Not yet up, as I write, on the Franken website [source of the one color photo] but the AP story is here, and Strib, PiPress and MPR reported it pronto -- and with Pawlenty having said he'd sign a certificate for whoever the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled as Senate race winner; it looks to be Senator Franken - deserving of the headline. Everyone will have it up all over the web in minutes, the blogs and MinnPost and MinnIndependent, Google News, the usual suspects; so no links beyond the first I saw, given above, from the Bay Area.
Now This.
From Wikipedia:"I have to win people over, otherwise it's not a successful gig. It's my job to make sure people have a good time. That's part of my duty. It's all to do with feeling in control. That song "We Are the Champions" has been taken up by football fans because it's a winners' song. I can't believe that somebody hasn't written a new song to overtake it."
-Freddie Mercury (1985)
[italics added] And Frankenian lyrics for this day:
I've paid my dues -
Time after time -
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime -
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face -
But I've come through
We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for Coleman
'Cause we are the champions - of the world -
I think I got that right. Now, about those suits and the Kazeminy money to Hays Companies ---
________UPDATE__________
Would any reader encountering a Garrison Keillor comment on this latest result please post what he's said as a comment.
________FURTHER UPDATE________
Coleman called it quits on the Senate race front, about 3 pm. same day as the 5-0 opinion was announced. Does this mean he's positioning for a Guv run? Or does it mean he's positoning for something such as the Richard Cheney Vice Presidential Papers Memorial Library leadership post, including speaking appearances? Handling the Cheney documents would be light work, allowing much time for other effort, given how getting documents loose from the man is like pulling hen's teeth. But who knows how speechifying and the gratuities would be? Coleman could take a run at the Gingrich cash-cow that had fifteen minutes of fame; "Drill here, Drill Now, Pay less." Norm probably has people in that sector who could be helpful. But Newt's not likely to voluntarily move off the milking stool.
_______FURTHER COVERAGE [INTER]NATIONALLY_______
The Brad Blog, a site that should be regularly accessed by everybody liking good stories well presented, and by anyone worried about the vote fraud at the counting end, not the voter's end; Brad Blog reports our latest "Championship" judges decision, no split decision victor after fifteen hard fought rounds - all the judges cards went the same way - with a few insights:
Franken's seating would give Democrats a theoretical 60-seat, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, following Arlen Specter's recent move to the Democratic party. [With the 60 number relying on loose cannons such as Specter and Lieberman, don't expect enactment records set during the New Deal to be altered too soon.]
Franken, an author, former radio talk-show host, and comedian, was found, by a three-judge, tri-partisan election contest panel to have won the election by 312 votes following an historic, painstakingly careful hand count of nearly 3 million paper ballots cast in last November's election. Coleman may now appeal the decisions of the state canvassing board, the three-judge election contest panel, and the unanimous decision of the state Supreme Court to the U.S. Supreme Court. [The Coleman concession was noted as a posting update].
Washington Post notes "a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said the earliest Franken would be seated is next week because the Senate is out of session for the July 4 holiday." Reid's spokesman also reported that the court's decision "stopped short of explicitly ordering the governor to sign the document, saying only that Franken was 'entitled' to it."
The decision is now posted here [PDF] and finds: ""Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled under Minn. Stat. § 204C.40 (2008) to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota." [It's a 32page item, and he's stated the nub of things; he has not updated that Pawlenty signed the certificate to promptly get us a second seated Senator.]
Working on a piece for UK's Guardian about all of this. But, bottom line: hand-marked paper ballots are the gold standard. Counting them by hand, publicly, in front of everyone, is what makes this election different from FL 2000, OH 2004, San Diego 2006, Iran 2009, etc. Transparency is the key. And the result is an election that is very difficult, for all but the most insane and/or disingenuous, to dispute when all is said and done. The voters of Minnesota, and its Sec. of State Mark Ritchie, are to be applauded for their superb, public, transparently handled election. Nice to see the voters win one for a change!
[That piece for the Guardian is now posted here: "Franken laughs last: The long-running battle for Minnesota's Senate seat is finally over. Democracy – and Al Franken – won fair and square"]
The BRAD BLOG has been covering virtually ever notable beat in this contest since last November. If you'd like to review our coverage over the past nearly eight months, click here for a trip back through the time-machine...
[Italics and links parallel the original; bolding added.] Read that Guardian item. It reemphasizes how a ballot paper trail was essential to the system allowing a decent and fair shot at legitimate recount - there was something to look at and publicly subject to adversarial approvals and objections to ultimately allow the Courts to have a basis for decision. It worked better than other past close and challenged elections, the Gore v. Bush case in 2000 being the poster child of the worse in the US approaching the worse in Iran [with Fletcher's police-state tactics during the RNC, the photos of it, being indistinguishable to me from street photos recently from Iran].