Politics

Has T-Paw lost his luster on the national political scene?

The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza has assembled a list of 10 Republicans across the country who will be influential in trying to resurrect the party over the next four years. Conspicuously missing from the mix? Gov. Tim Pawlenty. While Cillizza explains his reasoning for other notables left off the list (Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee), [...]

WSJ: Franken campaign trying to ’steal’ election

When the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal last weighed in on Minnesota’s still-undecided Senate race, it was frothing about supposedly nefarious behavior by local election officials that was threatening the integrity of the process. Yesterday the lead recount attorney for Al Franken’s campaign, Marc Elias, wrote in to correct the record.
Now the WSJ [...]

Video: Palin discusses turkey pardon in front of slaughter-in-progress

Getting into the Thanksgiving spirit, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin pardoned a turkey yesterday, but afterwards, she stopped to speak with MSNBC about it in an unfortunate spot — just in front of a hatchery employee who was slaughtering the birds. Knowing what’s going on just behind her, Palin’s talk of a “brutal campaign,” her answer [...]

Rybak likes idea of White House urban policy czar — enough to be it?

Mayor R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis did an excellent job today on Minnesota Public Radio of extolling the virtues of the proposed urban policy officein President-elect Barack Obama’s White House. He did a fairly miserable job of professing a lack of interest in whether Obama might offer him the job running it.
It’s a red-tape-cutting position that [...]

Ellison denied progressive leadership post

Rep. Keith Ellison has fallen short in his bid to lead the Congressional Progressive Caucus. According to PolitickerAZ, the 80-member body will instead be headed by Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva and California Rep. Lynn Woolsey. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a former co-chair of the caucus.
(H/T: BrauBlog)

MnIndy video: Coleman’s staff ejects reporter from press conference

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign staff ejected a Minnesota Independent reporter from a press conference at campaign headquarters Wednesday afternoon. The MnIndy reporter made it as far as the inside of a small press conference room at a drab office park in St. Paul when a staffer asked who he represented and on that basis said the reporter would have to leave. In response to protests that MnIndy is a news outlet like others in the room, the staffer replied, “Right, and it’s funded by George Soros,” and escorted the reporter out. It’s the fourth time the senator’s campaign has denied access to local independent media at a media availability. Video (think “Blair Witch Project,” set in a boring office interior) after the jump. Spoiler alert: Norm’s door is extremely squeaky.

U.S. Senate contest: The recount commences

The manual recount of the U.S. Senate race is well under way in Ramsey County. Eight teams of inspectors are scrutinizing ballots at the county’s election offices while authorized representatives of the two campaigns hover nearby. It’s just one of roughly 110 locations across the state where ballots will be manually inspected over the next two weeks to determine the winner of the closest senate race in Minnesota history.

U.S. Senate recount: It’s a legal matter, baby

The fight over the closest Senate contest in Minnesota history turned to the Ramsey County Courthouse this morning. In a hearing before Judge Dale Lindman, Al Franken’s campaign argued that Ramsey County election officials should be required to turn over information about rejected absentee ballots. Attorney David Lillehaug made the case that the names of all voters who had their ballots invalidated, along with the reason for that decision, should be provided. “That information is critical to the plaintiff,” he stated

U.S. Senate recount: The politics of perception

We won. We won. We won. If Norm Coleman’s campaign repeats this mantra often enough, perhaps it will actually come true. At least that seems to be the reasoning of the Senator’s political camp. “We think we’re three for three right now,” Fritz Knaak, the lead attorney for the Republican, told reporters just moments after a statewide canvassing board officially initiated a recount in the closest U.S. Senate race in Minnesota history. “He’s got more votes than the other side. That’s how it works in our system.”

Can we ‘presume’ the Star Tribune prefers Coleman over Franken?

Does the Star Tribune have it in for U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken? A look at the paper’s coverage over the past few weeks might suggest as much — from labeling the campaign’s efforts to delay certification of voting results “eleventh-hour maneuvering” to foregrounding a GOP talking point about today’s trip to Washington, D.C., by Franken. Or am I being “presumptuous”?