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Last night three candidates for Mayor of New York -- Michael Bloomberg, councilmember Tony Avella, and comptroller Bill Thompson -- attended the Working Families Party Mayoral Forum at the Hotel Trades Council on West 44th Street. (We should mention that Green Party candidate Reverend Billy wanted to be at the forum, but was excluded; "The Working Families Party have sent a cynical signal," his office tells us. "New York is not a corporation. New York is a city. A city in a democracy. Let's debate like it is.")

The forum resembled the political "debates" with which we are all too familiar, but each candidate was grilled separately with more or less the same questions. Talking Points Memo liveblogged it, and we'll probably have more on the event later. For now, some quick highlights:

Mike Bloomberg. He bragged on development in places like "Greenpoint, Williamsburg, West Chelsea" that has brought "good paying jobs to neighborhoods where nobody could do anything before." He admitted some construction jobs may not pay top dollar, but explained that some projects "just could not be [built] at prevailing wages" and so were done "on a B schedule, if you will."

On a proposal to make employers pay for sick days, Bloomberg said he was looking at it but "I don't want small businesses to cut their work forces or close" because they can't afford such a requirement. Interestingly, he said one reason he "made a point" of not closing many schools for swine flu was "because there were so many parents who couldn't afford to stay home and take care of their kids."

Hope you enjoy your holiday weekend while the Albany Coup keeps your state senators stuck in Albany -- hardly a vacation destination -- under orders by Governor Paterson. The respective party leaders are brassing it out, refusing to be pushed into a settlement, and Ruben Diaz Sr. says he's going to spend time with his church in the Bronx and invites Paterson to send the troopers after him. AP estimates that the Coup has cost state taxpayers $94,400 so far -- and that's not counting fallout from the unpassed budgetary legislation that has Yonkers "running on fumes," according to Mayor Phil Amicone, and other municipalities scrambling. If you're of a libertarian turn of mind, you might applaud this as starving the beast, but the people who have to deliver services in the affected areas aren't seeing the benefit.

Now that Carolyn Maloney has let it be known that she'll challenge Kirsten Gillibrand for the Democratic Senate nomination next year, she's going to learn who her real friends are. We already know what the White House thinks of Maloney's apostasy. Now 60 Democrats, some old supporters of Maloney, have sent her a letter (apparently open, and allegedly "drafted in the last three days, before Maloney's final decision to run") asking her not to make the "divisive" challenge. To her credit, Maloney's responses is basically, "thanks, pal." And previously-declared Senate candidate Jonathan Tasini's reaction to Maloney's entry is essentially come on in, the water's fine.

They had that special session last night in Albany and guess what? Nothing happened, again. That's why New York is pretending to have a Board of Ed today. (On the upside, the stalled senate kept a new city sales tax from going into effect.) Today in Albany there was a "leadership meeting" scheduled between Democrats and Republicans today, but at the last minute the Dems went "psych!" and backed out. Republicans are holding the meeting without them, so there. Paterson keeps telling the senators to take their seats and play senate, but even if they do they'll just repeat the same charade. It's really getting on time to send in the tasers.

After telling us that his wife had been praying the rosary in Rome (?), Norm Coleman congratulated Al Franken on becoming the next Senator from Minnesota. Then he said a bunch of other stuff about voters' rights and the people of Minnesota, but who cares? This fucking thing is done. Hooray for the clown!

Oh, okay: Coleman says he still disputes the process, but "we are a nation of laws, not men and women. The court has spoken, and it's time to look forward and not look back." He's glad he raised the issues he raised in his endless appeals. He's not done yet but there's no sign of an apology for the nearly eight months he fucked with the Senate. Described his phone call with Franken as a "positive discussion."

Update: Coleman fondly recalls some lady with a baby who came up to him at a restaurant one day and said "she wouldn't have had her baby" if it wasn't for him. Wow, maybe Mark Sanford will get some relief after all! Also says he talked to Governor Pawlenty and told him he was going to "make his life a little easier."

Look, at least we're not the only state where democracy is a thing of the past: the Norm Coleman-Al Franken Senate election has been in the courts since freaking November 2008. Today the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled 5-0 that Franken had in fact won the thing, using the old and generally disregarded standard that "Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast," and is thus "entitled [under Minnesota law] to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota."

Think that settles it? The Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty, has declined to sign Franken's election certification through several other court reversals for Coleman, and the defiant ex-Senator is expected to take his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, or maybe Mars or Pluto. Ruling pdf here. Image (cc) AFLCIO2008.

Update: Coleman to speak at 3 p.m. We were very excited until we found out this was Central Time, an hour from now.

Update 2: Franken presser at 4:15 p.m. Tweets are delicious: "all Minnesotans ought to be ashamed today," "What am I doing at 3pm????? Why watching Norm (Coleman) EAT IT, that's what," "I CAN HAS TWO SENATORZ?!?" etc.

Update 3: Here is the state of Twitter-jabber on whether Coleman will appeal to SCOTUS. Pro: Franken pushed his press conference to 4:15 from 3:30 because his team got wind of a new challenge and wanted the extra time to prepare a statement; the national GOP has spent too much on this to give up now. Con: Local Republicans are bitching but talking about "moving forward." We can't guess, as we don't understand people who can spend half the year in sub-freezing weather and stay so cheerful.

Update 4: Coleman concedes, Franken will be Senator.

The Democrats' sneak session, claiming a passing Republican senator gave their 31-member meeting a quorum, did not fly with Governor Paterson. He has refused to sign the bills passed in that session, and calls instead for a 7 p.m. session -- no monkey business this time! "Once again, the do-nothing Senate has surpassed our greatest fears and contempt," said the Gov. That's the sort of tough talk that has rocketed Paterson all the way to a 21 percent approval rating in a new Marist poll. We won't be around to report on tonight's session; you can give a couple of cats a cloth moused stuffed with catnip and get some idea of what will transpire.

Democrats, minus Pedro Espada, returned to the state senate chamber and called another quorum, enabling them to do business. But there are only 31 of them. How'd they work it? Liz Benjamin reports that Republican Frank Padavan walked through the chamber after the gavel, and was recorded as the 32nd senator in session. The Queens Republican admits he walked through, but only because the senate parlor had been blocked off, and he calls the quorum a fraud. The Democrats are busily passing non-controversial bills -- which do not include the New York mayoral control of schools renewal that expires at midnight.

But the really big news is that, in the first of the senators' split sessions last week, the Democrats didn't stand for the Pledge of Allegiance! "The Senators can play all the political games their constituents will let them get away with," says Examiner reporter Dan Spencer, " but they should not disrespect the Flag of the United States of America... Perhaps the New York Democrats learned flag etiquette from Presidential candidate Obama." Believe it or not, the Examiner is not the first outlet that suddenly realized this is important -- and others are rushing to denounce the Democrats' treason. "Even if you do not accept the session as valid," says the Watertown Daily Times, "it is important to respect flag and country." Weep, eagle, weep!

The Post reported this morning that the Democrats had locked themselves into the state senate chambers, but it appears the Republicans eventually joined them for the full session court-ordered yesterday. Only Kevin Parker was absent. But after some haggling over who got to run the session, they adjourned, allegedly till noon. "This is bullshit," said senator Andrew Lanza.

Well, Governor Paterson finally got someone to listen to him. State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi is ordering all 62 members of the state senate into session at the Governor's request. And none of this half-go-in, half-go-out shit either -- everybody shows up at once. ("To come into session as separate groups is a fiction," says the judge. "I will not be part of that fiction.") And now that he's got them by court order, Paterson is going to bring in about 40 bills for the senators to work on. The Republicans plan to appeal. If the senators won't cooperate, can Paterson get state troopers to use truncheons and tasers on them? And if so, will they put the state senate TV feed on for it?