Court slams door shut on Norm Coleman's fingers

In case you out-of-state readers missed it, the ruling on Norm Coleman's election challenge came down today and his claims were dismissed with prejudice. He's done, even if he tried to push this to the MN Supremes for a final appeal. Gov. Pawlenty should issue a certificate of election tomorrow but it sounds like he's going to wait for the court to refuse to hear Norm's case first.

A great rundown of the decision has been posted on DailyKos, with lots of juicy legal detail at Campaign Silo.

Franken is no Paul Wellstone but he's a damn sight closer than Coleman and could grow into the role. Hopefully he'll be seated soon so we Minnesotans will actually have two senators again.

-Dr. DRL

Conservative "tea party" protest another astroturf project

This may come as no surprise, but a bit of digging by progressive bloggers has turned up the dope on the "tea party" protests conservatives planned for April 15th. Lauded by conservative blowhards like Glen Beck as a grassroots response to Obama's economic plan, they are in fact a carefully orchestrated effort by conservative foundations to spread anti-tax propaganda. Just like virtually every other conservative "grassroots" project in recent decades, the teabaggers' party is also turning out to be just another example of astroturf, fake grass that costs a lot more than the real thing and isn't nearly as good.

Details at Think Progress and Firedog Lake. For an up-to-the-minute summary of all the teabagging you can handle, check out Save The Rich for more.

The best part? The tea parties are backed by Freedomworks.org which is run by our old friend, former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey. That's some real grassroots man!

-Dr. DRL