The home of A Prarie Home Companion.

Well, it's not a stretch to say that the fate of the country rests in the hands of Minnesotans.

For the second election cycle in a row not a single Democrat held seat in the Senate was lost. So as of now the current make up in the US Senate is as follows: 55 Democrats, with 2 Independents that caucus (align with) Democrats, giving Harry Reid at least a solid 57 seats come the next session. Now 1 of the 2 independents is Berney Sanders (S) VT, and yes, that "S" stands for his self described status as a socialist, no joke. The other being Joe Lieberman (I) CT. Obviously Lieberman is the MOST conservative member to caucus with the Democrats, and will oppose them probably as often as any moderate Republican. However, his caucus choice and his track record clearly suggests that he will not participate in any filibuster. And there is the key boys and girls - will Obama have a filibuster-proof Senate? 60 is the magic number to break any filibuster. GOP seats as of the 2008 election results stand currently at 40 even. Leaving 3 too close to call. Those 3 are in Georgia, Minnesota, and Alaska.

In Georgia Saxby Chamblis won the largest plurality of votes in a 3 way race, but in GA you must win a simple majority of the votes to win the seat, so in accordance with the state law the top 2 finishers go to a special election the first week of December. The other challenger was an Independent that garnered most of his votes from the Chamblis voter base, so everyone assumes that in a 2 way race, Saxby will win ... and they're right. In Alaska we have Ted Stevens. He was convicted as a felon due to a large state wide bribery and corruption probe that involved both parties and a particular oil company seeking preferential treatment. Apparently one aspect involved his son, whom is the state Senate President (or was). He was given $242,000 dollars by a Veco oil company executive, and part of the deal involved renovating his father's home (Ted Stevens), nearly doubling its size. Stevens was convicted of 7 felony accounts including making false statements to authorities. That case is on appeal, but it put his normally untouchabley safe seat in jeopardy. The closeness of election night results triggered a recount, and with only 12% left to recount, mostly in heavy Democrat favored areas, Stevens is losing by 814 votes to the (Anchorage mayor) challenger. Interestingly enough there, if Stevens pulls off the victory,he will be forced to resign by the GOP almost immediately, and Sarah Palin can appoint herself to the US Senate. But alas, she will probably not get that chance.

So, assuming those two races go the way they are trending, that puts the count at 58 Democrats to 41 Republicans. By the way, that is also why Reid rescinded his threat to remove Lieberman from the Homeland Security chairmanship - they need him now.

That leaves Minnesota. THIS is the most interesting race (and that's saying something given the other 2 consist of a run-off and a convicted felon!). Al Franken, the sad, sad little man we all know of, versus the incumbent Norm Coleman. On election night Coleman lead by 723 votes out of nearly 3 million cast. That triggered an automatic electronic recount because the margin of victory was less the 1 half of 1 percent. An electronic recount involves simply running the ballots back through the machine. Typically in any recount the first victor ends up hanging on to that victory because as you might of guessed, a few extra votes for each side are usually shaken out. However, now get this, in 3 heavy Democrat favored precincts near Deluth, they suddenly "found" a total of 517 previously uncounted ballots for Franken, one batch found in an election official's trunk! That's 3 precincts out of 4,130. And not even 1 previously uncounted vote for Coleman was found in any precinct whatsoever. That number, 517, constitutes more "newly found" ballots then every other precinct in every other race for 2008 in Minnesota, COMBINED. Your eyebrow raised yet? Add to that who the election executive officer is - a guy named Mark Ritchie. He, as in every state, guides the election process as the Secretary of State. Here's the problem: this guy has worked hand-in-hand with ACORN for years in MN before his political ascension (they even praise his cooperation on their web site) to SoS. He also refused to initiate investigations into ACORN when official complaints about voter registration irregularities were lodged against the group (fyi, there are ongoing FBI criminally fraudulent investigations into ACORN in at least 12 states at current). AND this Ritchie was elected to his seat via funding of a 527 group whose sole aim was to get Democrats elected to Secretary of State seats throughout the nation so as to avoid facing another Katherine Harris (from the Florida recount) certifying GOP victories as she did in 2000. Who founded and runs this 527, named "Protect Our Elections"? None other then former Moveon.org leader James Rucker.

So, you can every confidence in Ritchie's claims that those ballots were in a trunk ... huh? I mean this guy's long track record of bipartisanship is certainly confidence inspiring ... eh hem (large and loud throat clearing going on there).

It doesn't end there. Although the electronic recount has been certified with a Coleman victory of just 206 votes, the closeness of the recount margin triggers an automatic hand recount by a 5 person canvasing board. Guess who appoints the board members? Ritchie. He appointed 2 judges nominated by the current Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty (and we know that always means ideological loyalty, right Sooter?) and 2 judges appointed by a former Democrat governor. And of course, Ritchie appointed himself. This hand recount initiates 11/19/08, and is set to conclude by mid December. Ohhh ... and one other thing. Ritchie has announced this canvasing boards powers include the ability to "interpret intent" of the voter. You might think, what the hell? A hanging chad again? No. More like this: lets say a ballot is examined that has a vote for Barak Obama, and other Democrats down the line, but no choice (and I mean no mark whatsoever) was made for the Senate race. They intend to interpret that as a "aye" vote for Franken, because clearly the voter, whom voted down the line Democrat, "intended" to vote for Franken. It couldn't be an angry protest vote against Bush by someone who happened to like his own guy, his Senator Coleman. Naaahh. That couldn't be. That's why we need them, like a Johnny Carson bit holding the envelope to their head with an over sized genie hat on, interpreting "intent" for that voter, who didn't know what they were doing ... *sigh.*

With a Franken win it will give Reid and Obama a 59 seat majority. All they have to do is pick off one moderate Republican like Olympia Snow, Lamar Alexander, or dare I say it - John Sydney MCain, and there is your filibuster proof Senate. Hell, even if Franken loses they need only pick up 2 renegade Republicans. Among many other things this will probably mean that legal abortion is safe for another 25 years, for Barak will be able to get through ANY Supreme Court nominee fresh out of the ACLU pool, or ACORN's ranks.

3 words: elections have consequences.

I'm telling you something - the resurgence of the GOP is going to have to be fought in the trenches - state rep, state senate, and the other local office levels. Both to protect against such nonsense as in MN, AND to build our own talent pool from which future federal Senators, congressman and governors are plucked. And that's precisely the point I will make in my much promoted email to the NV RNC today ... he, he, he.