A follow-up to tonight's completion of the recount in Minnesota, which has apparently made a victory by Al Franken a foregone conclusion: In a brief press conference, Norm Coleman's campaign lawyers reaffirmed that they will challenge the result in court.

Coleman's lead lawyer Fritz Knaak said the process in the recount was broken, and today's events were just further proof of that. "We are prepared to go forward and take whatever legal action is necessary to remedy this artificial lead," said Knaak.

So what does this mean? Minnesota law is unique in that it prohibits the issuing of an official certificate of election until the legal challenges are all resolved. Unless Coleman backs down and concedes defeat, he could bottle up a Franken win for weeks or even months, depending on how appeals go -- even though it appears to be nearly impossible that he could ever succeed.

And since the Senate Republican leadership has promised to block the seating of Al Franken on any provisional basis, that means this seat could stay vacant for a while.

Today's events in Minnesota make it appear that a Norm Coleman victory is now pretty much impossible -- and it just so happens to have occurred on the day his Senate term officially expired. A nice extra touch.

Election officials today counted through about 950 absentee ballots that both campaigns agreed had been wrongly rejected, completing the recount unless there is any new court intervention. The result: Al Franken's paper-thin lead of 49 votes has now jumped to 225 votes -- way beyond what most people crunching the numbers expected, based on the geographic spread of the newly-counted ballots.

With these new figures, it's worth examining just how slim the odds would be of Coleman finding some way to win this thing, should he follow through on his campaign's vow to challenge the result in court.

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Obama Pushes Stimulus Plan In YouTube Address
In Barack Obama's latest Presidential YouTube Address, the president-elect discusses his economic stimulus plan -- and the very serious urgency of getting it passed:

"These are America's problems, and we must come together as Americans to meet them with the urgency this moment demands," says Obama. "Economists from across the political spectrum agree that if we don't act swiftly and boldly, we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double digit unemployment and the American Dream slipping further and further out of reach."

Today: More Ballot-Counting In Minnesota
Minnesota election officials are meeting today to sort through about 950 more ballots, in a process described below. Al Franken is favored to hold on to his slim lead, currently at 49 votes, or possibly even expand it slightly. A live video feed is available at The Uptake.

Norm Coleman's Term Expires
Sen. Norm Coleman's (R-MN) term will officially expire today, as the recount continues in Minnesota. Senate Republicans have vowed to filibuster any attempt to seat Al Franken on a provisional basis, assuming he wins the recount, so this seat will become vacant and probably stay that way for a while.

Today: Michael Bennet To Be Announced As Colorado Senator
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) is holding a 4 p.m. ET press conference, where he is expected to announce that he will appoint Denver schools superintendent Michael Bennet to the seat being vacated by Ken Salazar. Bennet is considered to be a dark horse pick -- while he is considered to have been a very successful superintendent, pursuing merit pay and other reforms, he has never run for public office.

Obama's Win Brings Big Changes To Black Press
The Politico reports that Barack Obama's victory is spurring some big changes in the country's African-American press towards more political coverage, with magazines like Essence and Ebony adding White House reporters: "In some ways, the moves mark a return to a time when the black press -- particularly magazines -- were newsier. Jet first published photos of the battered and swollen body of Emmett Till, sparking outrage and galvanizing a still-young civil rights movement."

Blagojevich's Newest Antagonists: The Department Of Homeland Security
The Chicago Tribune reports that the Department of Homeland Security has cut off Rod Blagojevich's access to classified security information. Other state officials still have access, but the federal government apparently doesn't trust Blago with the information under his current ethics cloud.

Burris: "We Are The Senator"
Roland Burris expressed a high degree of confidence in his legitimacy as a Senator, telling Lynn Sweet, "We are the Senator." Burris says he wants to avoid any confrontation when he shows up in Washington next week, but he also apparently has no aversion to using the royal "we."

It's a big day in Minnesota, as state officials gather at 10 a.m. ET on this fine Saturday morning to sort through about 950 sealed absentee ballots that both campaigns were able to agree were wrongly rejected and should be put into the count. Al Franken is still favored to hold on to some kind of very narrow lead when this ends either today or tomorrow, but anything could happen. A live video feed is available at The Uptake.

Today's proceedings, as explained to us by the Sec. of State's office, will essentially be a fast-forward version of what went on at all the individual precincts during the manual recount: A state election official will open the ballots one by one and allot the votes for Franken, Coleman or none of the above. Representatives of the two campaigns will have the ability to challenge the call on a ballot. Then, the state canvassing board will get together to sort through the challenges, judge how each ballot should be allocated, and give us all a new total.

But even this won't be the end of it. Assuming they have still lost, the Coleman campaign has guaranteed that they will go to court to contest the election under any number of issues that haven't gone their way. This will in turn hold up the seating of Al Franken in the Senate for weeks or possibly months, as the Republican leadership has indicated that they will filibuster against him being seated on any provisional basis.

In a major breakthrough in Minnesota, the Coleman and Franken campaigns have resolved that about 900 wrongly-rejected absentee ballots will be counted this weekend, out of nearly 1,350 that the county election officials had initially sorted out.

This is a surprisingly high number. The process set up by the state Supreme Court seemed ripe for abuse, because it required both campaigns to sign off on counting any one sealed ballot envelope. The camps ended up approving quite a lot of ballots in what seemed like a chaotic process over this week. The Coleman campaign did manage to throw another wild card in, though: They're going to court to try to force the inclusion of about 650 ballots that the local officials have rejected, and which seem to be stacked their way.

In a very good sign for Al Franken, 255 absentees were sent out from heavily-Democratic Hennepin County (Minneapolis) alone, and the number of vetoes from the two campaigns were nearly tied there. So expect this particular load of votes to break for Franken, with the remaining question being how the ballots from all the other places work out.

The votes still haven't been counted yet. But from where we stand right now, it appears that Franken is favored to still hold his paper-thin lead over Norm Coleman after the ballots are counted this weekend. But that will just be the result going into the next step: A whole lot of litigation from the Coleman campaign, which could bottle up a Franken win for weeks or even months.

The train wreck that is the Illinois Senate seat scandal continues apace today.

Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer, a former chief of the Capitol Hill police, told the Associated Press that he does not expect any trouble from Roland Burris should Burris be turned away from the Senate door next week. "He is a good man," said Gainer, who has known Burris for years. "He plays by the rules. I don't think there's going to be a confrontation."

At the same time, you have to think that any potential situation where Burris is turned away from the Senate would by definition be a real scene, even if it happened to go smoothly and civilly.

Meanwhile, the Illinois House is being called back for a potential impeachment vote against Rod Blagojevich next week. An aide to a top legislative Democrat tells Election Central that the speed of the vote depends on a ruling Monday by a federal judge on whether Patrick Fitzgerald can release to them the tapes of Blago's wiretaps, and how long it would take for any necessary edits and redactions to be made.

"If he says you need a week, then maybe they'll wait," the source told us. "If the judge says you need three months, well they probably won't wait for that." At this point, it appears that Blagojevich is still on track to be removed from office around early February.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has now responded to the Coleman campaign's lawsuit to restart the latest phase of the recount, the sorting of wrongly-rejected absentee ballots. They're taking no action for now -- but aren't ruling it out, either.

At issue here is the Coleman campaign's attempts to get about 650 ballots put in that the local officials throughout Minnesota have said were correctly rejected. The campaign is contending that ballot envelopes in different parts of the state are being treated unequally -- and it just so happens that the ballots they've picked out are from areas that Coleman swept in the election.

The court has neither denied nor granted Coleman's request, and they haven't scheduled hearings, either. Instead, they've ordered the Franken campaign, plus the counties in question, to furnish more information by tomorrow morning. In short, they want to find out whether Coleman truly has a potentially legitimate claim, or if he's just complaining about a constitutional violation because he's losing.

With the clock ticking for Coleman, though, this is more bad news than it is good. After all, the regular sorting and approval of these ballots is scheduled to end today, and those ballots will be counted over the weekend and give us a new vote total for the race. Absent any new court intervention that would restart the process or force the admission of those 650 ballots, Al Franken is expected to still be ahead by Monday's canvassing board meeting.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who heads up the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has restated his position that the Senate Republicans will oppose seating Al Franken on a provisional basis during the expected litigation that will come after the Minnesota recount.

Cornyn signaled a few days ago that the GOP would keep Franken out, saying that it was "unprecedented" to seat somebody during an ongoing election dispute -- which as we pointed out is simply not true.

The Senate Republicans do have enough seats to mount a filibuster. So if this becomes a strict party-line vote, they can keep Franken out for weeks or maybe even months, depending on how the court proceedings go.

It's probably a good thing for the health of democracy that so many races are landslides. Imagine if they were all as close as this one.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) will announce tomorrow who he is appointing to the Senate seat of Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar, the Rocky Mountain News reports, which Salazar will be leaving to become Barack Obama's Secretary of the Interior.

There are many names out there as to who could get it: Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Rep. John Salazar (brother of Ken), state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, and many others. Polling has suggested that any of the notable Democrats would start out as the favorite to hold the seat against the Republicans in 2010, due to the state's recent big shifts to the Democrats.

Think of how remarkable it is, in this day and age: A Senate seat being filled in a calm and orderly fashion.

Late Update: The Rocky Mountain News now reports that the appointee is expected to be Michael Bennet, the superintendent of the Denver public schools.

I can't believe I'm writing this, but for the foreseeable future this is my last post at TPM.

I'm heading over to The Washington Post, where I'll be writing the lead blog on a new site that WaPo is launching. This will drive you mad with curiosity, unfortunately, but the details on the new site and blog will only be forthcoming when it launches the week after next.

Needless to say, I'm hoping that every last one of you will come check out the new place when it's up and running. If you all want info on the new site, or just want to stay in touch, shoot me an email at sargegreg at gmail.com.

As you already know, what Josh has created here at TPM is an enormous achievement. It's hard for me to express just how much I've enjoyed and learned from my experience here. It's the best gig I've ever had -- even better than playing first base on the neighborhood little league team -- and it was an honor and a privilege to have had the chance to do whatever I've been able to help implement Josh's truly unique journalistic vision.

Josh is also a good and decent boss and enormously fun to work with. Many, many thanks, Josh, and here's hoping we'll work together again one day.

I also want to thank a few more people.

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With Roland Burris getting ready to go to Washington, the Senate's goal here now seems pretty obvious: To keep Burris out for as long as possible, until some other resolution to this whole mess is somehow accomplished.

The Democratic leadership's current contingency plan for next week is reportedly for Burris to be met at the chamber by a doorman telling him he's not allowed inside. If he still tries to go in, armed police officers could intervene to get him away. Burris told the Los Angeles Times that he wants to avoid a scene and have all of this negotiated before he arrives, but it's unlikely that he could negotiate his way towards actually being seated.

And even if Burris does manage to physically enter the chamber, there are still a whole lot of avenues to keep him from being sworn in. The Senate is expected to launch a Rules Committee investigation to determine the legitimacy of his appointment, thus delaying him from being seated. They'll look at everything from the facts of the Blagojevich scandal to Illinois Sec. of State Jesse White's refusal to sign the certificate of appointment. Every undotted "i" and every uncrossed "t" will be scrutinized.

At that point, Burris might just be able to go to court and force the Senate to admit him. Many legal scholars believe he has a genuine case here. But even this could take a while -- which would appear to be the whole point.

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The spin war over wrongly-rejected absentee ballots in Minnesota keeps on going, with today's deadline for sorting them and sending them to the state for counting perhaps adding a heightened sense of urgency.

Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty was just on Fox News, where he said the number of wrongly-rejected absentees was "between 1,300 and 2,000."

Here's the thing: The local election officials throughout Minnesota have the number at around 1,350, after they sorted through all the rejected absentees. In order for it to be 2,000, you would have to include the 650 additional ballots that the Coleman campaign is suing to have put in, and which the local officials all say were thrown out properly.

And as luck would have it, those 650 come from Coleman's strongholds -- so they would probably be more than enough to put him back in the lead over Al Franken.

Senate Leaders Plan To Block Burris From Entering Senate Chamber
This could be fun: If Roland Burris shows up at the Senate on Tuesday to be sworn in, Senate leaders have a plan for Burris to be greeted by the doorman -- and possibly armed police officers -- who will tell him he is not allowed in. For his part, Burris says he wants to avoid a scene and have this business sorted out before he arrives.

Today In Minnesota: Absentee Ballot Sorting Scheduled To Finish
Today is the deadline for the Franken and Coleman campaigns, along with local election officials, to finish sorting through and approving absentee ballot envelopes that are found to have been wrongly rejected, and then send them on to the state for counting over the weekend. But any number of wrinkles could happen today -- for one thing, Coleman is suing at the state Supreme Court to restart the whole process and get some rejected ballots put in that he wants.

Obama's Vacation Over
Barack Obama and his family have finished their vacation in Hawaii, and arrived back in Chicago this morning. They are set to move to Washington this weekend, so that the children can start school on time after the Christmas vacation.

Obama To Meet With Congressional Leadership On Monday
Barack Obama will reportedly meet with Congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle on Monday, in order to discuss his economic stimulus plan. Also lined up for next week is a meeting with former presidents on Wednesday.

Biden Could Still Cast Votes In The Senate
CQ reports that Joe Biden could potentially still be casting important votes in the Senate as Congress gets to work on an economic stimulus package, due to his official resignation date not yet being determined. "If a critical vote comes up and Sen. Biden is needed, he will vote," said Biden spokeswoman Annie Tomasini.

Rahm Resigning Congress Today
Rahm Emanuel's resignation from Congress will take effect today, as he prepares to become Barack Obama's Chief of Staff. A special election will be called within a period established by state law, and whoever wins the Democratic primary will be nearly guaranteed to hold the seat.

Paterson: No Caretaker Senator
New York Gov. David Paterson says he will not appoint a caretaker to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat because this would deprive the state of two years to build up seniority. Paterson also had some tough words for people telling him who to appoint: "I am amazed by the willingness of my colleagues, who know this is a difficult decision, to comment on it so much. I'm not saying they shouldn't. I'm just amazed by it."

Republicans Fleeing Washington During Inauguration
Millions of people are expected to come to Washington for Barack Obama's inauguration, but Jonathan Martin reports that one group is actually leaving: Republican lobbyists and staffers, who have made various plans to get out of town. "I will be pondering the future of my party at a remote location, aided in the conversation by my friend Jack Daniels," said lobbyist Greg Crist.

Norm Coleman has done it again: He's filed a lawsuit at the state Supreme Court.

This newest lawsuit is an attempt to force the inclusion of the 650 rejected absentee ballots that his campaign wants put into the count, which the local election officials from around Minnesota have not included in the lists of ballots that they say were thrown out because of clerical errors. In short, Coleman is suing to include ballots that the county officials say were thrown out properly -- and which local media analyses say are from areas that Coleman swept in the election.

On a conference call with reporters just now, lead Franken lawyer Marc Elias ridiculed the Coleman campaign for having throughout this whole recount dismissed the idea that there were any significant number of wrongly-rejected ballots, only to have a very sharp change of position now that they're behind in the latest count by 49 votes.

"This is a campaign - the Coleman campaign, that is - is a campaign that is remarkably fond of do-overs," Elias said. "Their strategy seems to be to first object to something, then when that something happens to fight it. Then when it's clear that they're not going to prevail, to start over again."

And so the year 2008 ends with a lawsuit in the Minnesota Supreme Court. Don't think for a moment that there won't be more of them in 2009.

Late Update: Elias has released this statement:

"Yesterday, something very significant happened. The State Canvassing Board completed its review of challenged ballots voted unanimously that Al Franken was ahead by 49 votes. Today the Coleman campaign reacted by again trying to cast doubt on the outcome of this election by diverting attention into the courts and away from the counting of ballots. Their previous attempts to stop the counting of ballots were rebuffed by the State Canvassing Board and the Minnesota Supreme Court - and we believe this one will be as well. Minnesotans are ready to move forward and recognize a winner in this race."

A new poll suggests that Barack Obama's high ratings aren't just your average political honeymoon, but could effectively be the same as when the people rally around their leader after a disaster.

The new numbers from CNN show 76% of Americans saying that Obama is a strong and decisive leader. This is higher than George W. Bush's 60% when he first took office, and Bill Clinton's 67% in January 1993.

However, the number is nearly identical to George W. Bush's rating on this question right after September 11, 2001.

The Coleman campaign has just made its latest move in the ongoing effort to discredit the legitimacy of the Minnesota recount: A letter to the Secretary of State warning that the whole thing will be "invalid and unreliable" unless the rules for sorting out the wrongly-rejected absentee ballots are changed.

At issue here is the fact that the Coleman campaign has so far tried to get about 650 rejected envelopes put into the count, which the local election officials say were properly thrown out the first time. Yesterday a Coleman lawyer said the Secretary of State's directions to the counties were meant to only include ballots that Al Franken wants counted -- the sample of 1,350 ballots put forth by the various county officials is believed to favor Franken, while the 650 that Coleman wants are largely from his own strongholds.

So what does this mean, exactly? What it means is that the Coleman campaign clearly expects to lose the recount, and to then go to court alleging a widespread pattern of mistreatment by pro-Franken election officials. Otherwise they would simply say things were not being handled thoroughly or properly, as opposed to using the words "invalid and unreliable."

A spokesman for Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White (D) confirmed to Election Central that White knows he does not truly have the authority to stop the appointment of Roland Burris to the Senate, but he withheld his signature from it earlier today in order to make a statement. But the door does appear to be open to some legal ramifications.

"His feeling is we studied the constitution of Illinois, we looked at the statutes, and there was nothing there that said he had to sign the paperwork," said David Druker, White's press secretary.

"We don't believe he has the authority to hold up the appointment or veto it, to put it that way," Druker added. "How the U.S. Senate views the action, that would be for the U.S. Senate to determine."

As for whether the lack of a signature on Burris' certificate of appointment would be a real basis for the Senate to hold an investigation and delay seating Burris, Druker said he was deferring any of those legal questions to the Senate itself.

Late Update: Reid spokesman Jim Manley just told Election Central in an e-mail: "Yes- the lack of a signature from the secretary of state may be a separate ground on which we could refuse to seat."

So even though White's office says Blagojevich can go around them under state law, it should be pretty clear by now what he's doing.

Al Franken could be declared the winner of the Minnesota recount as soon as Monday, but due to the peculiarities of Minnesota election law, Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) could keep the seat bottled up in the courts for weeks or even months before a decisive resolution to the race, making it harder for the Democratic majority in the Senate to seat Franken on even a provisional basis.

Assuming Franken emerges as the recount winner at Monday's meeting of the state canvassing board, what happens next?

The Coleman campaign has publicly guaranteed that they will file an election contest, challenging the result in court. That would be a key development because Minnesota law actually prevents the issuing of a certificate of election to the winner until a contest proceeding is settled (unlike other states that will certify a win, and then allow the loser to pursue legal challenges if they want).

The bottom line here is that even if Coleman ultimately loses the recount plus the formal court contest, he could be able to drag out the seating of Franken for quite some time, well beyond next week's swearing of the 111th Congress.

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An aide to a top legislative Democrat in Illinois tells Election Central that the impeachment proceedings against Rod Blagojevich will not be sped up in the wake of Blago's stunning move of appointing Roland Burris to Barack Obama's Senate seat.

"No," the source said, when we asked if the impeachment proceedings might be fast-tracked. "They set out to do something in a measured and careful manner with an eye towards not creating or setting the wrong precedent, and not trampling upon rights and due process. And they're going to continue to do that."

So with the legislature still committed to a guarantee of due process in the impeachment, at least for now, Blago isn't going anywhere immediately.

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn has estimated that Blagojevich could be out of office by early February, before Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. The source told us that this projection still seems to be about right.

Norm Coleman's efforts to win the Minnesota recount really have turned into a total farce: The Star Tribune reports that the Coleman campaign has objected to counting of a particular absentee ballot envelope -- which just so happens to be the vote of a local election official.

"I'm an election judge," said Shirley Graham, who hails from the Democratic stronghold of Duluth. "I expected to be the last person whose ballot wouldn't be counted."

The campaign might end up changing their mind, though, on whether this ballot was improperly rejected -- Graham also told the Star Tribune that she voted for Coleman.

Bobby Rush: We Have Three Hispanic Senators, Two Asians, 11 Women, But No African-Americans
In an appearance last night on Larry King Live, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) kept up his racial rhetoric in backing the Senate appointment of Roland Burris, declaring there is a "higher principle" at work:

"We've got three Hispanics. We've got two Asians. And we have 11 women. And we have just untold number of others," Rush said. "But I'm telling you, the fact that we have no African-Americans should be -- should make most fair-minded Americans very, very angry."

Rep. Davis (D-IL): I Was Offered The Appointment To Obama's Senate Seat
Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) told the Chicago Sun-Times that an attorney for Gov. Rod Blagojevich told him last week that he was being offered the appointment to Barack Obama's Senate seat. Davis is an African-American, like Roland Burris -- but unlike Burris, Davis turned it down.

Report: Obama Family Moving To D.C. This Weekend
Barack Obama and his family will reportedly move to Washington this weekend, in order for the children to start school on time after the holiday season. The family will live in a Washington hotel until Jan. 15, when they'll move to the Blair House.

Obama Visits Old High School, Also Gets Picketed At Vacation Compound
Barack Obama's attempted vacation in Hawaii brought him to his old high school in Hawaii, along with visits to the zoo with his daughters and a stop by his late grandmother's apartment. In addition, pro-Palestinian activists have been picketing his vacation house, calling for a change to America's pro-Israel policies.

Obama Dismisses 90 Bush Pentagon Appointees
The Obama transition team has told roughly 90 Bush political appointees in the Pentagon that they will not be staying on after Obama is sworn in, a demonstration of how Obama will be changing the lineup at Defense even while simultaneously keeping Robert Gates. However, only about 90 political appointees were sacked out of roughly 250 total, after Gates sought to keep his team in place.

DeGette Takes Herself Out Of Running For Colorado Senate Seat
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) has withdrawn her name from consideration for appointment to Ken Salazar's seat in the Senate. Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter has a lot of other choices to pick from, and polling data thus far has suggested that any of the notable Democrats would start out as the frontrunner to hold the seat in 2010.

Clinton Team Refutes Report About Return Of Caroline Kennedy Check
The Clinton team has shot down a report from the New York Post that implied there was some ill will in the return of a 2007 donation from Caroline Kennedy. The returns were done this past August, and were refunded to everyone who had donated any money earmarked for a hypothetical Hillary Clinton general election campaign.

You really do have to wonder what planet Roland Burris is living on right now.

In an appearance just now on MSNBC, Burris was asked about the possibility of the Senate refusing to seat him. "Well, I think you will see a major outcry from the people of Illinois," Burris said, "based on the fact that the governor has appointed me."

You read that correctly: Burris says the people will have a major outcry to a Blagojevich-appointed Senator not being seated.

Burris also said he would legally challenge any decision by the Senate not to seat him. He probably has a better shot there.

Barack Obama has just released this statement, supporting the Senate Democrats in their decision to block the seating of Roland Burris:

"Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat. I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it. I believe the best resolution would be for the Governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place. While Governor Blagojevich is entitled to his day in court, the people of Illinois are entitled to a functioning government and major decisions free of taint and controversy," said President-elect Obama.

Here's the latest move by Republicans to discredit the Minnesota recount as things keep going downhill: The state GOP has now put out a statement attacking the canvassing board for allowing a local liberal site, The Uptake, to provide a live video feed of the meetings.

The statement from state GOP chairman Ron Carey says the board's decision "calls into question the judgment of those who made the decision for this partisan website to be the sanctioned broadcaster of these important proceedings."

But here's the real tell: The Uptake has been taping these meetings since last week, when they volunteered to step in after the state's cameramen were given the holiday season off. But the GOP is only seeing fit to complain about it now. Combined with the language shown above, this really shows how the GOP is laying the groundwork to dispute the whole result in court.

Rod Blagojevich and Roland Burris just held their press conference to announce the attempted appointment of Burris to the Senate -- and it was a train wreck if there ever was one.

Blagojevich forcefully said that the people of Illinois should not be without full representation in the Senate, and urged people to not hold any cloud over Burris: "Please don't allow the allegations against me to taint this good and honest man."

Burris had an awkward moment when he was asked about his past donations to Blagojevich's campaign. Burris expressed surprise at the dollar amount listed. "We didn't have that much money to give to the governor," he said in a jocular tone -- not exactly the sort of remark that would inspire confidence.

Burris also backed away sharply from his prior statements that he was only seeking to be a caretaker. When asked whether he would run in 2010, Burris responded: "We have to determine that when we get to that point."

Finally, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) made an appearance at the podium and stated in forceful terms that the Senate must not reject the appointment of a black Senator, going so far as to tell everyone to not "hang or lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer."

Wow.

It now looks like the Senate GOP could end up trying to block the seating of Al Franken, assuming he is declared the winner next week in the Minnesota recount. NRSC chairman John Cornyn put out a statement accusing the Franken campaign of falsely declaring victory, and denouncing the idea of provisionally seating him while the expected legal dispute of the election is resolved:

"Al Franken is falsely declaring victory based on an artificial lead created on the back of the double counting of ballots. His campaign's actions in the last several days on the issues of rejected absentee ballots are creating additional chaos and disorder in the Minnesota recount. Those actions, coupled with the recent comments by Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who suggests seating someone even if there is an election contest, are unprecedented. Minnesotans will not accept a recount in which some votes are counted twice, and I expect the Senate would have a problem seating a candidate who has not duly won an election."

It needs to be pointed out that that there are multiple falsehoods in this statement. First, the Franken campaign has not declared victory, instead only expressing a very high degree of confidence that they will win. The statement also blames Franken for "creating additional chaos and disorder" on the issue of rejected absentee ballots, when by all appearances it's the Coleman campaign that is offering a cherry-picked list of ballots they want counted.

And finally, Cornyn alleges that it is "unprecedented" to seat someone while an election is still being disputed. As recently as 2007, Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) was seated without prejudice by the majority-Democratic House while his election was being contested, and in 1997 the majority-Republican Senate provisionally seated Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) after her GOP opponent alleged irregularities in her very narrow win.

The Senate Democratic leadership has now released a statement on the impending appointment of Roland Burris to Barack Obama's Senate seat, expressing their very strong displeasure at the situation and making it clear that they will not accept his appointment:

We say this without prejudice toward Roland Burris's ability, and we respect his years of public service. But this is not about Mr. Burris; it is about the integrity of a governor accused of attempting to sell this United States Senate seat. Under these circumstances, anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic Caucus.

The statement then goes on to say that the appointment is unfair to Burris and unfair to Illinois, and calls upon Blagojevich to not make this appointment, and to instead step down and let Democratic Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn make the appointment instead.

Full statement after the jump.

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So who is Roland Burris, the man who will reportedly be appointed by Rod Blagojevich to Barack Obama's Senate seat?

Burris is an experienced and respected hand in Illinois politics, who offered himself up as a potential appointee about two and a half weeks ago, soon after the criminal complaint first came down alleging that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was trying to sell the Senate seat. Burris said at the time that he was "appalled" by the allegations, and that he only wanted to serve as a caretaker Senator and not seek election in 2010.

In 1978, Burris became the first African-American elected statewide in Illinois, becoming state Comptroller. He served for three terms and was then elected Attorney General in 1990, before running unsuccessfully for governor in 1994, 1998 and 2002. In 2002, one of his opponents in the Democratic primary was none other than Rod Blagojevich, but Burris came in third with 29% in a very tight race.

If Blagojevich was really going to try something like this, he probably couldn't have picked a better person. Now the only question is whether the Senate will actually allow Burris to be seated.

It's now becoming clear that there is a good-sized contingent of Republicans who are openly defending Chip Saltsman, the former Tennessee GOP chairman and candidate for RNC chair who sent out a CD to committee members that includes a parody song called "Barack The Magic Negro."

• Mike Huckabee, for whom Saltsman served as campaign manager, has chimed in to defend Saltsman against the charge of racism, while at the same time acknowledging that "Chip should have been more careful" in picking the CD. "It shouldn't be the main factor in the RNC race," Huckabee wrote on his blog.

• Another person defending Saltsman has been Mark Ellis, the GOP state chairman in Maine -- not the sort of place you would automatically expect someone to stick up for this: "When I found out what this was about I had to ask, 'Boy, what's the big deal here?' because there wasn't any."

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In a briefing with reporters just now, the Franken campaign laid the blame squarely at the feet of the Coleman campaign for the failure to reach agreement on counting wrongly-rejected absentee ballots.

Lead Franken attorney Marc Elias said that the local officials throughout the state have come up with a list of about 1,350 rejected ballots, submitting them to the candidates for final approval under the rules laid out by the state Supreme Court. The Franken campaign was willing to accept that list -- but the Coleman people have not, preferring to instead offer their own set of other ballots that skew heavily towards Coleman's strongholds.

"If they had accepted that offer, it would have simplified matters," said Elias. "Now it's going to be ballot by ballot, county by county."

"We're gonna get reports during the day as to how this process is going on in the various counties," Elias added. "The Coleman campaign has never been particularly interested in having these ballots counted. But we'll see what strategy they wind up bringing into these counties."

The Coleman campaign now appears to have settled into a new groove for the remainder of the recount: Openly attack the state election officials as being biased for Al Franken, in apparent preparation to challenge the whole recount in court later.

At a quick press conference just now, Coleman lawyer Tony Trimble openly accused the state officials of being in the tank for Franken, singling out Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann's directives to counties on sorting wrongly-rejected absentee ballots.

"He's gone out and done their work," said Trimble. "He's gone out and advised county officials to simply count those the Franken campaign wants." Trimble also referred to "this very biased, joined-at-the-hip approach" of Gelbmann and Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.

Simply put, nobody attacks the refs if they think they're winning the game. Instead, the Coleman campaign appears to be going after the election officials in order to publicly establish a pattern of mistreatment, which would justify a court challenge to the expected election result showing Al Franken as the winner.

It's now official that Al Franken is ahead in the Minnesota recount by 50 votes, after the state canvassing board finally approved a spreadsheet of all the ballots that have been counted, recounted and examined again over this very long process. And while it now appears to be almost certain that Franken will defeat GOP Sen. Norm Coleman in the end, it's hardly over.

The board did some last-minute reviews and corrections this morning, sorting out complaints from both campaigns of clerical errors in the allocations of some of the challenged ballots. And so Al Franken, who entered the recount down by 215 votes, is currently ahead by a margin of 0.00171% out of over 2.9 million votes.

Now we get into a very messy stage in this process: Getting the two campaigns to agree on which rejected absentee ballots were wrongly thrown out and ought to be put into the pool, under the state Supreme Court's ruling that has given the campaigns effective veto power over whether any new individual votes are to be counted even when local officials say they were wrongly thrown out.

So far the campaigns have not agreed to anything, with the Coleman campaign appearing to be the more belligerent player -- an outcome that could easily be predicted after the court handed down its opinion. The campaigns do face threatened sanctions for bad-faith behavior, but it remains to be seen if any new ballots at all will be counted.

Late Update: Al Franken has released this statement:

"Today, the state canvassing board completed an important step in this process. I'm glad to be ahead, and as it appears that we're on track to win, I want Minnesotans to know that I'm ready to get to work for them in Washington on Day One. We still need to ensure that Minnesotans whose absentee ballots were improperly rejected aren't disenfranchised, but we are close to the finish line. And we should all be proud of our state's electoral process, and grateful for the dedication of our public servants, from the state canvassing board down to elections officials at the local level."

Meanwhile, the Coleman campaign is attacking the state election officials, saying that they're in the tank for Franken.

The RNC chairmanship race, with its new controversy surrounding a CD with a song entitled "Barack The Magic Negro," appears to be calling into question just how able the party will be to effectively oppose the first black president without coming off as racist.

The Politico reports that some RNC members appear to be rallying behind chairmanship candidate Chip Saltsman, after he sent all of them a gift CD that included the racially-charged song. Committee members from Oklahoma to Alabama and even Maine are now going on the record defending Saltsman, and some observers think current RNC chairman Mike Duncan and Michigan chairman Saul Anuzis may have damaged their candidacies by denouncing the CD.

Stuff like this really does bring us back to a strong possibility of what the GOP's prospects could be in the coming years. They may just be going through one of the classic cycles of a governing party that is kicked out in a landslide: The overall party base has shrunk, and the people left over prove to be the least fit candidates to actually clean up the mess. If this is true, the GOP is facing a long time in the wilderness.

Today: Minnesota Reviews The Vote Totals (Again)
The Minnesota state canvassing board is meeting at 10 a.m. ET today to review the Senate recount totals, after the campaigns had complained of clerical errors in the last spreadsheet, and is expected to show a total in line with the Franken campaign's estimate of a Franken lead between 35-50 votes. Then it's on to the next question: How to sort out the increasingly-bizarre impasse on counting wrongly-rejected absentee ballots.

Obama Gets Heckled In Hawaii
Barack Obama found himself getting heckled during his Hawaiian vacation, after he asked a cheering crowd whether they liked his golf game. One woman responded: "Better than your bowling."

GOP Leaders Seek Close Examination Of Obama Stimulus Plan
Republican leaders are getting ready to hold up Barack Obama's massive economic stimulus plan, with House leader John Boehner and Senate leader Mitch McConnell calling for a thorough vetting of the proposal as it makes its way through Congress. "As of right now, Americans are left with more questions than answers about this unprecedented government spending, and I believe the taxpayers deserve to know a lot more about where it will be spent before we consider passing it," said McConnell.

Hawaii Seeks To Grab The Obama Brand For Tourism
The Los Angeles Times reports that Hawaii is actively seeking to promote the impact that the islands had on Barack Obama's upbringing and outlook, showcasing the places where he's been. "When he lived here, it was 30 years ago," said John Monahan, head of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. "But the Hawaii experience deeply shaped who he is."

Palin's Daughter Bristol Gives Birth To Boy
Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol has given birth to a healthy boy, who has been named Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston. Congratulations and good luck to the whole Palin and Johnston families.

Ex-Bush Aides Say Katrina Ruined Him Politically
Former Bush aides Matthew Dowd and Dan Bartlett told Vanity Fair that Hurricane Katrina was the event that permanently wounded George W. Bush's credibility. "The president broke his bond with the public," said Dowd. "Once that bond was broken, he no longer had the capacity to talk to the American public."

Former Powell Aide: Bush A "Sarah Palin-Like President"
Former Colin Powell aide Lawrence Wilkerson also told Vanity Fair that Bush's inexperience and lack of knowledge in foreign affairs made him into "this Sarah Palin-like president," dependent on his advisers to know what was going on. It's hard to figure out who should feel more insulted by this comparison.

The already-bizarre Minnesota recount just got a bit more comical, with the Coleman campaign offering up a list of rejected absentee ballots that they say should be counted, under a state Supreme Court ruling giving each campaign effective veto power over counting votes -- a list of ballots that just so happen to come mostly from suburban and rural counties that he swept in the election.

The local election officials throughout Minnesota have now identified about 1,350 absentee ballots that they've concluded were rejected by clerical errors -- for example, if the election officials didn't see the voter's name on the registration rolls when they were in fact there -- and ought to be counted. A large portion of these ballots come from counties that Al Franken carried, so Franken would almost certainly extend his current 47-vote lead over Coleman if they're all counted.

The Franken campaign supports the counting of all 1,350 ballots. But the Coleman campaign has come back with its own list of 650 ballots, coming mostly from his own strongholds, that the campaign says were wrongly rejected and are worthy of being included. So it looks like they're not only cherry-picking, but they're not being at all subtle about it.

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office is not yet committing to provisionally seating Al Franken, pending the outcome of the expected post-recount election contest litigation in Minnesota, as the date for new Senators to be sworn in gets closer and closer.

The suggestion to provisionally seat the declared winner of the recount -- who at this point is expected to be Franken -- was first made by Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar this weekend, in the interest of making sure the state would have full representation while the litigation is pending.

"At this stage, it appears that Franken will be certified the winner by the State Canvassing Board," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Harry Reid, in a statement to Election Central. "We're keeping abreast of the situation and will make a decision with regard to Senate action at the appropriate point in the process."

Election Central also made calls to the Republican leadership offices, asking if they would allow or block a temporary seating of Franken, assuming he's ahead. A spokesman told us that they don't have any answer at this point.

Rahm Emanuel is set to officially resign from Congress this Friday, as he prepares to become Barack Obama's White House Chief of Staff.

Rahm was easily re-elected to a fourth term this past November, before he got the invitation from Barack Obama to join the White House. A crowded field of local Democrats has already popped up to run in the special election. Whoever wins the primary will be pretty much guaranteed to hold this safe Democratic seat.

So will any of the wrongly-rejected absentee ballots in Minnesota, which have been the subject of copious litigation between the Franken and Coleman campaigns, actually get counted? The latest report from the Star Tribune suggests it's going to be a rough time over the next few days, with the Franken camp calling for 1,346 ballots to be counted, while the Coleman team thus far wants to include...136.

The thing to remember here is that the state Supreme Court released a bizarre opinion a week and a half ago, calling for these ballots to opened up and and counted -- but only if both campaigns agreed that an individual envelope was wrongly rejected. So if the Coleman campaign vetoed 1,210 ballots, then only their 136 will be counted -- that is, unless the Franken campaign were to retaliate by withholding consent from those, too, until more votes are added to the pile.

It should be pretty obvious what's going on here: The Coleman campaign is trying to cherry-pick ballots that they believe will be good for them, based on where the ballots are from, and that they think could be favorable enough to undo Al Franken's lead of 47 votes. The Franken camp, meanwhile, wants to count the whole pool of votes. And in addition to upholding the principle of counting every vote, it should be noted that the entire set of wrongly-rejected absentees is believed to favor Franken.

The deadline to get these ballots counted is January 4. After that, any attempt to get them counted will have to be done in court through a post-recount election contest, which has a burden of proof favoring whichever candidate has already been declared to be ahead.

Although she's been getting some tough press coverage lately, a new CNN poll finds Caroline Kennedy still has some decent numbers on the biggest question facing her quasi-campaign: Whether she is qualified to serve in the Senate.

The poll found 52% of adults saying Kennedy is qualified to serve in the Senate, regardless of whether they personally would vote her, with 42% saying she is not.

The major caveat here is that this is a poll of adults nationwide, not a poll of New York specifically, where the more intense press coverage could potentially have a different effect on the numbers.

In the latest funny move from the Rod Blagojevich scandal, Blago's defense team now says it plans to introduce a new piece of evidence to defend him against impeachment: The internal report that the Obama transition team put out last week in order to exonerate itself from any of his alleged muck.

Blagojevich lawyer Ed Genson told the Chicago Sun-Times that this move was being done after the legislature refused his request to subpoena Valerie Jarrett and Rahm Emanuel: "Since I can't subpoena anyone, this is the next best thing."

The logic here is understandable. After all, if the Obama team says they never discussed any corrupt bargains with Blagojevich, then it would follow that Blagojevich didn't discuss any dirty deals with the Obama people. It's unclear just how much credence the legislature will give him on this.

Gaza Crisis Posing Tough Questions For Obama And Bush
The fighting in Gaza is shaping up to be the first international crisis facing Barack Obama -- and he hasn't even been sworn in yet, while the Obama transition team is thus far deferring to the Bush Administration on the question. "As the fighting in Gaza shows, however," the New York Times points out, "events in the world do not necessarily wait for Inauguration Day in the United States."

Obama Goes To The Bathroom
The traveling press pool on Barack Obama's attempted Hawaii vacation have thus far documented the president-elect visiting a high school friend, getting some food -- and going to the bathroom.

Klobuchar: Senate Should Seat Recount Winner, Pending Litigation
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is calling for the Senate to provisionally seat the winner of the state's recount -- who at this point looks like it will be Al Franken -- even though the race won't be officially settled due to an expected post-recount election contest in court. Minnesota law officially prohibits a full certification of a victory until a contest proceeding is over, which could prevent the seating of a Senator for weeks or perhaps even a month or two.

Terry McAuliffe -- And His Money -- Making Mark On Virginia Gov Race
The Washington Post reports that Terry McAuliffe's fundraising operation is making a big impact on the Virginia gubernatorial race, with many observers believing that he could spend up to $80 million on the race. Randal Kirk, major state Democratic fundraiser who has committed to supporting McAuliffe, said that McAuliffe can instantly appeal to voters: "He has an astonishingly strong personality."

RNC Members Call Special Meeting To Host Candidates
In the latest sign that the race for RNC chairman is really heating up, committee members have for the first time ever called their own special RNC meeting, without orders from the national party. The meeting is being held as a forum for the candidates now running for the chairmanship, so it shouldn't come as a shock that it was called outside the auspices of the national leadership -- after all, the current party chairman Mike Duncan is in a tough fight for re-election against a wide field of challengers.

Caroline Kennedy: "You Know"
Ben Smith points out that during her interview with the New York Times, Caroline Kennedy used the phrase "you know" to fill in pauses a total of 142 times.

Illinois Lt. Gov.: We Can Have Blago Out Before Feb. 12
Appearing today on Face The Nation, Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn predicted that the state legislature could successfully impeach and remove Rod Blagojevich before Lincoln's 200th birthday on February 12. He also said that while he hopes they can have a special election to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat, it would not take place before June.

Obama Speaks To Condoleezza Rice About Israel
Barack Obama had an eight-minute phone call with Condoleezza Rice, monitoring the situation in Israel and Gaza. However, an Obama spokesperson was careful to note that "there is one president at a time."

Caroline To NYT: "I Thought You Were The Crack Political Team"
In an interview with the New York Times, Caroline Kennedy became somewhat annoyed when asked to describe the moment when she decided to seek Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. "Have you guys ever thought about writing for, like, a woman's magazine or something?" said Kennedy. "I thought you were the crack political team."

Gibbs: Obama "Wants And Expects" Disagreement Within His Administration
In an interview with ABC News, incoming White House press secretary Robert Gibbs responded to the idea that Obama's politically diverse cabinet could lead to serious internal divisions. "I think the far greater risk is assembling a group of people that whenever the president opens their mouth they all nod their heads in agreement," said Gibbs, adding that Obama "wants and expects there to be disagreement within that room," with Obama making the final decisions.

Axelrod On Rick Warren Pick: We Have To Find Ways To Work Together
In an appearance on Meet The Press, David Axelrod defended the selection of Rick Warren to give the invocation at Barack Obama's inaugural. "You have a conservative evangelical pastor who's coming to participate in the inauguration of a progressive president," said Axelrod. "This is a healthy thing and a good thing for our country. We have to find ways to work together on the things on which we do agree, even when we profoundly disagree on other things."

Laura Bush: The Shoe-Thrower Shows That Iraqis Are Now Much Freer
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Laura Bush said she was offended at the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at the president, but also looked on the bright side. "As bad as the incident is, in my view, it is a sign that Iraqis feel a lot freer to express themselves," said Mrs. Bush.

Laura Bush: The Bush Presidency Was Not A Failure
Also in her Fox News interview, Laura Bush rebutted the charge that her husband's administration was a failure. "I know it's not, and so I don't really feel like I need to respond to people that view it that way," said Mrs. Bush. "I think history will judge and we'll see later."

Poll: FDR Edges Out Reagan As Better President
As a further sign that the country appears to be taking a real turn to the left, a new Rasmussen poll pitted Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan against each other in a two-man race, asking respondent who was the better president. The numbers: Roosevelt 45%, Reagan 40%, with a ±3% margin of error.