It's official: Rep. Virgil Goode, the Virginia Republican best known for denouncing the election of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) as the first Muslim member of Congress, has conceded defeat against Democratic Rep.-Elect Tom Perriello.

Goode asked for a recount after the certified total gave Perriello a 745-vote lead out of over 300,000 votes cast. The chance of turning around that kind of deficit was nearly non-existent, and now that the recount has finished Goode has conceded via press release.

The interesting thing here is that Goode was an absolutely safe occupant of this seat until this cycle -- to most people it didn't even seem possible that he could lose this year until the final week or two of the campaign. One has to wonder if his angry remarks against Ellison made the difference, turning him from a secure incumbent into a cartoon character.

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.

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.

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."

Rep. "Dollar Bill" Jefferson (D-LA) has lost his seat in tonight's Louisiana elections to Republican candidate Joseph Cao, giving the Dems their own case of Ted Stevens Syndrome -- that is, a safe and well-entrenched incumbent, who holds a seat that ought to be an easy win for his party, going down to defeat on a corruption scandal.

Jefferson, of course, is the New Orleans Congressman who is currently under a multi-count federal indictment on corruption charges, in a bizarre case that involved, among other things, $90,000 in cash being found in his freezer back in 2006. That scandal wasn't enough for him to lose re-election in 2006, but the indictment that has come down since then appears to have done it.

This is a solidly-Democratic, majority-black district, so the idea of any Republican getting elected here is a real shocker, even under these circumstances. As such, look for the Dems to put up a strong candidate in 2010 -- maybe one who isn't under indictment -- and make this seat their top pick-up target.

Late Update: With 100% of precincts reporting, Cao has defeated Jefferson by a 50%-47% margin, with a little bit under 65,000 total votes cast.

Obama Discusses Economic Recovery Program, Focusing On National Infrastructure
In his newest Presidential YouTube Address, Barack Obama discusses the recent news about job-losses and his own plan for economic recovery, which involves creating jobs through massive investments in infrastructure, ranging from roads to schools and government buildings, plus more access to broadband connectivity:

"When Congress reconvenes in January, I look forward to working with them to pass a plan immediately," Obama says. While a skeptic might think he's sticking too closely to the "one president at a time" rule by delaying the work with Congress until January, there is another important point to consider: The new Congress that will convene in January will have widely-expanded Democratic majorities, and thus be much more likely than the current Congress to pass something like this.

Obama Taping Meet The Press Interview
Barack Obama is taping an interview today with Tom Brokaw for Meet The Press, set to air tomorrow. Joe Biden is in Delaware, and has no public event scheduled.

Tonight: Two House Elections In Louisiana
Louisiana is holding two elections today for the House of Representatives. Rep. Bill Jefferson (D), who is currently under indictment for corruption charges, is expected to win re-election over Republican Joseph Cao in this solid-Dem district. The open seat of Rep. Jim McCrery (R) has a tight race between Republican John Fleming and Democrat Paul Carmouche. The polls close at 9 p.m. ET.

Reid To Keep Biden Out of Dem Caucus Meetings
Harry Reid will reportedly be barring Joe Biden from Senate Democratic caucus meetings, rather than allow him to continue to attend as the nominal presiding officer of the Senate. The move is intended to restore the system of checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches by undoing what had been a common practice for Dick Cheney and the Senate Republicans.

Obama Campaign's Next Question: What To Do With $29.3 Million
The Hill reports that the Obama campaign has ended the race with $29.3 million left on hand, after all remaining bills are paid, and has a variety of options regarding what to do with it. The campaign could do any or all of the following: Save money for the 2012 re-election campaign; give it to national, state and local party committees; give some to individual candidates or PACs, subject to standard donation limits; spend it on issue advocacy; or give some to charity.

Obama Could Announce Veterans Affairs Pick Tomorrow.
Barack Obama is holding a press conference tomorrow in Chicago at 2 p.m. ET, officially billed as an event to honor veterans on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Reuters reports that Obama will also be announcing his pick for Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Ted Kennedy Steps Down From Judiciary Committee To Focus On Health Care Policy
Ted Kennedy is leaving his long-held seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee in order to focus more of his time on health-care policy. Kennedy will have one full chairmanship with the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, plus one subcommittee chairmanship within the Armed Services Committee.

Wow. You really have to see this Republican attack ad -- it's one of the strangest negative spots we've ever seen. The spot, courtesy of the NRCC, attacks the Dem candidate in the Louisiana House election that's being held this Saturday by painting him as soft on drunk drivers -- with a vivid dramatization of a car wreck:

"Take Jimmy Ray White: Three prior drunk-driving offenses, but he's out on the street," the announcer says, as the road is speeding by the viewer. "Then White kills a teenager in a hit-and-run car accident."

Wow.

Democratic candidate Paul Carmouche, a district attorney and relatively conservative Dem, has been running close in the polls against right-wing GOP candidate John Fleming in the race for this open GOP-held seat. As with the Georgia Senate runoff, this is probably going to be a low-turnout affair in which the parties have to really get the voters' attention -- and if this ad doesn't get people's attention, nothing will.

Here's one Republican Congressman who just won't give up, no matter how long the odds.

A source close to Rep. Virgil Goode -- the colorful Virginia Republican best known for fiercely denouncing the 2006 election of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) as the first Muslim member of Congress -- tells Election Central that Goode will call for a recount at a press conference set to begin shortly, after the state elections board today certified a 745-vote margin of victory for Dem opponent Tom Perriello.

The final numbers: Perriello 158,712 votes, Goode 157,967.

Goode is fully entitled to a state-paid recount under Virginia law, but the chance of success seems very slim to say the least, given the number of votes cast in this race and the size of Perriello's lead. Relatively speaking, this would be as if Al Franken had gone into the Minnesota recount trailing Norm Coleman by over 7,000 votes, instead of Coleman's shaky 215-vote lead.

Late Update: The Goode campaign has made it official, announcing in a press release that he is seeking a recount.

Report: Obama Promised Hillary Access And Autonomy At State
The New York Times reports that Barack Obama capped off his effort to recruit Hillary Clinton as Secretary of state by promising her direct access to him in the White House, and the ability to pick her own staff.

Obama To Officially Roll Out Economic Team Tomorrow
The Obama transition team has officially announced that Barack Obama and Joe Biden will hold a press conference as 12 p.m. ET tomorrow to roll out their economic team, a development that was essentially known on Friday. The big task the Obama team has is to calm and reassure the markets during the Bush-Obama interregnum, and thus prevent a repeat of the disastrous lame-duck period between Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt.

Bill Daley: Obama Likely To Delay Tax Hikes On Top-Earners
Key Obama adviser Bill Daley, a former Secretary of Commerce under Bill Clinton, said on Meet The Press that Barack Obama is likely to delay his planned repeal of the Bush tax cuts on those earning over $250,000 because of the economic downturn. Instead, Obama could just end up waiting until 2011 for the tax cuts to expire on their own.

Axelrod: No Auto Bailout Until Companies Submit Real Plan
David Axelrod said on ABC's This Week that the incoming Obama Administration wants to help automakers, but also wants to see a plan first from executives on how they will retool their companies. "If they don't do that then there is very little the tax payers can do," said Axelrod. "I hope automakers come back to Congress, hopefully on commercial flights."

Report: Summers To Be Named Senior Economic Adviser
Larry Summers, the former Bill Clinton Secretary of the Treasury who later had a tumultuous period as president of Harvard, will reportedly be named head of the National Economic Council, a senior advisory position to the president on economic matters. Summers also previously had a very close working relationship with incoming Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

GOPer McClintock Declares Victory In Key House Race
House candidate Tom McClintock (R-CA), a champion of the California right, has declared victory in a very close race for the open seat of GOP Rep. John Doolittle, after absentee ballots have shown him maintaining his slim lead over Dem candidate Charlie Brown. For his part, Brown has not yet conceded defeat.

WaPo: Was This Election A Realignment? Maybe.
The Washington Post reports on the debate among pollsters over whether this election represented a true realignment to the left, or an interruption of the "center-right country" that the Republicans insist we are. Andrew Kohut of Pew Research argues that ideology itself did not drive the election -- but also says, "If the new administration takes us left and it works, then people will be won over."

Here's the latest on two key House races that are still up in the air and both seemingly headed for recounts. In one race, the Democrats may have just fallen short in a deep-red district, though there are still a lot more ballots to tally up -- and in another, they may have just succeeded in picking off a GOP incumbent that few people would have predicted.

In California's Fourth District, the open seat of scandal-plagued GOP Congressman John Doolittle, an audit will be conducted of 10% of the district's voting machines -- the first step under state law in deciding whether to proceed with a full recount. Republican candidate Tom McClintock currently leads the 2006 Dem nominee Charlie Brown by only 889 votes out of over 300,000 votes counted so far, with 40,000 ballots still to be counted across both candidates' strongholds.

In Virginia's Fifth District, home to the cartoonishly anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim GOP Rep. Virgil Goode, the numbers between himself and Dem challenger Tom Perriello keep shifting. On Friday, Perriello declared victory and began his transition, but Goode has not conceded. As of right now, Perriello leads by 745 votes, and it's not implausible to imagine the race going back to Goode. By the time the race is certified on November 24, it will likely be so close that the losing candidate is entitled to a request a full recount at the state's expense.

Obama To Meet Bush Today
Barack Obama will hold his first in-person transition meeting with President Bush today, with a private meeting in the Oval Office. This meeting holds extra significance for Obama, as well -- he's never actually been in the Oval Office before, a place that he'll be getting to know a lot better over the next four to eight years.

Van Hollen To Stay At DCCC
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) has announced that he is staying on for a second consecutive term as head of the DCCC, a break from the usual Democratic practice of switching that office every cycle. On top of his extended campaign role, Van Hollen will also take on an expanded policy role, as a liaison between the House Dems and the Obama Administration.

Alaska Results Could Take Two Weeks To Know
Roll Call reports that results might not be known in the Alaska Congressional races for two weeks, as the state gets to work counting over 80,000 absentee ballots. The big question for incumbent Senator and convicted felon Ted Stevens (R) is whether those votes are made up more of early voters for Barack Obama and the Dem ticket, or military personnel and oil workers in remote areas who break Republican.

Some Bush Appointees Guaranteed To Stay On
The Washington Post points out that Barack Obama will still have at least three Bush appointees to work with come January: Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen, and FBI Director Robert Mueller, who all have fixed terms instead of serving at the pleasure of the president. "His campaign's success was based partly on the selection of a team he personally trusted," the Post comments, "but in his first years in the White House, he will not be able to rely solely on advisers of his choosing."

Minnesota Secretary Of State: I'll Get The Recount Right
Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie (D) is promising a fair and non-partisan process in the Minnesota Senate recount -- but it's going to be slow: "People who are the most active have a kind of bias to want to get [results] fast. Election administrators have a bias for wanting it correct, transparent and trusted."

"Barack" Quickly Becoming A Popular Name
Barack Obama's unusual name might not be so unusual for much longer, as new mothers the world over are already naming their baby boys "Barack" in honor of the president-elect and his historic election. In just a single hospital in Kenya, 23 boys were named "Barack" and 20 girls named "Michelle" from Election Day through this past Saturday.

Palin: My Comments About The Country Of Africa Were "Taken Out Of Context"
Sarah Palin is defending herself from the allegation that she thought Africa was a single country, and not a continent: "If there are allegations based on questions or comments I made in debate prep about NAFTA -- about the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa there -- then those were taken out of context." Note: There is no such country that is simply called "Africa."

McCain To Do Post-Election Appearance With Leno
John McCain will do his first post-defeat TV appearance on Jay Leno, going a similar route as Bob Dole's 1996 appearances on comedy shows in order to give the public a positive and light-hearted image. McCain will stop by the show on Tuesday, in honor of Veteran's Day.

Bill Ayers Speaks: McCain And Palin Lost Points From Attacking Me
In a new essay for In These Times, Bill Ayers comments on how his past associations with Barack Obama became a spectacle in this election. "The good news was that every time McCain or Palin mentioned my name, they lost a point or two in the polls," Ayers writes. "The cartoon invented to hurt Obama was now poking holes in the rapidly sinking McCain-Palin ship."

GOP Rep. Reichert Narrowly Wins Re-Election
Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA) has been projected the winner in his rematch against 2006 Democratic opponent Darcy Burner, who has now conceded the race. With 81% of votes counted, Reichert leads by a 52%-48% margin, and the remaining votes are not likely to change the situation significantly.

Goode's Opponent Declares Victory, But Recount Looms
Tom Perriello, the Democratic challenger against right-wing Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), has declared victory with current results showing him ahead by 745 votes out of over 316,000 total votes cast. Goode has not conceded, and a recount is likely to occur, which would delay an official verdict on the race for several weeks.

Democrats Pick Up GOPer Gilchrest's Seat In Maryland
Democrats have picked up a deep-red House seat in Maryland, with Democrat Frank Kratovil defeating Republican Andy Harris by a narrow margin. Harris won the Republican nomination in a primary challenge against the incumbent moderate GOP Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, who then turned around after his defeat and campaigned for Kratovil.

McCain Headed To Georgia For Chambliss
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) will be getting some major help in his upcoming runoff against Dem challenger Jim Martin: John McCain, who carried Georgia 52%-47%, and will be coming to the state to campaign for Chambliss' re-election. The runoff could potentially have lower turnout than the November election, so it will become all about which party can better energize and bring out its base.

Chambliss Uses 9/11 Imagery In New Ad
Check out this ad from Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), as he heads into his December runoff against Democrat Jim Martin:

"When our country was under attack, we trusted Saxby Chambliss," the announcer says to images of 9/11. What's next -- will Chambliss redo his old ads from 2002 tying Dem incumbent Max Cleland to Osama bin Laden, and just Photoshop in Jim Martin?

So how did Dems fare in the House races? Dems have made a net gain of 19 seats so far, with a few races still too close to call.

The big Democratic gains were largely fueled by Barack Obama's successes in expanding the Democratic coalition across the country. These shifts were driven by increased minority turnout, as well as growing Dem margins among groups like Hispanics, blue-collar and college-educated whites, and suburban voters inclined to vote Republican in local races but who turned Dem because of the economy.

For example, Democratic gains among Hispanics may have been decisive in House pickups in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, and economic jitters did a lot to unseat GOP incumbents or pick up open seats in Alabama, Florida and Pennsylvania, among others.

Our rundown on the state of play in the House races is after the jump.

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Another House GOPer has been caught up in the national Democratic wave. CNN and NBC have projected that Rep. Thelma Drake (R-VA) has been defeated by Democratic challenger Glenn Nye, a businessman and former diplomat.

With 100% of precincts reporting, Nye has 52% of the vote to Drake's 48%. Drake was previously targeted by the Dems in 2006, but narrowly held on against her opponent that year. This time, she wasn't so lucky.

Meanwhile, Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), best known for denouncing the election of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) as the first Muslim member of Congress, may have been defeated. His Dem opponent has even predicted victory in a very tight race, though news organizations have yet to call the race.

It looks like we'll still have Michele Bachmann to kick around. CNN and NBC are now projecting that the controversial GOP Congresswoman from Minnesota, who put her once-certain re-election in danger after she went on Hardball and called for a media investigation of Barack Obama and Congressional Dems for having anti-American views, has been re-elected.

With 81% reporting, Bachmann leads Democratic candidate El Tinklenberg by a margin of 47%-43%.

Look on the bright side: It sure will be entertaining to watch her squirm at the agenda of President Obama and the Democratic Congress.

Jack Murtha sure did pick a good year to insult his constituents.

Despite calling the people in his district racists and rednecks, multiple news outlets have now projected Murtha the winner against GOP candidate William Russell. With 56% of precincts in for Murtha's Pennsylvania district, Murtha has 58% of the vote to Russell's 42%. Whatever problems Murtha made for himself, the year's fundamental Democratic wave was more than enough to put him over the finish line.

This was Murtha's first real race in decades -- and it was itself created by his last-minute unforced error. With this whole mess behind him, he'll probably have a lot less to worry about in future cycles.

New England is now a House Republican-free zone, with Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) defeated by Democrat Jim Himes after 22 years in the House. After the 2006 elections, Shays was the last House Republican left from the six New England states.

Shays was an economic conservative and social liberal, a good fit for his district in many ways. But what killed him in the end was his staunch support for the Iraq War, and the full realignment of New England to the Dems.

And just to sweeten the deal: Shays is a good friend and political ally of Joe Lieberman.

Here's our final nightly run-down of the Congressional races:

GOP Senator's Campaign Denies Distributing Sample Ballot Implying He's A Dem
Check this out. The campaign of Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who is running in a special election that won't have party affiliation listed on the ballot, is being accused by the Dems of circulating this misleading sample ballot that asks recipients to vote for the Democratic candidates in every race -- except his own:

As Phil Singer remarks: "I can't remember the last time a Mississippi Republican pretended to be a Democrat in a statewide election."

Late Update: In an interview with Election Central, Wicker spokesman Ryan Annison denied any involvement by the campaign. "The honest to goodness truth is this is the first time we've seen it," said Annison. "At five o'clock the night before the election, I can't say that our opponent's press releases are a priority."

Obama Cuts Radio Ad For Wicker's Opponent
Meanwhile, the campaign of Wicker's Democratic opponent Ronnie Musgrove has this radio ad targeted at Democratic voters, featuring Barack Obama reminding listeners who it is that he'd like them to support:

Click To Play

The trouble that these candidates have gone to in order to inform people of their party affiliations -- and perhaps to obfuscate that point -- is as good an argument as any against non-partisan elections.

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Here's tonight's run-down of the Congressional races:

Uncle Ted To Address Alaska On Election Eve
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), who is widely expected to lose re-election as a result of his recent felony conviction, will make a final plea (no pun intended) for his political future tomorrow night. Stevens will air a two-minute TV ad across Alaska's media markets, making the case that he should be allowed to continue to serve as Alaska's senior Senator.

Minnesota GOP Mailer Lies About The Constitution
A mailer from the Minnesota Republican Party, provided to us by two different readers in the state, gets around the pitfall of implying that the presidential race is lost in its rhetorical efforts to keep the Democrats from getting 60 seats -- they just lie about how the Constitution works:

"The U.S. Senate could have a 'super majority' of 60 Democrats after this election, allowing them to pass laws without bipartisan input or teamwork," the mailer says. "Not even a Presidential Veto will be able to stop them." The actual threshold for overriding a presidential veto is 67 votes. Minnesota GOP spokesperson Gina Countryman refused to speak with Election Central to confirm or deny the authenticity of the mailer.

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Here's tonight's run-down of the Congressional races:

DSCC Ad: Coleman Refuses To Answer Questions About Lawsuit Allegations
The DSCC ad is closing out the Minnesota Senate race with this new TV ad calling GOP Sen. Norm Coleman flagrantly corrupt, focusing on last-minute lawsuits alleging that a donor funneled $75,000 to the Senator via his wife:

The most recent polling has shown the momentum swinging back to Coleman after a period in which Al Franken had taken the lead. But if the local news media ends up being focused in the last few days on corruption allegations against Coleman, it's possible that the undecideds and soft supporters of third-party candidate Dean Barkley could break to Franken.

Coleman Ad Fires Back, Accuses Franken Of Being Behind The Suit
Norm Coleman had his own ad, accusing Al Franken of being behind the lawsuits and conspiring to attack Coleman's wife:

"This time, Al Franken's crossed the line," Coleman says, his wife by his side. "My name's on the ballot -- I'm fair game for his ugly smears. My wife and family are not." The Franken campaign has strongly denied any involvement in the lawsuits.

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Here's tonight's run-down of the Congressional races:

GOP Candidate's Ad: Democrats Have Blown Up Our (Fiscal) Houses
Wow. Check out this truly amazing new ad from former Rep. Melissa Hart (R-PA), who lost her re-election in an upset in 2006, and is now in a rematch against Democratic Rep. Jason Altmire. The ad accuses the Democratic Congress of blowing up America's fiscal house:

Unfortunately, it looks like no real explosions were used in the making of this ad. Hart's campaign manager informed Election Central that the ad was most likely done with computers.

Franken's Closing Argument: Coleman Is "Trying To Fool You"
Here's Al Franken's new attack ad against Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), accusing him of running a "fake positive campaign" and lying about his political record and personal scandals:

"Norm Coleman really did take 52 trips paid for by special interests -- remember Alaska?" the announcer says. "Norm Coleman really does live in a million-dollar home owned by his special-interest friend. Norm Coleman really has voted with George Bush almost 90% of the time."

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Here's today's run-down on the Congressional races:

Bachmann Rolls Out Attack Ads Against Tinklenberg -- With Fake Citations
Michele Bachmann has unleashed a new wave of attack ads against El Tinklenberg, the relatively-conservative Democrat who has taken a narrow lead in the polls in the wake of her disastrous appearance on Hardball. Here's one of them, alleging that he broke the law and rigged contracts when he was the state's commissioner of transportation:

Meanwhile, Minnesota Public Radio says the facts contradict Bachmann's claims, right down to the claim that the Minneapolis Star-Tribune said Tinklenberg broke the law: "But the stories did not claim Tinklenberg broke the law." Furthermore, a 2003 report from the state's legislative auditor, which looked into the bidding processes of several government agencies, never mentioned Tinklenberg himself or alleged any crimes.

CQ: Dems Poised For Historic Second Wave
CQ's latest House race ratings show the Democrats headed for a historic second consecutive wave election, with double-digit gains in the House. If the 25 races currently rated as toss-ups are split evenly between the two parties -- an essentially neutral and cautious assumption -- the Dems would have an overall net gain of 18 or 19 seats, for a total of 254 or 255 seats.

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