Polinaut: January 21, 2009 Archive

The Daily Digest: 1-21-09

Posted at 8:32 AM on January 21, 2009 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Daily Digest

President Barack Obama talked, walked and danced on his first day in office. He now has to get to work.

One of Obama's first actions was to stop President Bush's pending regulations.

He also ordered a stop to prosecutions at Gitmo.

AP says the party cost $150 million.

The Senate approved a bunch of Obama's nominations.

Minnesotans react to the inauguration.

DFL Rep. Keith Ellison praises Obama's outreach to the Muslim world.

Politico has seven reasons for healthy skepticism.

2008 Race for U.S. Senate

The three judge panel will hear Democrat Al Franken's argument today to dismiss Republican Norm Coleman's contest of the recount.

Franken ramps up the legal fight and says he should be seated.

Update: KSTP interviews Republican Norm Coleman.

Politico says Franken is making his case in D.C.

Both campaigns raise money off of Obama.

MinnPost writes about the alleged double ballot issue.

State Government

The Minneapolis Veterans Home gets a much-improved progress report.

A Minnesota county challenges DNR control of trails.

Finally

Make sure you check out MPR's State Budget in Your Backyard.

Senate to try to seat Franken

Posted at 5:24 PM on January 21, 2009 by Tom Scheck (3 Comments)

From the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) - It's no joke: Senate Democrats are moving toward letting comedian Al Franken join the chamber while Republican Norm Coleman's election lawsuit is pending. "We're going to try to seat Al Franken," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters on Wednesday, a few hours before he posed with Franken for photos just off the Senate floor. "There's not a question in anyone's mind, an assertion by anyone, that there's been any fraud or wrongdoing in this election." Coleman's lawyers are challenging the results of the election and the re-count in a trial set to begin in state district court on Monday. A three-judge panel that will hear the case is considering Franken's argument to dismiss it altogether. Franken finished the re-count ahead by 225 votes. But Coleman's campaign said it will push for a review of all 12,000 absentee ballots that were not counted in the race. Coleman's attorneys said the new proposal could bring as many as 7,000 ballots to the race. Reid did not say when Franken would be seated provisionally, but he said the two were meeting to hash out the agenda and Franken's committee assignments. (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

UPDATE: This was sent to me from Harry Reid's spokesman:

Franken will soon be the next Senator from the great state of Minnesota. Weeks ago, the bipartisan Minnesota state canvassing board has fairly counted all votes and certified Al Franken as the winner. It is important that we start talking about the issues important to the people of Minnesota so their new Senator can hit the ground running. We will talk today about:

our economic recovery plan to strengthen our economy now and strengthen our nation in the long term; and
on which committees Mr. Franken can best serve his constituents and the country.

Comment on this post

Reid's comments

Posted at 10:58 PM on January 21, 2009 by Tom Scheck

I found Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's comments regarding Al Franken (Note: It appears that Reid's comments picked up by the AP were prior to this brief photo op with Franken).

Here's the audio:

Listen

Thanks to the folks at NPR for helping me get my hands on this audio.