Josh Marshall covers the posterior-covering post-mortem on Norm Coleman's recount loss to Al Franken.

As one GOP operative told The Hill, "They allowed the legal proceedings to define the media environment."

But Josh reminds us that Coleman did define the media environment for the first month.

But for the first month or so after the November election hardly anyone gave Franken any hope of winning. And all the all-knowing editorial commentary was pushing for him to get out. But Coleman's boffo media environment started to buckle as the recount started to show that he'd probably lost. Admittedly, a hard set of facts for a well manicured media environment, such as Coleman's, to overcome.

Minnesota finally completed the recount and Al Franken officially beat Norm Coleman by 312 votes out of nearly 3 million. So what's next? Norm Coleman will appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court, which will uphold the meticulous work of the 3-judge panel. Then Coleman will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, citing the outrageous decision in Bush v. Gore as precedent, even though the Supreme Court declared Bush v. Gore should never be used as a precedent.

As Ernest A. Canning reports for BradBlog:

Referencing Florida 2000's controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Bush v. Gore, Ginsberg contended Coleman was denied equal protection.

On Saturday, Minnesota counted more than 950 previously unopened absentee ballots and Al Franken added 176 votes to his lead, which is now 225.

With no more votes to count, will Republican Norm Coleman concede defeat? Of course not! Even though he hates trial lawyers, he will pay every one he can find to file every possible lawsuit until he finds an "activist judge" who is willing to overturn the will of the people.

OK, so Norm Coleman is a super-sore loser. But what about Republican leaders in Washington who demanded "bipartisanship" from President-elect Obama and the Democratic Congress? Will they demonstrate "bipartisanship" by recognizing Al Franken as the Senator chosen by the people of Minnesota?

Of course not! Senate Republicans plan to filibuster Franken's swearing-in.

MSNBC has called it:

WASHINGTON - Convicted Sen. Ted Stevens lost his re-election bid to Democrat Mark Begich after the last large batch of votes was counted Tuesday.

The longest-serving Republican in the history of the Senate trailed Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 3,724 votes after Tuesday's count.

That's an insurmountable lead with only about 2,500 overseas ballots left to be counted.

Jon Stewart did a great segment explaining why it took so long to count Alaska's votes, even though its population is tiny.

Congratulations Senator Mark Begich!!

Congress will take up the Auto Industry Bailout when they re-convene this week.  There is no better time than this moment to PUSH for concessions from the Auto Industry.  Time is short.  Democrat.com, can you help us act NOW? Here's a copy of a letter I just mailed to Speaker Pelosi:      Dear Madam Speaker,

Please make the FLEXFUEL component a MANDATORY requirement for any Auto Industry bailout.
IT ONLY COSTS $100 to install this component on a vehicle during the manufacturing process.  The only EPA approved retrofit costs $1300.  All cars sold in Brazil are flexfuel ready.  All cars that GM sells in Brazil are flexfuel compatible.  There is no excuse and there should be no delay in making all cars sold in America flexfuel capable.
THIS IS THE QUICKEST CHEAPEST EASIEST WAY to make rapid reductions in our foreign oil imports.

By Dave Lindorff

Well, as we all know, election season is once again upon us. Our choices are, as always, a great source of controversy and strife among the American people. This is understandable as not every candidate fits our ideals of the perfect President.

However, I've noticed some very disturbing trends among voters and, most glaringly, the Democrats. Frankly, it's appalling. I can't get through a blog or a chat room without seeing Democrats at each other's throats, each bashing the views and private lives of one another's pick as the Dem candidate.

You know what, people?? Knock it off. I'm not particularly wild about Hillary nor Obama either, to be honest... but all have a common goal here. That goal is to do everything we can to keep the GOP out of the White House.

By David Swanson

Tonight, Wednesday, May 7, from 8-9 p.m. ET, I'll have the pleasure of interviewing, with your help, the single most serious, dedicated, and inspiring journalist focused on the integrity of our elections in the United States today, Brad Friedman, the creator of http://www.BradBlog.com

Go to: http://thepeoplespeakradio.net to learn more. Go to http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/listen-live to listen live. You'll find instructions there to enter a paltalk chat room where you can post questions. You can also phone in and ask Brad your questions on the air. Call in tollfree from anywhere in the United States or Canada at 888-228-4494 or anywhere else in the world at 877-489-6350. Following the show, the audio file will be posted at http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/audio/2008 and you can find there now the recordings of numerous shows with amazing guests.

Steve has launched his first campaign ad, produced by Eichenbaum & Associates (think Russ Feingold's campaign):

Note: Edited by Moderator to remove request for donations.