​"Daughter of John McCain Is a Rebel," declares the New York Times on Sunday. She couldn't have said it better herself. The 25-year-old Meghan fancies herself the zany future of the Republican party (loves the gays!), but has made more splash for her image and cultivation thereof than her policy recommendations or even "get out the vote"-style potential First Child tasks. Her book, Dirty Sexy Politics (pictured), is out now, making her ripe for the Times, though at the risk of getting the Snooki treatment. Instead, the profile reads like a hang-out between a couple of, McCain might put it, "clutch girlfriends."

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Steele's the one on the left.

​Michael Steele, who's spent the last two weeks fending off calls for him to step down or get fired from his job at the head of the Republican National Committee, leaped for the opportunity to turn the heat on someone else this morning. Steele is calling for Harry Reid to step down as the Senate Majority Leader in the wake of a recently published book which quotes Reid expressing his support for candidate Obama in a somewhat indelicate way

He was wowed by Obama's oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama -- a "light-skinned" African American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one," as he said privately. Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama's race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination.

Reid's ap0logized, and Obama's accepted, but dammit, that's just not good enough for Michael Steele (who's still a little bitter about Trent Lott)

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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.

Remember those mooks who piled out of a car in Staten Island on election night and beat up a black guy while yelling "Obama"? Apparently Ali Kamara of Stapleton wasn't the only person they attacked. Later on they knocked down a another man in Port Richmond, and actually rammed Ronald Forte with their car. Forte, a white guy they mistook for an African-American (perhaps because he was wearing a hoodie), was in a coma for a while and still has trouble with his speech and hearing.

One of the two men charged last month, Bryan Garaventa, pleaded guilty to interfering with voting rights and is cooperating against his goombahs, original arrestee Ralph Nicoletti and Michael Contreras, both 18, and 21-year-old Brian Carranza. They were charged yesterday with conspiracy to interfere with voting rights. All have pleaded not guilty. Carranza's out on bail, the others remain in custody, Nicoletti at the prosecution's special urging -- apparently he's been out intimidating witnesses, including co-defendant Contreras, and cops found evidence in his home of involvement with a "Rosebank Krew" of would-be killers.

After a long series of recounts, challenges, etc., the Minnesota Board of Canvassers has certified the election of comedian Al Franken to the U.S. Senate from Minnesota. Stuart Smalley is in! Anticipating this result, the Wall Street Journal tells its readers that it's all a fix: "Strange things keep happening in Minnesota," reads the editorial in a hushed voice over a sinister theremin, "where the disputed recount in the Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken may be nearing a dubious outcome." The Journal says that double-counting by election officials has "by some estimates" yielded Franken up to 100 votes; also, the Canvassers asked candidates for a list of rejected ballots before Norm Coleman was ready, etc. This is all especially funny if you remember the equanimity with which the Journal accepted that all those Palm Beach Jews voted for Pat Buchanan in 2000. The current Republican plan is to bring lawsuits and act as if, by accepting the certification, Franken is engaged in some sort of coup. (Update: Senate Democrats have locked Coleman's office, apparently to keep him from squatting. Coleman outlines his plan to steal back the election here.) (Update II: Governor Pawlenty won't issue an election certificate, and the seat stays empty until the legal challenges have run their course.)

It's not just Democrats who get to contest a U.S. Senator. On the heels of Democratic machinations to keep Rod Blagojevich appointee Roland Burris from taking a Senate seat, Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas says that he will rebuff any attempt to seat Al Franken if Democrats attempt to seat him before the certification of his victory in Minnesota. The Minnesota State Canvassing Board has been reviewing previously rejected absentee ballots, which process incumbent Norm Coleman's team has complicated with a state supreme court motion to change the review procedure. Also, the litigious Coleman is threatening to sue.

The Observer reports that the local Board of Elections has "certified" the election of Republican Frank Padavan over James Gennaro for the state senate, though neither the city nor state BOE sites yet reflect this decision; other sources say the Board merely upheld the tossing of some paper ballots that were Gennaro's last real hope. You'd think that would be that, but Gennaro has demanded a court hearing, which will take place January 6, after the senators are sworn in and a day before a scheduled leadership vote.

Hillary Clinton for President was about $20 million in debt, and her and Bill's and Chelsea's and America's emails to former supporters weren't getting it paid. So Hillary swallowed hard and forgave her campaign $13,175,000 of her money. Such are the humorous vagaries of political accounting; but her former chief strategist Mark Penn is not laughing. Out of $6.4 million in outstanding debt , the campaign owes Penn $5.3 million for the sterling job he did leading Clinton from first place all the way to second, for which he was rewarded by being allowed to take the last few months of the campaign off. Penn is less likely to forgive this debt, and Clinton will soon be precluded by her State job from soliciting funds, so Hillary Clinton for President will have to do more fundraising without her. Maybe they can lean of some of her influential, longtime local supporters, like Charlie Rangel. Wow -- we thought this election had no more joys to give us.

Saxby Chambliss has already won a Senatorial run-off election in Georgia, but New York still hasn't gotten through the affidavit ballots in last month's still-undecided State Senate race between Frank Padavan and James Gennaro. Today the Times talks to some St. John's students subpoenaed by Republican lawyers because, as new voters to the jurisdiction, they filled out provisional paper ballots and, being smart enough to get into St. John's, probably figured their votes would be uncounted rather than obsessed over. The kids are described as "frustrated and angry" because it's getting close to finals and they lost precious hours defending their franchise in court.

Democrats made fine speeches against the GOP's meddling ("the Republican Party has systematically tried to deny them their vote" etc), but we know they'd do the same thing if they thought it would work. So the net effect is probably to make the kids cynical about democracy. And that's the sort of education money can't buy!