It's the kind of big number that could increase the pressure on the state canvassing board to rule in favor of re-admitting those votes at tomorrow's much-anticipated meeting, rather than kick it to the courts.

If those votes were counted, it would probably provide a big boost to Franken in light of pre-election polls that showed him disproportionately winning the absentees overall. So tomorrow's state canvassing board hearing, which will determine that exact question, could very well decide the race.

The Franken campaign is upping the intensity of its PR campaign going into that meeting, announcing in a briefing just now with reporters that they're supplying to the board not only written affidavits of voters whose ballots were wrongly rejected, but also a copy of that new Web video featuring emotional on-camera testimonials. The drama just never stops with this one.

Barack Obama did manage to slip in a few words about health care at his presser today, and here's one of the key quotes:

"The time has come -- this year, in this new Administration -- to modernize our health care system for the twenty-first century; to reduce costs for families and businesses; and to finally provide affordable, accessible health care for every American."

That Obama went out of his way to promise action "this year" is pretty striking. Obviously he didn't mean in 2008; but it's a pretty clear commitment to taking action in his first year. He didn't have to include those two words, but he did, anyway.

Something like this is what reform advocates had hoped to hear, and Health Care for America Now, a major umbrella group of unions, reform advocates, and providers, has already blasted out a statement hailing Obama's assertion as "a clear statement" that that "Congress will pass legislation in 2009."

One other key quote from Obama:

"Some may ask how, at this moment of economic challenge, we can afford to invest in reforming our health care system. Well, I ask a different question -- I ask how we can afford not to....If we want to overcome our economic challenges, we must also finally address our health care challenge. "

Advocates had been awaiting a clear statement that Obama views health care reform as key to fixing the economy, a key talking point of reformers, and now they got one.

At his presser today, Barack Obama said he'd directed his advisers to assemble all the information about any contacts his team might have had with Governor Blagojevich about his Senate seat, and reiterated that he'd not had any direct contact with Blago himself.

"I've asked my team to gather the facts of any contacts with the governor's office about this vacancy so that we can share them with you over the next few days," Obama said.

The promise of sharing the info is welcome, both because it could clear up lingering questions about the controversy and could deflate the GOP's efforts to use the Blago mess to tar Obama's reformist image and promise of transparency.

"I am confident no representatives of mine would have any part in any deals related to this seat," Obama said.

And with that, the discussion at the press conference immediately shifted to its intended topic of health care.

There are still more poll numbers out this morning that suggest that the oft-referenced "angry left" isn't so angry about Obama's transition after all.

The new Associated Press poll finds that 90 percent of Dems -- that would be nine out of ten -- approve of Obama's transition. That would suggest that there aren't so many angry leftists out there, at least in the real world.

And in yet another blow to the angry left meme, Chris Bowers -- who's been anointed as the Face Of The Angry Left by the traditional news orgs -- says he's thrilled about the latest raft of Obama environmental appointments, including Steven Chu as Energy secretary, Lisa Jackson as EPA administrator and Carol Browner as energy "czar."

Which just ratifies this blog's earlier thesis: The "angry left" notion is largely a media fiction, and in reality liberals who have raised questions about this or that appointment also are optimistic about other Obama decisions and are capable of holding more than one opinion about the entire Obama presidency.

Talk about Chicago cynicism.

A new Rasmussen poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Illinois voters, 84% of them, want Rod Blagojevich to resign as governor. And on top of that, 79% of voters want him to go to jail.

But here's the kicker: A solid majority of voters, 53%, also expect that he won't resign, against 40% who think he will.

Voters might want Blago out of the statehouse and behind bars, but they expect him to hang on to his current station for as long as he can manage.

Poll: A Majority Of Republicans Approve Of Obama's Performance
The new AP-GfK poll shows 73% of Americans approve of Barack Obama's performance so far as president-elect -- with 54% of self-identified Republicans giving him a thumbs-up, too. Overall, approval so far spreads across all lines of age, gender, race and income.

Obama Press Conference This Morning, Then Meeting With War Powers Commission Heads
Barack Obama is holding a press conference on health care at 11 a.m. ET in Chicago, at which he is expected to announce the selection of Tom Daschle to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. In addition, he will be meeting with former Secretaries of State James Baker and Warren Christopher, the co-chairs of the bipartisan National War Powers Commission.

Biden Meeting With Hillary Clinton, James Jones
Joe Biden is meeting this morning with Hillary Clinton and retired Gen. James Jones, in their respective capacities as the incoming Secretary of State and National Security Adviser.

NYT: American Constitution Society On The Rise
The New York Times points out that Barack Obama's win is bringing whole new opportunities for the American Constitution Society, the liberal legal society formed as a counter-weight to the right-wing Federalist Society -- most notably with the appointment of ACS board member Eric Holder as attorney general. But with power could come the same pitfalls that the opposition faced, mainly the danger of crossing the line into favoring ideological allies for non-political jobs.

Chicagoans Rediscovering Cynicism
The New York Times reports that Chicago voters, after an election cycle in which their home-town candidate promoted a new politics of Hope and Change, are rediscovering their usual reputation for corruption and cynicism thanks to Rod Blagojevich. "In Chicago, we had just gotten past the old stereotypes," said one local man. "But now we're back to the jokes."

Trib: Blago's Potty-Mouth Shows Decline Of Etiquette
The Chicago Tribune has a new piece bemoaning that Rod Blagojevich's alleged ample use of profanity in the criminal complaint against him, and the lack of shock from the public, shows just how far our culture has fallen: "A cleaned-up version of the complaint would be cratered with blacked-out f-bombs, yet etiquette experts and anti-cursing crusaders say the language, which once would have made the nation blush, now comes across as almost de rigueur."

Another presser from Barack Obama tomorrow: It's at 11 a.m. ET tomorrow. Obama is officially set to talk about the future of health care, and is expected to announce the selection of Tom Daschle to be Sec. of Health and Human Services.

Health care advocates have been cheered by a number of gestures from the Obama camp of late. For instance, there was Rahm Emanuel's declaration that Obama would "go long and deep," and Daschle's recent declaration that fixing health care is central to fixing the economy as a whole, a key talking point of reformists. People will be looking for similar signs -- and more -- from Obama himself tomorrow.

But something tells us health care won't be the dominant topic of the Q & A, if the assembled reporters have anything to say about it...

This has already gotten a bit of attention, but it's worth a quick look: Harry Reid is circulating a letter among Senate Dems today that calls on Governor Blagojevich to step down and even threatens to use the Senate's power to sink any effort Blago might make to pick a Senator.

A Senate leadership aide sends over the letter, which Reid has asked his fellow Dems to sign. Here's the key part:

Please understand that should you decide to ignore the request of the Senate Democratic Caucus and make an appointment we would be forced to exercise our Constitutional authority under Article I, Section 5, to determine whether such a person should be seated.

We do not prejudge the outcome of the criminal charges against you or question your constitutional right to contest those charges. But for the good of the Senate and our nation, we implore you refrain from making an appointment to the Senate.

It's virtually impossible to imagine that Blago would try to appoint a Senator at this point. But then again, most of the stuff in the criminal complaint against him would have been virtually impossible to imagine before yesterday morning.

Full letter after the jump.

Late Update: I should have noted this before, but HuffPo's Sam Stein deserves credit for getting the Reid letter first.

Read more »

The GOP is really cranking up its efforts to use the Blago mess to tear down Barack Obama's reformist image, and bring his honeymoon period to an abrupt end.

"Americans voted for change. Barack Obama promised that he would have the most open and honest administration and transition in history," said RNC chairman Mike Duncan, on a conference call just now with reporters. "But that's not what we're getting. What we're getting is the same old politics out of Chicago."

As a helpful suggestion for moving the country forward, Duncan called for Obama to hold a press conference and discuss all his links to Blagojevich -- and another prominent Illinois scandal, too.

"If he really wants to be transparent, if he truly is wanting to do the right thing and move the country forward, he has got to talk about his relationship with Rezko and with the governor," Duncan said, later adding: "He's got to come clean and have a press conference where he talks about what they've done in the past, the help that they've done, conversations that they've done."

Separately, Duncan announced today that he's running for reelection as RNC chair, going up against an already-crowded field of challenges. The Blago mess provides an interesting twist here, giving Duncan a leg up as the press coverage of his Blago-related criticism of Obama elevates his partisan profile -- an advantage that the other candidates can only envy.

The Franken campaign is increasing the pressure in their PR push going into Friday's state canvass board meeting -- a key meeting that could determine whether wrongly-rejected absentee votes are re-admitted, potentially giving the election to Franken.

This new Web vid, rolled out moments ago during a briefing with reporters, is the centerpiece of the new PR push, featuring actual voters saying their absentee ballots were wrongly thrown out:

The Franken team is clearly trying to bring pressure on the state canvassing board -- not to mention reporters -- to take the voting snafus seriously.

"We've made this video because the mistakes don't just affect votes, they affect people," said Franken spokesman Andy Barr during the briefing, later adding: "Those mistakes having been made, we hope that the state canvassing board -- we expect that the state canvassing board would not compound those mistakes by refusing to fix them when they have the chance."

The Franken camp has estimated that nearly 1,000 wrongly-rejected absentee votes are out there. Those votes would probably break Franken's way, as pre-election polling showed Franken winning the absentees overall. So keep a very close eye on Friday's canvass board meeting -- it could very well determine who is sitting as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota this time next month.

This is pretty interesting: An Obama aide points out to us that the Obama transition team has just rolled out an innovative new feature on its Web site, hoping to carry through on the President-elect's campaign promises of greater government transparency.

It's a page entitled "Open For Questions," in which anyone can submit questions to the transition and, subsequently, to the administration.

The rub, though, is this: The public is able to vote on how much they'd like certain queries to be a priority, and the voting tally is visible -- which means it'll be tougher for the Obama team to not answer questions that participants clearly want answered.

Here's how it works: Users get three options in voting on a question. They can vote in favor of a question being answered; they can vote against it being answered; or they can flag the question as inappropriate.

The Obama team is clearly exposing itself to a bit of a risk here. It could find itself choosing between answering an uncomfortable question and ducking one that the public is clamoring for an answer to. And if the state of the country fails to improve (or gets even worse) over the next few years, the public could also end up registering more and more negative questions.

The new page is here.

Barack Obama is calling on Governor Blagojevich to step down, an Obama aide confirms to us.

We'll have their statement and more momentarily.

Late Update: Here's the Obama team's statement:

The President-elect agrees with Lt. Governor Quinn and many others that under the current circumstances it is difficult for the Governor to effectively do his job and serve the people of Illinois.

More in a bit.

Late Late Update: It was perhaps inevitable that Obama would have to issue a stronger statement today. The press was, and is, not going to stop reporting -- or predicting, I should say -- that the Blago mess will inevitably be bad for Obama.

Case in point: The Associated Press, which today ran a silly story reporting that the Blago story "threatens to dog Obama." As both Steve Benen and Jamison Foser note, this sort of "analysis" is nothing but a self-fulfilling prophesy. The Blago mess hasn't "dogged" Obama yet in any meaningful sense, unless the fact that Obama had some sort of relationship with Blago is enough to conclude that Blago's conduct is "dogging" Obama.

To be clear, it's obviously possible that something embarrassing about the role of one or more Obama advisers could conceivably emerge at some point. But there are no reasons to conclude yet that this will happen. And Patrick Fitzgerald took pains to say yesterday that he wasn't alleging that the Obama camp even knew about Blago's foul conduct.

The AP's silly formulation -- that the scandal "threatens" to dog him -- is a story that could literally be written every day for as long as the scandal drags on, whether or not Obama or anyone from his team is ever actually implicated in any sense at all. Of course, even if no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Obama camp ever emerges, Obama will be nonetheless dogged by the scandal -- because of stories like these.

Late Late Update: A few of you have pointed out that the statement from the Obama team seems inconclusive. In fact, the Obama team says the statement is an answer to the question of whether Blago should resign, and the statement begins with the word "yes." So there's no ambiguity here about Obama's intentions -- he wants Blago gone.

Caroline Kennedy has quickly become the new favorite of New York's Democratic voters to be their new Senator, eclipsing the previous big name Andrew Cuomo, the state attorney general and son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, according to two separate polls.

From Public Policy Polling (D): Kennedy 44%, Cuomo 23%, with all others in single digits. And from Marist: Kennedy 31%, Cuomo 21%, and all others way behind.

Of course, the real authority in picking the next Senator is Gov. David Paterson, who doesn't have to be guided any polls as he makes the appointment. Then again, he could certainly take the popularity of candidates into account as he seeks to win votes for his own 2010 campaign.

One other important caveat: Neither of these polls included Fran Drescher.

The pressure is definitely building on Rod Blagojevich to get off the stage:

If Gov. Blagojevich refuses to relinquish power and avoids impeachment, Attorney General Lisa Madigan is prepared to force his hand, aides said Tuesday.

The state's chief law enforcement officer is prepared to invoke an obscure Illinois Supreme Court rule under which the state's seven justices could vote to oust a sitting governor deemed unfit for office.

This would involve Madigan making the case that the court has the ability under the state constitution to determine the "ability of the Governor to serve" -- and to declare that Blago has no ability at all. It may seem obscure, but it just might work in a state that is desperate to get rid of this guy as soon as possible.

If this worked, then the state might not end up having a special election, after all. Instead, the new Dem Governor Pat Quinn would have the opportunity to make an appointment -- though it could still be possible for him to support the special-election push, as a cleaner resolution to this whole disaster.

There's been a new twist in the Minnesota recount that means Al Franken could potentially pick up some more votes -- but it all depends on a key decision this Friday by the state canvassing board this Friday on rejected absentee ballots.

Minneapolis officials have finished sorting through rejected absentees -- and it turns out that 171 ballots appear to have not been rejected for any legal cause at all, but were instead thrown out because of administrative errors. If these votes were put back in, they would probably break heavily to Al.

Two caveats are worth noting here. First, this all depends on what the canvassing board does on Friday, when they meet to decide the fate of the rejected absentees. But because the Secretary of State sent out a letter to counties asking them to sort the ballots -- essentially a review process by itself -- the Franken camp has publicly expressed optimism.

Second, an order to count these ballots would also mean that all the other similar ballots would be counted statewide, and we don't know what those numbers look like. It would seem to more likely be good news for Franken, as pre-election polling from Minnesota showed Dems winning the absentee ballots overall.

Hoping to milk the Blago mess for all it's worth, Republicans are demanding that President-elect Obama say whether he wants Patrick Fitzgerald to stay as U.S. Attorney -- even though he's already on record saying that he does.

In an interview published today by Politico, Illinois state Republican chair Andy McKenna, demanded that Obama say whether he favors keeping Fitzgerald in his post. "Some have wondered if Barack Obama would keep Fitzgerald," McKenna said. "It would be great if he confirms that he plans to."

Asked for comment, an Obama transition aide pointed us to a June 5 article in the Chicago Tribune which noted that Obama had been asked if he would keep Fitzgerald in an editorial board meeting with the paper in several months earlier. His reply (via Nexis):

"I still think he's doing a good job. Yes."

Asked why he would keep him, Obama continued:

"I think he has been aggressive in putting the city on notice and the state on notice that he takes issues of public corruption seriously."

That should put the matter to rest, but given the GOP's determination to use the Blago case to tar Obama's reformist image, it probably won't, unless Obama reaffirms his commitment to keeping Fitz in the current context.

Obama: I Will Use My Middle Name At Inauguration
In a new interview with the Chicago Tribune, Barack Obama confirmed that he will use his middle name, "Hussein," as he takes the oath of office in January. "I'm not trying to make a statement one way or another," Obama said. "I'll do what everybody else does."

No Obama Or Biden Public Events Today
Barack Obama and Joe Biden are in Chicago today, holding private meetings. No public events are scheduled for today.

Hillary Meeting With Lugar
Hillary Clinton will meet today with Sen. Dick Lugar of Indiana, the head Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as part of the transition into her new role as Secretary of State.

The Hill: GOP Gets To Attack Dem Corruption Now
The Hill reports that Republicans seem to be enjoying the new round of Democratic scandals, after the Dems took power in 2006 and 2008 thanks in part to GOP corruption. "The worm has turned," a senior Republican aide on Capitol Hill told the paper.

Chicago Papers: Blago Must Resign Or Be Impeached
Both major newspapers in Chicago have now released editorials calling for the removal of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The conservative Chicago Tribune and liberal Chicago Sun-Times, papers that usually don't agree on much, have come to the same conclusion: Blago should resign now, and if he doesn't then the legislature should impeach him.

RNC Chairman To Seek Another Term
RNC chairman Mike Duncan will reportedly run for another term at the helm of his party after an election cycle that did not exactly work out for them. Duncan is facing a crowded field of competitors who are all arguing for various changes to be made in the party, so there's no guarantee that he'll be able to hold on.

Senators Ask D.C. To Cancel 24-Hour Inaugural Bar Times
Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Bob Bennett (R-UT) have sent a letter to the D.C. mayor and city council, asking them to reverse their recent decision to allow bars to remain open non-stop during the days before the presidential inauguration. The city passed this special bill in order to boost the local economy, but the Senators are worried that it would place too much strain on police.

Tuskeegee Airmen Given Free Tickets To Inauguration
The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies is giving free tickets to the surviving members of the Tuskeegee Airmen, the famed black fighter pilots of World War II who served at a time when most African-Americans were not even allowed the opportunity to distinguish themselves in combat. "I didn't believe I'd live long enough to see something like this," said one airman, who unfortunately is unable to make it because of physical limitations.

A source close to Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is denying reports that Rahm tipped off the Feds to Blagojevich's alleged efforts to sell Obama's Senate seat.

The rumors to this effect have been flying all afternoon, kicked off by a local Fox reporter in Chicago who claimed that he'd received a "tip" that Blago had reached out to Rahm to "leverage" filling Obama's Senate seat.

"It may have been Rahm Emanuel who tipped the scale and made this move as quickly as it did," the reporter said.

But a source close to Rahm emails us that "it's not true," adding that the story is the "result of some overzealous reporting."

It was a fun one, though.

It's official: The Illinois legislature is now on track to pass emergency legislation to fill Barack Obama's former Senate seat by special election, rather than allow Gov. Rod Blagojevich to make an appointment under these circumstances. Here's the statement from state Senate President Emil Jones:

"The events this morning are shocking. The faith of the citizens of Illinois has once again been shaken. I will call the Senate back in to session to pass legislation that would create a special election for the U. S. Senate seat to help restore the confidence of the people of Illinois during this difficult time."

At his press conference earlier today, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn estimated that it could take at least three days to get a bill fully written and passed. But expect one to get passed as soon as they can do it, and possibly even on a unanimous vote in both houses.

Obama comments on the Blago mess, as per the pool report:

"Like the rest of the people of Illinois I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the U.S.. Attorneys office today. But as this is an ongoing investigation involving the governor, I donʼt think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time."

Obama then talked about his meeting with Al Gore today, and at the end of his scrum with reporters, he seemed to say that he hadn't known about the ongoing probe into Blago or the machinations around his Senate seat. In response to a barrage of shouted questions, Obama said:

"I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so I was not aware of what was happening," Mr. Obama said. "And as I said it is a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that I don't think it's appropriate to comment."

It's unclear whether this means that no one in Obama's circle was aware of the probe or of the machinations around the seat, and it's inconclusive on the question of whether anyone close to Obama was assisting with the investigation.

Late Update: RNC chairman Mike Duncan has this statement out, and he says Obama's brief comments weren't good enough:

"Leaders of both political parties have a responsibility to clearly condemn the actions by Governor Rod Blagojevich as alleged by federal prosecutors today. Americans expect strong leadership, but President-elect Barack Obama's comments on the matter are insufficient at best. Given the President-elect's history of supporting and advising Governor Blagojevich, he has a responsibility to speak out and fully address the issue."

The SEIU, which has a role in the bizarre Blagojevich tale, is claiming in a statement that the union did nothing wrong.

"We have no reason to believe that SEIU or any SEIU official was involved in any wrongdoing," SEIU spokesperson Ramona Oliver says in a statement just sent over.

According to the criminal complaint, an unnamed SEIU official was in discussions with Blago over whom to appoint to Obama's vacant Senate seat. The complaint says that Blago and the official discussed various machinations, with the SEIU official telling Blago that he would ascertain whether Obama wanted candidates other than senior advisor Valerie Jarrett considered for the seat. SEIU reportedly was pushing Jarrett.

Blago also allegedly floated to the SEIU official the idea of him heading a lucrative non-profit organization as part of some sort of deal involving the seat. The SEIU official allegedly suggested that he would "put that flag up and see where it goes." It's unclear with whom the SEIU official was going to "put that flag up with," what precisely Blago suggested to the official or whether the SEIU official really was serious about pursuing it.

The SEIU isn't answering those questions for now.

"In keeping with the U.S. Attorney's request, we are not sharing information with the media at this time," the spokesperson continued.

The SEIU hasn't yet confirmed who the official is, and there's no suggestion in the criminal complaint that SEIU did anything wrong.

Here at TPM World Headquarters we were kicking around various ways Blagojevich can extricate himself from his rather dire plight. And we think we finally hit on a solution.

Blago should use his one phone call to contact Patrick Fitzgerald himself and inform Fitz that he's willing to offer him Obama's Senate seat in exchange for dropping the charges.

Food for thought: If Blago did that, it really wouldn't be much more startling than the stuff he is alleged to have actually done!

A number of you have written to ask: What happens to Obama's Senate seat now? Does Governor Blagojevich still have the authority to appoint Obama's successor to the open seat, now that he's been accused of, er, conspiring to sell that same seat?

We checked in with the Illinois Attorney General's office for an answer. And guess what -- they don't have one yet!

In yet another sign of just how bizarre and murky this story is, the AG's office tells us that they're researching the question of what happens now and will have an answer soon. As if this story needed any more oddball twists.

Separately, on CNN just now, commentator Jeffrey Toobin just opined that he thinks Blago does retain that power but that the Senate would refuse to seat his choice under these circumstances. We'll let you know when the Illinois AG's office makes it official.

Late Update: In a televised interview just now, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin just called for a special election to fill the seat. The legalities of this course, too, are uncertain. More when we know it.

Late Late Update: Here's the video of Durbin:

Late Late Update: A spokesperson for the state AG's office has confirmed it to us: "The governor can still appoint somebody to the U.S. Senate." We've changed our headline to reflect this.

The GOP is wasting no time trying to tie Obama to the news of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's arrest on charges of conspiring to sell Obama's Senate seat.

The Republican National Committee blasted out an email highlighting Obama's ties to the Governor, noting that Obama advised Blagojevich on his gubernatorial run and highlighting an August 2006 quote from Obama:

"We've got a governor in Rod Blagojevich who has delivered consistently on behalf of the people of Illinois."

That isn't much at all. Though Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett is in the midst of the case as the candidate Obama reportedly wanted for the Senate seat, there's no suggestion of any wrongdoing on her part. Still, Republicans are already trying to use Obama's association with the Governor to associate Obama with corrupt Chicago politics and tar his reformist image, and Obama will almost certainly have to address this himself today.

Okay, here's your Blagojevich thread. As you may have heard by now, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested today on charges he tried to sell or trade Obama's Senate seat.

According to today's pool report, Obama canceled an FBI briefing today, perhaps because of the news, and it's known that top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett -- a.k.a. "Senate Candidate 1," in the indictment -- is at the center of the case, though there's no suggestion of any wrongdoing on her part. From the indictment:

In a conversation with Harris on November 11, the charges state, Blagojevich said he knew that the President-elect wanted Senate Candidate 1 for the open seat but "they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. [Expletive] them."

In other words, the Obama team wouldn't play. The Obama transition has yet to respond to the story or detail how much Obama and his advisers knew about the probe into the Illinois governor. A reader suggests a two-tiered response for Obama:

1. I'd hope that Obama will issue a public request for Blago to resign without making a Senate appointment.

2. I think one of Obama's best personal PR moves would be to announce that he will request Patrick Fitzgerald to stay on as US Attorney in Chicago.

Look, this is getting ridiculous already. Is it possible that "the left" isn't a monolith that has reached a collective and uniform conclusion about the entire Obama presidency?

Today The New York Times reports that criticism of Obama from the left has been "muted" thus far. Yet the paper nonetheless buries that observation inside a long story devoted to the idea that Obama has "deeply frustrated liberals who thought Mr. Obama's election signaled the rise of a new progressive era."

Meanwhile, over at The Politico, Ben Smith notes accurately that the angst on the left is largely a fiction, adding that "the bigger, and a bit harder to dramatize, story is probably the one about how happy the left is with him." Yet Politico nonetheless felt obliged to run an entire piece claiming that liberals are monolithically "nervous" and "flat out angry" about Obama.

The problem here is this bizarre need to decide one way or the other whether the entire left is or isn't irrevocably dismayed with the Obama presidency and whether it has or hasn't completely given up hope on it.

This is fairly straightforward. Some liberals have concerns about this or that particular appointment or this or that particular policy statement. They're voicing those concerns. That doesn't make "the left" as a whole unhappy with Obama's entire presidency. Those same liberals are happy about other things Obama's doing, and many of them are generally optimistic. Believe it or not, people can simultaneously entertain more than one opinion about Obama's evolving administration.

The problem here is the desire that the news orgs have to tell a simplistic story about those poor, sad, delusional lefties whose silly idealism blinded them to Obama's "pragmatism" and "centrism." You can understand why centrist and right-leaning commentators are pushing this line: They're hoping to discourage Obama from attempting big liberal initiatives by hailing him as pragmatic and centrist, the ultimate D.C. establishment seal of approval.

The news orgs, by contrast, are doing this out of laziness and a hopeless addiction to portraying lefties as a kind of perennially-disappointed lost tribe who will never, ever find their way out of the wilderness. It's just boring and predictable, really.

The never-ending Minnesota recount has taken a turn into the truly surreal: The Coleman campaign is still denying that those 133 missing ballots exist at all, even though city officials have pinpointed the exact envelope the ballots were in!

"The decision by a senior member of the secretary of state's office, as well as the secretary of state himself, to insist there are missing ballots when there are any number of other plausible scenarios is disappointing," Coleman spokesman Luke Friedrich told the Star Tribune, adding that officials should not be "just accepting the political spin of the Franken campaign."

Actually, we do know that the ballots exist -- Minneapolis officials have explained that this precinct placed their votes in envelopes numbered "1 of 5," "2 of 5," etc., but the "1" envelope is gone and the city officials have given up on finding it after an exhaustive search. The rub here is that if the loss of the envelope is not somehow compensated for in this deep-blue precinct, Al Franken would lose a net 46 votes -- quite possibly enough to flip the result to Coleman.

This latest legal mess is only just beginning. As we reported on Friday, the state has the option of defaulting back to the Election Night count for this particular precinct, effectively undoing the loss. The Coleman campaign seems to be gearing up to oppose such a move, and the state should probably be preparing for a lawsuit over this issue no matter which call they make.

Poll: Obama Approval Rating Reaches 79%
A new CNN poll shows Barack Obama's honeymoon approval reaching new heights, with 79% of Americans approving of him and only 18% disapproving. "That's the sort of rating you see when the public rallies around a leader after a national disaster," said CNN's Bill Schneider. "To many Americans, the Bush Administration was a national disaster."

Obama And Biden Meeting With Gore
Barack Obama and Joe Biden are meeting today in Chicago with none other than Al Gore, to discuss energy issues and climate change. The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET.

White House Internal Memo: Bush Maintained "The Honor And The Dignity Of His Office"
The Los Angeles Times reports that Bush Administraton officials have been given an internal memo containing talking points to use in their public appearances, praising President Bush's record as he left office. Among other things they are to discuss how he "kept the American people safe," helped the economy through his 2001 tax cuts, fought AIDS in Africa, and "maintained "the honor and the dignity of his office."

Big Business Likes Obama's Infrastructure Plans
Barack Obama's policies are now receiving some support from big business, with U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of the Manufacturers asking members of Congress to support Obama's big infrastructure plan. Essentially, the more roads and building that are made, the more opportunity there is for business to receive government contracts.

NRA Gearing UP To Fight Obama
The Hill reports that the National Rifle Association's is preparing to do battle with Barack Obama, saying he can't be trusted on his statements about respecting the Second Amendment. "We have no doubt that he's going to break his promise to the American people that he made during the campaign, and we're prepared to fight him every step of the way," said Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA's political arm.

Inauguration Could See 10,000 Buses -- Or More
The transportation business expects an astonishing 10,000 chartered buses to bring tourists to the big event, while D.C. officials think the number could go even higher. "It's best in planning for this event to try to plan for bigger than anything we've planned for before," said city administrator Dan Tangherlini.

Fran "The Nanny" Drescher Declares Interest In Hillary's Senate Seat
Forget about Caroline Kennedy or Andrew Cuomo. A spokesperson for actress Fran Drescher -- best known for starring on the sitcom The Nanny -- has told CNN that she is putting her name into contention for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, putting forward as her credentials her experience as a women's health advocate.

It now looks like Democratic House candidate Paul Carmouche, who trails Republican John Fleming by a bare margin of 356 votes in Saturday's election in Northern Louisiana, is unlikely to ask for a recount, seemingly solidifying the GOP's hold on this open Republican seat.

When asked if Carmouche will concede if the certified totals end up being about where they are now, campaign spokesman Bert Kaufman told us: "Yeah I believe so, we're just waiting for the certification process to play out," later adding, "It's a very narrow margin, we just want to make sure that everything is counted and counted properly."

The vast majority of the votes here were cast on electronic machines, leaving only the mail-in votes and provisional ballots to be done with paper. And as we reported earlier, there are only about 50 provisional ballots left to sort through, which seem unlikely to shift the numbers very much. By state law, certification will be finished by Thursday at the latest.

Former Obama adviser Steve Hildebrand, who touched off an explosion with his HuffPo piece arguing that "the left" should hold its fire and let Obama do his thing, says he doesn't regret a word of the piece, though he did make a key concession to critics.

"I don't regret any of it," Hildebrand told me when I asked him a few minutes ago by phone whether he regretted the tone of his piece, which many found condescending and finger-wagging.

"My intent was exactly what I wrote," Hildebrand said, adding that the criticism had "surprised" him.

Hildebrand also confirmed that the Obama team had had no hand in writing or approving the piece. "This was not collaborated with anybody in the Obama camp," he said, and a source close to the transition confirms this.

Hildebrand did appear to concede some turf to critics who are pointing out that his piece seemed to suggest that "the left wing of our party" is somehow at odds with Obama's desire to be "pragmatic" and holds priorities that are somehow at odds with Obama's big-ticket agenda items.

"The one thing I left out, which goes without saying, is that working on health care, getting out of the war in Iraq, fixing the economy ... those are very progressive ideals," Hildebrand clarified.

When I pointed out that he seemed to be exaggerating or oversimplifying the nature of the "left's" quarrel with Obama, without naming those lefty critics, Hildebrand responded: "There is a lot of sniping out there...it's constant."

Hildebrand also denied that his framing was meant to portray the "left's" views as more marginal than they actually are. "I wasn't attacking anybody or criticizing anybody in particular," he insisted, though it was hard to avoid the conclusion that he didn't care enough about the criticism to focus on its finer points.

Read more »

Minneapolis has now called off the search for that missing envelope that's believed to contain 133 ballots favoring Al Franken, throwing yet another legal curveball into this never-ending recount.

The ballots were originally counted on Election Night and placed into a set of envelopes for this precinct numbered 1 to 5 -- but that "1" envelope now appears to be irretrievably missing. If the ballots are never recovered or somehow compensated for, it would cost Franken a net 46 votes, quite possibly enough to flip the race to Norm Coleman.

As we reported on Friday, the state does have an option here: Instead of just throwing out the votes of people who cast their ballots and were counted the first time around, the canvassing board can switch back to the Election Night tally in this one precinct, effectively undoing the loss.

During the Franken campaign's conference call earlier today, lead recount attorney Marc Elias strongly endorsed this idea: "Now you ought to know that there are cases that literally go back over a century throughout the country that counsel in favor of this approach."

No matter which decision the canvassing board ultimately makes, they should probably plan on a lawsuit from the losing side of the argument.

It looks like the GOP will hang on to a key House seat, after all. There were some doubts surrounding GOP candidate John Fleming's 356-vote lead over Dem Paul Carmouche in Saturday's election in Northern Louisiana, because of an unknown number of outstanding provisional ballots and the slimness of the overall margin.

But a Louisiana election official tells us that the numbers aren't really in doubt. "I'll tell you that we're confident in the results," said Jacques Berry, press secretary for the Louisiana Secretary of State, in a phone call with Election Central, explaining to us that there are only about 50 provisionals left.

Berry told us that if Carmouche does not concede and instead files for a recount, he would have to cover all the costs. Louisiana does not provide for a state-paid recount, unless the candidate can get a judge to order one for some particular reason.

Carmouche spokesperson Bert Kaufman indicated in an e-mail to Election Central that the campaign is taking a wait-and-see approach: "At this point, we await the counting of those provisional ballots, which, as far as I know, is scheduled to take place tomorrow afternoon."

But for now, put this seat in the Republican column.

It's a pretty amusing sign of just how bad the GOP's travails are and of how much the election of the first black president has shifted the political landscape: The race for chair of the Republican National Committee -- the public face of a party that's not known for racial sensitivity -- is shot through with veiled charges of racism.

The latest? A Republican operative supporting one of the candidates sends us some oppo research that, he vows, will be so damaging that it could help finish off one of the candidates, South Carolina GOP chief Katon Dawson. It's a December 2006 report in the Columbia Star saying that Dawson's son -- gasp! -- was at a debuttante ball at a country club that's all-white as a matter of policy.

The fact that Dawson himself was a member of this club, the 80-year-old Forest Lake Club, is not new. But our operative insists to us that the fact that Dawson's son also attended such a ball -- they are basically social coming out parties for the teenage daughters of well-heeled southern families -- makes the charge more damaging.

The operative tells us that the last thing the GOP needs right now is an RNC chair steeped so thoroughly in certain aspects of southern culture, given that the GOP needs to prove that it's not devolving into a regional rump party held hostage by intolerant elements.

Forget for the moment whether this argument has any merit or whether Dawson's attendance at the ball should matter. It's yet another sign of how much the landscape has shifted that being culturally identified with the south is a liability in the race for GOP chair.

Indeed, Dawson's association with the club has become so much of a problem that his camp is now circulating a letter from a black member of the RNC saying Dawson is no racist. No word back to us from the Dawson camp yet on this stuff.

Here's the latest on the never-ending Minnesota recount: The Franken campaign appears to be downplaying the notion that his lawyers would want to take the recount battle all the way to the Senate, as they head into the next phase of this ongoing fight.

During a conference call just now with reporters -- held mainly to get out the campaign's message that the popular media methodologies to track the recount tallies are unreliable, because they take challenged ballots totally out of the count -- the subject of whether they would dispute the election at the Senate came up for a bit during the Q & A.

Franken's lead recount lawyer Marc Elias said that on occasions when he's referenced the Senate as a possible place to ensure that ballots are counted -- and those quotes have been a main source for this speculation -- he was really referring back to a top state official's statements that this could go to the Senate as a point of law. In other words, he was not implying that the Franken camp thought this would be their chosen route.

"We have said consistently that we are taking this one step at a time," Elias said, later adding: "The suggestion that there are these discussions, which I read about in the newspaper, that suggest more than that, I just think is jumping the gun."

The specter of taking this to the Senate is problematic, largely because it would put Senate Democratic leaders in an awkward position by raising the possibility of a bloody floor fight just as the Dem government is taking power in D.C. And on top of that, having the idea festering out there is probably bad P.R. as they pursue the recount.

Hillary Clinton is beginning her own transition into the Executive Branch.

Hillary is meeting with Condoleezza Rice for dinner tonight, and is also holding meetings at the State Department today.

Rice has said she won't tell Hillary what to do in her new role, but obviously some amount of consultation is needed as she passes the baton to her successor. Rice also praised the Hillary pick during her appearances yesterday on the Sunday talk shows.

So Rice deserves some credit for making this a pretty smooth and civil transition.

Here's more polling that shows that the notion of an "angry left," dissatisfied with Obama's pragmatism and perceived moderation, is really more of a media creation than a widespread phenomenon: According to the new Pew poll, only six percent of Democrats say Obama shouldn't appoint Republicans to top positions.

The poll shows that a narrow majority of Democrats, 51%, say Obama should appoint Republicans, plus 41% who say it doesn't matter. Furthermore, 57% of self-identified liberal Democrats approve of appointing Republicans.

On top of that, only 33% of Democrats say the party leaders should go in a liberal direction, with 57% preferring a moderate approach.

So the Democrats who do object to Obama's appointments don't really constitute a big chunk of the overall electorate -- they just have the opportunity to post their objections online, and in turn attract some fiery rebuttals from the other side.

Steve Hildebrand, the former deputy national campaign director for Barack Obama, has a new piece up at the Huffington Post, rebutting left-wing critics who say that Obama's cabinet choices have been too centrist or even conservative:

The point I'm making here is that our new president, the Congress and all Americans must come together to solve these problems. This is not a time for the left wing of our Party to draw conclusions about the Cabinet and White House appointments that President-Elect Obama is making. Some believe the appointments generally aren't progressive enough. Having worked with former Senator Obama for the last two years, I can tell you, that isn't the way he thinks and it's not likely the way he will lead. The problems I mentioned above and the many I didn't, suggest that our president surround himself with the most qualified people to address these challenges. After all, he was elected to be the president of all the people -- not just those on the left.

The available polling data has shown widespread approval for Obama's cabinet choices, but there has nevertheless been a definite strain of liberal who resents some of Obama's picks, most notably the continuation of Robert Gates as Sec. of Defense. Hildebrand's tone here -- simultaneously defending the need to come together and castigating critics -- might not do much to calm things down.

Really, one has to ask if Hildebrand is really trying to reassure "the left wing of our party," or whether he's trying to stir them up further out of some unknown political calculation or other. After all, many on "the left" have also made Hildebrand's point: They've noted that Obama should be allowed to let his actual policies do the talking, while simultaneously asking completely legit questions about what his choices portend about the future direction of his administration. If merely asking such questions is enough to incite an attack on "the left" from someone in Obama's inner circle, it seems reasonable to conclude that the motive here isn't to mend fences at all.

Late Update: David Sirota offers an extensive critique of Hildebrand's piece.

Late Late Update: As Ben Smith notes, the criticism of Obama from the left has actually been pretty mild, and the notion of a left "angry" about Obama's "centrism" and "pragmatism" is largely a media creation. The key point here is that Hildebrand seemed willing to feed that creation by perpetuating the false idea that the "left wing of our party" doesn't want Obama to be "pragmatic" and harbors a set of wild-eyed priorities that are somehow at odds with what Obama views as our major challenges.

Mitt Laying Groundwork For 2012, Using Leadership PAC Money
The Boston Globe reports that Mitt Romney appears to have his eyes on 2012 -- and he's using money from his personal leadership PAC, which was ostensibly set up to support other Republican candidates. Only 12% has actually gone to down-ticket GOP candidates, a fraction of the total amount that has been spend on political consultants and fundraisers.

No Obama Or Biden Events Today
Barack Obama is holding private meetings today in Chicago, while Joe Biden also meets with people in Washington. There are no public events scheduled for today.

WaPo: Obama Will Change Balance Of Federal Courts
The Washington Post reports that Barack Obama and the big Democratic majority in the Senate now have the opportunity to flip the ideological balance in many lower federal courts -- the places where most case law is truly handed down. "The change will be most striking on the Richmond-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, long a conservative bastion and an influential voice on national security cases, where four vacancies will lead to a clear Democratic majority," the Post says.

CQ: 2010 Senate Map Narrowly Favors Dems
CQ points out that Senate Republicans face another tough map in 2010, though it's not quite as bad as 2008 was. More Republican seats will be up for election than Democratic ones, with six GOP-held seats in states won by Barack Obama, compared to only two Dem-held seats in McCain states.

Senate Dems Don't Rule Out Joining Minnesota Dispute
Roll Call reports that Senate Democratic leaders are not ruling out an intervention into a disputed election result in Minnesota. "As the process moves forward, Sen. Reid will be watching to make sure that the proper authorities in Minnesota are looking very carefully to make sure that no voter is disenfranchised," said Reid spokesman Jim Manley.

Mark Penn Denies Calling Obama Unelectable
Mark Penn told the Independent in England that he did not write in internal Hillary campaign memos that Barack Obama was unelectable. "Huh. No. It doesn't say that at all," Penn said. For the record, Penn wrote: "The right knows Obama is unelectable, except perhaps against Attila the Hun."

The Democrats have picked up another House seat tonight, with Dem candidate Mary Jo Kilroy now declared the winner in the open 15th District, by a margin of just 0.76%, in a race that took over a month to count.

The result for this race was delayed by legal wrangling over about 1,000 provisional ballots, which was in turn holding up the actual counting of about 27,000 additional provisional votes. Once those issues were all settled in court, the count was finally able to proceed and show that Kilroy pulled off the win.

Only two House races are not totally over: A recount seems likely in Louisiana's Fourth District, where Republican John Fleming has a lead of 356 votes with some provisionals remaining to be tallied; and GOP Rep. Virgil Goode from Virginia is in the middle of a recount, but it seems unlikely to reverse his narrow loss.

Assuming the apparent winners in those remaining races hold up, Democrats have picked up a net 21 House seats, for a total of 257 Democratic seats to the Republicans' 178.

Obama: Economy "Going To Get Worse Before It Gets Better"
In his new interview on Meet The Press, Barack Obama laid out a blunt assessment of the economy, declaring twice that, "The economy is going to get worse before it gets better." He also said he would support the proposed $15 billion loans to save the auto industry from bankruptcy during the lame-duck period, but with conditions for the companies to make changes.

Obama Holding Press Conference, Announcing Shinseki For Veterans Affairs
Barack Obama is holding a 2 p.m. ET press conference in Chicago, at which he will announce his pick of retired Gen. Eric Shinseki -- who was famously ridiculed by the Bush Administration after he accurately predicted in early 2003 that many more troops would be needed for the Iraq War -- to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Obama confirmed the pick during his interview on Meet The Press.

RNC: We Can Still Win Elections
RNC chairman Mike Duncan released a statement last night trumpeting the GOP's victories in yesterday's House elections in Louisiana. "Coupled with the recent Senate win in Georgia, it's clear that Republicans still know how to win elections as we continue to build a solid foundation for the elections in 2010," said Duncan.

It's Official: David Gregory Is New Host Of Meet The Press
NBC News has officially announced that they've picked White House correspondent David Gregory to be the new host of Meet The Press. "I'm filled with a great sense of purpose as I join a superb team to cover Washington and the world from a treasured platform in our country," Gregory said in the press release. "Above all, I want to make Tim proud."

Report: Matthews Inks New Contract With MSNBC, Won't Run For Senate
The Politico reports that Chris Matthews has signed a new contract with MSNBC, set to be announced on Tuesday. If this proves to be true, then Matthews will not be running for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania

Sebelius Withdraws Her Name From Consideration For Cabinet
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who endorsed Barack Obama in the run-up to Super Tuesday and helped deliver him a landslide win in her state's caucuses, has taken herself out of consideration for a cabinet post. Sebelius said she wanted to focus her time on solving Kansas' current fiscal crisis, but her decision has one other effect: It leaves her open and available for a possible run for Senate in 2010.

Obama's Speechwriter Favreau Caught In Facebook Antics
Barack Obama's top speechwriter Jon Favreau just got in a bit of trouble on Facebook, with photos posted that showed him apparently groping a life-size cardboard photo of Hillary Clinton at a house party. The reaction from a Clinton spokesperson: "Sen. Clinton is pleased to learn of Jon's obvious interest in the State Department, and is currently reviewing his application."