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First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC Political Researcher



Downballot: Coleman's wide net

Posted: Monday, January 12, 2009 9:04 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:

MINNESOTA: Here’s the latest in the Franken-Coleman recount, per the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “Coleman's legal team has begun pressing some Minnesota counties for documents on hundreds of thousands of ballots that were not previously disputed. The lawsuit that Coleman filed last week to erase DFLer Al Franken's 225-vote lead cites a few dozen specific ballot errors that he says favored Franken. But Coleman's camp is also now casting a much wider net for other mistakes that could cost Franken votes.”

More: “Coleman's new strategy comes as some elections officials are expressing skepticism over his campaign's unproven assumptions that some votes were counted twice and that some absentee ballots were wrongly rejected or accepted.”

NEW YORK: "A day after meeting with Gov. Paterson, Kennedy pushed her candidacy for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat with the city and state lawmakers from central Brooklyn," the New York Daily News reports. "'She generally impressed everyone in the room,' said Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn). 'She was very well-versed on urban issues, but more importantly showed a genuine commitment to affordable housing, black male unemployment and other issues concerning central Brooklyn.'"

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Comparing what Coleman is doing in Minnesota to the fracas the Senate is making over seating Burris, and one thing you CAN say is that Coleman IS qualified to sit in the same chamber with the other 99 numbskulls.  

Birds of a feather ....

It's just our tough luck that they're all sitting in the tree above our car.  

Coleman is just another whining sore loser repugnant one who should heed his own advice from the day after the election to stop his nonsense so that the healing can begin.

I'm glad that Caroline has bounced back nicely from her "You Know" moment.  She'd make a great Senator.
Still waiting for a journalist to ask little Normie why he isn't stepping out of the fray "for the good of MN" like he told Franken too.

Doesn't matter...the ethics cloud over him will eventually cause the Senate to expel him.

Buh bye Normie.
Well, well.  Isn't this the same Norm Coleman who wanted Franken to ignore state law which calls for a recount and concede graciously?  It's this kind of "do as I say, not as I do" hypocrisy that is the main reason America is rejecting the GOP.  Norm should take his own advice and quit while he still has some dignity left.

8 Days Until Inauguration Day!
http://jawillie.blog.com
Repubs like to whine about Al Gore, but even after he got jobbed in the 2000 election he had the grace and good sense to bow out for the sake of unity, once he saw that further legal challenges would only cause further disharmony and divisiveness. Coleman should do the same. But somehow I doubt he will. Just another sorehead who puts himself above all else -- but I guess that is the conservative credo.
A full 90 percent of donations to fund Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration have come from well-heeled fundraisers — including Wall Street executives whose companies have received federal bailout money.

A total of 207 fundraisers have collected $24.8 million of the $27.3 million in donations disclosed by Obama through Thursday, according to an analysis by Public Citizen commissioned by The Wall Street Journal.

Slightly more than 2,000 donors accounted for the $27.3 million raised, but 378 of those people each contributed the maximum $50,000 allowed by Obama, raising almost 70 percent of the total, or $18.9 million, the analysis found.

Wall Street employees have been the largest single source of private donations, and many of the contributions have been channeled through financial-services executives who have put together bundles of donations worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“The preponderance of large donors and the fact that so many come from an industry receiving government handouts comes as the president-elect has sought to keep his inauguration free of special interests,” The Journal observed.

Something smells very fishy here. Change we need!
Norm has the title of being a sore loser,he didn't take the loss to The Body well when he ran for gov.Now Al has put one on him, and his army of RNC lawyers are turning this into a two out of three type of match.One fall for Norm,one fall for AL,and Norm now wants hundreds of thousands of ballots re-counted.I guess Norm wants this to drag on to keep Minnesota from being represented buy the person that won.
Coleman is a sore loser!

Pete, myself and a whole lot of other hard working Americans donated to Obama.  I do enjoy your posts tho, they give me info I would otherwise not pay attention to!  
Coleman, if these ballots were an issue, why weren't they challenged before?  Oh right, you weren't nearly as desperate then as you are now.  How lame.  I hope you get a different set of lawyers when your ethics investigation starts.  This set of lawyers doesn't seem to be helping you much.
Caroline is stepping into the political lions den wearing a steak overcoat. I hope she's a good lion tamer. Good Luck.
Wall Street is paying for the inauguration and not the American people? Well, let's see...I don't have millions at my disposal and a lot of Wall Street fatcats do. I fail to see a problem with this.
again it the name not the person who politician are looking at....Kennedy is a name and still is and many are supporting the name..Its just good politics, while many of ous dont have the name or the money...I like her but shes would be just as good as some of the do nothings we have now....What are there qualifications, lets see, corruption, faith ful to lobbysist, Sex scandals, murders, and much more..Gee im lucky i dont have those qualifications and im quite sure she does not either....So you in the elite club let her in...
again it the name not the person who politician are looking at....Kennedy is a name and still is and many are supporting the name..Its just good politics, while many of ous dont have the name or the money...I like her but shes would be just as good as some of the do nothings we have now....What are there qualifications, lets see, corruption, faith ful to lobbysist, Sex scandals, murders, and much more..Gee im lucky i dont have those qualifications and im quite sure she does not either....So you in the elite club let her in...
Coleman needs to "cut-the-mustard", wipe up the mess, get over it and go away


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