Coleman is suing to challenge Franken’s lead. The saga continues… Republican Norm Coleman’s trial challenging DFLer Al Franken’s lead in the U.S. Senate recount will begin Jan. 26, according to an order issued this afternoon by the three-judge panel that will hear the case. The order did not map out when specific issues would be [...]

I’m not exactly sure what legal solution Obama will be applying to the enemy combatants currently being detained, but it seems that anything is better than the nothingburger they have in place currently. From Wash Post: A former military prosecutor said in a declaration filed in federal court yesterday that the system of handling evidence [...]

But it will happen. Obama said as much on This Week today: “I think it’s going to take some time and our legal teams are working in consultation with our national security apparatus as we speak to help design exactly what we need to do,” Obama said in an exclusive “This Week” interview with George [...]

I’ve written at length about my opinions of extraordinary rendition, Guantanamo Bay, etc., but the idea that people will vigorously defend policies that put a completely innocent man through 6 years of hell still leaves me completely baffled. Seriously. This is one of those issues for me where there’s absolutely zero common ground because I [...]

“In 2006, when then-Sen. Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, he said, “Decisions about marriage should be left to the states.” He was right then; and as I have come to realize, he is right now in concluding that DOMA has to go. If one truly believes in federalism and the primacy of state [...]

However, Norm Coleman is going to the courts to add even more rejected absentee ballots. Still, to overcome a 225 votes deficit at this point seems extremely unlikely. Here’s more from the Star Tribune… DFLer Al Franken held an unofficial lead of 225 votes over Coleman, according to a newspaper tally of the officials’ count [...]

Interest rates are at historical lows so many homeowners are calling banks and trying to get in on the action. Only problem? Housing prices have fallen so much so that now people owe more on their homes than they’re worth…making refinancing an impossibility. From Miami Herald… In South Florida, four in 10 homeowners who bought [...]

What looked completely unlikely just a few weeks ago has turned around for the funnyman as he has won some key decisions in the past week and is now ahead by just 46 votes. That’s right…46 votes. From the Star Tribune: A state Supreme Court ruling Wednesday narrowed the options available for Sen. Norm Coleman [...]

Not the current one, but he definitely had a hand in getting the spotlight directed at the Governor. MSNBC has more… .msnbcLinks {font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 425px;} .msnbcLinks a {text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px;} .msnbcLinks a:link, .msnbcLinks a:visited {color: #5799db [...]

Just watch the following story from last night’s NBC Nightly News. Because while it’s supposed to be about the Dashchle appointment, it ends up being nearly 90% about Blagojevich and Obama. And by the way, just the fact that I now don’t need to check my spelling when I type Blagojevich means that I’m focusing [...]

How do you make $50 billion disappear (other than by giving it to AIG)? Well, longtime investment manager Bernard Madoff has done just that. And now he’s under arrest. Madoff, the former chairman on the NASDAQ, is accused of running a Ponzi scheme with his hedge fund that has cost investors as much as $50 [...]

Maybe not all of the 7 that Doug proposed, but enough to make me comfortable that we’ll be getting a lot more information about his staff’s contact with the Illinois Governor’s office. Ambinder has more… In a press conference today, President-elect Barack Obama said that he’s “absolutely certain” that no one in his campaign had [...]

In none-Illinois-based news, here’s a story that makes my libertarian heart tingle. It’s a sting operation carried out against police for the all-too-common problem of questionable-at-best probable cause in drug raids. The setup: KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used [...]

Maybe it’s just me, but do the following “artist depictions” strike you as a tad on the amateurish side? First, Blagojevich hangs his head and can’t even make eye contact with the judge, but that’s a big deal since she’s talking to somebody in the far left corner of the room… Then, Blagojevich has loosened [...]

This is the entire press conference. Worth a look if you want to see understand just how much trouble Blagojevich is in. (h/t: Top of the Ticket)

A reporter suggested yesterday that he may have been, but Emanuel denies it. Via TPM: A source close to Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is denying reports that Rahm tipped off the Feds to Blagojevich’s alleged efforts to sell Obama’s Senate seat. [...] “It may have been Rahm Emanuel who tipped the scale and [...]

That’s the speculation at this hour… And it looks like Blagojevich was going after everybody for money, even Warren Buffett… In a November 11th conversation with John Harris, his Chief of Staff, Blagojevich said he could start a 501(c)(4) political organization to extract money from the billionaire Sage of Omaha, whom the governor called Obama’s [...]

Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley throws around the “I” word again in an attempt to make Keith Olbermann look like Chuck Todd. Good times… Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s ineffectiveness became clear the day she became Speaker of the House and immediately announced that there would be no impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush or [...]

The plot thickens… The state’s five member Canvassing Board, which oversees the recount, is meeting to decide how to deal with thousands of absentee ballots that are not included in the recount. Franken’s campaign says the ballots were wrongly rejected, and that about 6,400 ballots were wrongly disqualified. Coleman’s team says the board doesn’t have [...]

It hasn’t reached the mainstream media yet, but in the days since Hillary Clinton’s nomination to be Barack Obama’s Secretary of State became official, there’s been some discussion of a little-known provision in the Constitution that could bar Hillary Clinton from serving at Foggy Bottom: [S]pecifically, Article One, Section Six, also known as the emoluments [...]