I thought they would never speak up. Harry? Are you awake? Are

Thank you Senator Schumer.

The Democrats in the Senate have to drop the anticipatory courtesies and make the Republicans maintain full unity and ACTUALLY stand up there and filibuster day after day, reading the phone book in the middle of the night and taking clear public credit for their delays. This needs to be true on most significant issues from now on.

In this case, how will Minnesotans feel about Republicans who use obviously fruitless delaying tactics to keep them from having full representation? If the votes are not that close, as they are not now, these tactics will be seen for what they are. Spoilerism.

Just as Coleman's lawyers (who of course would get rich in the process) are happy to threaten endless suits in Minnesota, so the Senate Republicans threaten filibusters. But in both cases, there is -- and must be -- a cost for such behavior.

The fact that the Coleman campaign evidently backed down on the wrongly rejected absentee ballots suggests that the Minnesota Supremes' threat against any campaign that didn't deal in good faith had some effect. Whatever Norm thought, his attorneys were loath to risk public sanctions from the state's highest judicial authority, perhaps.

Likewise, while the minority has many ways to gum up Senate business, all political moves come at a political cost, too...and Reid's job at this point, with a substantial majority behind him and several nervous 'moderate' Republicans to pressure, is to make that cost very very clear to Cornyn and his ilk.

Starting with forcing a real filibuster would be a good start. No one likes a sore loser, after all, and that's what it would look like if Republic party Senators read the phone book to block votes while the stimulus package -- which some 82% of voters apparently home the Obama adminstration will move forward -- is held up.

But there are many more procedural tools in the Senate playbook, and while some favor the minority, many favor the majority and the Senate leader -- especially when the chair of the Senate will also be a Democrat.

Elementary game theory generally says: cooperate with those who cooperate with you, but punish those who block and betray you when you try to cooperate. The Republic party gets one chance to play nice, but if not, game theory suggests that maximum pressure is the best tool for a while, before offering them cooperation again.

How about Schumer for Majority Leader? Notwithstanding that he was wrong about Mukasey, he does have a pair and will go to battle.

Methinks it's about time for another Sternly Worded Letter from our hapless Majority Leader, with predictable results.

Tim Kaine with be the new DNC chairman.

Tim Kaine and Obama are SYMPATICO so I could really see this working.

CNN is reporting that the MN elections board will certify Franken the winner. Time for Norm to concede. What Schumer says is irrelevant.

Well for those here who have a Democratic US Senator, time is to contact their office and demand that Franken be promptly seated. Reid will respond to those who elected him, and the ones that made him leader are the current Senators.

If you want to consider the fly in the pop bottle, I think the problem is Joe Lieberman. He gave money and raised money for Coleman's campaign, and he came here to Minnesota to campaign for Coleman. Up till 2006 Coleman had the Government Operations Committee which was supposed to investigate fraud and such like, and Lieberman was his ranking member. Now Lieberman is the chair (again) and until congress closed the other day, Coleman was his ranking member. They more or less agreed on not investigating all that much. You know, things like no-bid contracts and the like.

In a sense, I am relieved that Schumer has spoken up, because he has done so much to protect Lieberman over the last couple or years. I don't want my new Senator, Al Franken, beholden to these guys, but Schumer speaking up is meaningful.