Josh Marshall: "One country cannot stand a once in a century economic crisis, two wars and Norm Coleman. We have limits."
It seem as if Attorney General Michael Mukasey may have had a stroke during a speech this evening:
The 67-year-old Mukasey was rushed to George Washington University Hospital, where his condition was not immediately known.
Mukasey was delivering a speech to the Federalist Society at a Washington hotel when "he just started shaking and he collapsed," said Associate Attorney General Kevin O'Connor. "They're very concerned."
Mukasey was 15 to 20 minutes into his speech about the Bush administration's successes in combatting terrorism when he began slurring his words. He collapsed and lost consciousness, said O'Conner, the department's No. 3 official.
I hope it isn't as serious as it sounds.
Late update: Fortunately, it wasn't.
First my U.S. Senator got elected President. Then he picked my Congressman to be his chief of staff. Now my state senator has gotten elected president of the Illinois Senate.
Cool.
Missouri goes to McCain by 3,600 votes of 2.9 millions cast, ending the 2008 Presidential election and Missouri's streak of picking the winner.
So, final tally, Obama 365, McCain 173. And that's the ball game. FYI: The electors transmit their ballots on December 15th, and then Vice President Cheney preside when the Senate counts them January 8th.
MSNBC reports that convicted felon and Alaska Republican Ted Stevens has lost his Senate seat to never-indicted Mark Begich:
Stevens' ouster on his 85th birthday marks an abrupt realignment in Alaska politics and will alter the power structure in the Senate, where he has served since the days of the Johnson administration while holding seats on some of the most influential committees in Congress.
Tuesday's tally of just over 24,000 absentee and other ballots gave Begich 146,286, or 47.56 percent, to 143,912, or 46.76 percent, for Stevens.
This brings the Democratic majority to 57, or 58 if you include Bernie Sanders who, I think, voted with us about 102% of the time in the last Congress. (Should we count Maine Republican Susan Collins as well and call it 59? And how about that Franken-Coleman battle in Minnesota? Hmmm....)
The other of "there were two" is the contest in Georgia, which we'll find out about in two weeks.
In unrelated news, Talking Points Memo reported today that Senate Democrats expelled Joe Lieberman (R-CT) from their pilates class. Yuk yuk yuk.
Kos reports the Democrats in the Senate have some trouble understanding that Lieberman isn't one of us:
When Senate Democrats meet Tuesday to decide Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-Conn.) fate, leaders are expected to propose that he keep his gavel at the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee but lose his Environment and Public Works subcommittee chairmanship.
Senate Democratic sources cautioned that the proposal is intended to serve as a starting point for the discussion over whether Lieberman should be punished for his aggressive criticism of President-elect Barack Obama’s candidacy, as well as his endorsement of Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Says Kos: "If this is the 'starting point,' and given the Senate Democrats' history of capitulations, expect Lieberman to come out of that meeting as majority leader."
Says I: he might be an improvement over the current one, if the report is accurate.
Chicago almost universally loves that one of our own will be president. It turns out, only some of us predicted certain inconveniences:
The dramatic increase in security around Barack Obama since the election has made a sizable impact in the Loop, where the president-elect is running his transition office at the Kluczynski Federal Building, straining an already-stretched Chicago police force and city budget.
The police coverage is around-the-clock, with about 25 officers, essentially one from each district, assigned on two watches, and 10 officers and a sergeant assigned to a third watch, said FOP President Mark Donahue. The union has been told the detail is temporary, only until the incoming administration heads to Washington on Jan. 20.
Some involved in the complex security efforts said they understand city leaders have grown concerned about the potential cost of the extra manpower. [Chicago Mayor Richard] Daley has proposed laying off almost 1,000 city workers and raising taxes and fees to close a $469 million budget shortfall, which he has described as the worse fiscal situation in his 19 years in office. Now the city will have to foot the security bill, at least upfront, and hope it will be reimbursed.
Effective Sunday, Illinois has a plum political vacancy. Let the games begin!
The choice of who will fill the remaining two years of Mr. Obama’s term now goes to Gov. Rod Blagojevich. ... Among those interested in the seat are U.S. Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr., Jan Schakowsky and Luis Gutierrez, all Chicago-area Democrats; state Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, and retiring Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr.
Now, for those outside Illinois, you have to understand that Illinois politics can get, shall I say, colorful. The people named above (with the exceptions of Schakowsky and Duckworth) are right now starting a lobbying war in Springfield the likes of which we haven't seen in decades. Part of the problem: Gov. Blagojevich has been on a political death-watch for close to a year, as a corruption investigation and an inability to play nicely with others (notably Mike Madigan, the Illinois House speaker) have reduced him to near-irrelevance.
He's once again relevant for a few days, and with his own political future doubtful, we're all wondering what capricious and arbitrary decision he'll make.
Maybe he'll surprise us and appoint Schakowsky, who's the most competent in the bunch. Duckworth I'm betting will go off to Washington as Secretary of Veterans Affairs; Jones and Jackson are at times profound and at others, clowns; and there's some speculation he may appoint either himself or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to forestall a primary election in 2010 he's sure to lose against her.
He'd better act fast. With up to 10 new senators taking their seats on January 3rd, and so much Senate inside baseball depending on seniority, not to mention that Obama's resignation means we're down a Democrat in a tight lame-duck session, every day counts.
Update: Chicago Public Radio's Ben Calhoun has a good analysis. Plus, we should always remember Blago's Daily Show fiasco from 2006, if only for context.
Ed Kilgore at TPM Cafe has a good analysis:
If today's conservatives succeed in convincing each other to embrace a more forthright message assaulting entitlements, progressive taxation, public education, regulation of corporations and Wall Street, just to cite a few domestic policy examples, they are almost certainly cruising for more electoral bruising.
...[C]onservatives today have almost completely internalized their own rhetoric about Obama's "radicalism," "socialism," "anti-Americanism," and so forth. If you have read or listened to movement conservative pundits recently, it's hard to avoid the impression that they truly think this temperate man pursuing Clinton-style centrist policies is determined to enact "socialized medicine," create vast new "welfare" programs, legalize infanticide, surrender to terrorists, and use the power of the state to censor or perhaps even jail his opponents.
Just minutes under 68 days until Obama takes office. And I'll be there—possibly so will Parker—along with 1.2 million of my best friends.