Al Franken

Of course my first choice for Minnesota Senator was "Lizard People."

But my second choice was Al Franken, and it looks tonight like he is going to win.  Hooray!  I don't know why I care so much, but I've always been a fan and used to listen to his radio show a lot.  He seems smart and funny and certainly suffers liars poorly.  Don't we want more of that in Washington?

(Side note: Usually it's the Republicans who choose unflattering photos of Al from his comedy days in order to try and diminish him.  But I say, why run from your past?  Embrace it!  Let Bill O'Reilly call you Senator Smalley!  Who cares!  You're a senator!)

As many of you know, on Election Night Al seemed to have lost by 400 or more votes.  Then lots of corrections were made, and the actual election tally had Al losing to Norm Coleman by 200 votes and change.  (Out of millions of votes.)  Then, because the margin was so slim, state law required a recount.  And now the recount has been completed, including lots of absentee ballots counted today.  After the recount, Al is up by 225!

Of course there can be court challenges by the Coleman campaign, but they seem unlikely to win.  A good summary can be found at talkingpointsmemo.com.

One question I have in the aftermath: why were all the initial corrections to the vote count seemingly to correct errors that went in Coleman's favor?  Was there some minor Republican hanky-panky in many counties, as usual?  Someone should look into this.