One year ago tonight, Obama won the Iowa caucus

It seems like such a long time ago. Here's the speech from January 3, 2008:

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The Vatican ponders its relationship with Obama

Today's Washington Post examines the relationship between the incoming Obama administration and the Vatican. Seems there was just a lovefest between the Catholic hierarchy and the Bush administration. But, this all begs the question of why the Obama administration should have to worry about its relationship with the Vatican:

In the 24 years since the United States and the Holy See established full diplomatic ties, relations have never been closer or warmer than during the administration of President Bush.

The two sides broke over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, but Bush's personal esteem for popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and his agreement with Catholic teaching on such controversial issues as abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and same-sex marriage, have fostered a special rapport. Bush has met six times with the leader of the Catholic Church, more often than any other U.S. president.

The relationship between the Vatican and the White House is bound to change this month with the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, whose support for abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research has drawn denunciations from a number of church leaders. Yet informed observers agree that both sides have strong incentives and opportunities to avoid conflict and build on the recent history of collaboration.

The old men who run the Catholic Church just love poking their noses in everybody's private business. Their opposition to stem-cell research is beyond appalling. But, there's almost nothing the Catholic hierarchy loves more than talking about the gays. They're obsessed with the gays. Obsessed. Hmmmmm. Why is that?

From my experience, American Catholics don't pay any attention to edicts from the Vatican and most ignore their local bishops, too. And, the Catholic hierarchy shouldn't be interfering with Obama's policy decisions. Read the rest of this post...

Democrat Al Franken now leads by 225 votes after adding 176 votes when absentee ballots were counted today in Minnesota

This wasn't such a slow political news day after all.

Via the very cool site, TheUptake.org, I just watched the count of 933 absentee ballots in the Minnesota Senate race. Al Franken did much better than what most observers expected, picking up 176 votes. His lead over Republican Norm Coleman jumped from 49 votes to 225 votes.

The results still have to be certified. But, this looks good for Franken -- and it will be good to have another true progressive in the Senate.

Republican Norm Coleman is going to try to drag this out in the courts. And, his GOP pals in the Senate have threatened to play their usual games. But, it does look like the voters will have made the decision and the voters picked Franken. Not by much, but a win is a win.

I'm so glad Coleman is going to lose. He never should have won back in 2002. You'll recall he won the seat occupied by Paul Wellstone only after the Senator and his wife, along with several others, died in a plane crash shortly before the election. Read the rest of this post...

Israel launched ground attack into Gaza

This situation in the Middle East escalated today. Israel entered Gaza with troops and tanks.

I was out for a couple hours, but looks like this development has been "Breaking News" with wall-to-wall coverage on MSNBC and CNN this afternoon. Initial reports are starting to come in from Gaza. Here are links to three different sites with recent updates:

Haaretz

Reuters

Al Jazeera

UPDATE: Clearly, this crisis is going to land in Obama's lap, like so many others. I just remembered the way Condi Rice found out that Hamas had won the elections. It helps explain how out of touch the Bush administration is and was. Condi was at the gym and read it on the t.v.'s crawl. Seriously. She was the Secretary of State, but had no idea. I wrote about it in November, 2007 based on a column by Maureen Dowd:

That same year, in another instance of spectacular willful ignorance, she was blindsided by the Hamas win in the Palestinian elections.

As she described it to Bumiller, she went upstairs at 5 a.m. the morning after the Palestinian elections in 2006 to the gym in her Watergate apartment to exercise on her elliptical machine. She saw the news crawl reporting the Hamas victory.

“I thought, ‘Well, that’s not right,’ ” she said. She kept exercising for awhile but finally got off the elliptical trainer and called the State Department. “I said, ‘What happened in the Palestinian elections?’ and they said, ‘Oh, Hamas won.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness! Hamas won?’ ”

When she couldn’t reach the State Department official on the ground in the Palestinian territories, she did what any loyal Bushie would do: She got back on the elliptical.

“I thought, might as well finish exercising,” Rice told Bumiller. “It’s going to be a really long day.” It was one of the few times she was prescient on the Middle East.

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AP examines Bush's legacy through the lens of his personality

This is a very painful piece to read. It's all about your president's personality. Shortened version: Bush doesn't like people to be late, he mangles words, he cries a lot and he likes to exercise. But, the conclusion is classic:

His time will soon be his own.

"I will leave the presidency with my head held high," Bush says.

And he will leave behind a lot to remember.

Indeed, he will.

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As of noon today, Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman isn't a sitting Senator

UPDATE @ 2:40 PM: The Secretary of State's office (Elections Division) is going to count the remaining absentee ballots this afternoon -- there are approximately 950. You can watch live at TheUptake.org. After this, the Coleman lawsuits begin.

Yesterday, I wrote about the ongoing dramas in the U.S. Senate. The Republicans are threatening to filibuster the seating of Al Franken, even if he's certified as the winner in the Minnesota Senate race next week. But, as of noon today, when the 110th session of Congress ends, Minnesota doesn't have a Senator. Norm Coleman's term is over:

When the 111th Congress convenes on Tuesday, Norm Coleman may be out of an office, even though his Senate race remains far from settled.

Coleman’s first term officially expires at noon on Saturday, and he is locked in one of the closest Senate races in history, with Democrat Al Franken clinging to a 49-vote lead out of nearly 3 million votes cast.

Since he has not been certified a winner in the race, Coleman may have to give up his privileges as a senator, including his desk on the floor, his personal office and his right to vote on legislation, according to Democratic aides familiar with the rules.

The GOP Senators are playing hard ball over Franken. Would that the Senate Democrats would do the same thing:

It is possible, however, that all of Coleman's privileges may remain intact should the two parties reach an accommodation, and aides signaled that talks were occurring on the matter through Friday.

Given the track record of the Senate Democrats, Coleman will end up not only with his privileges intact, he'll get a bigger office, better committee assignments and more staff. After all, Joe Lieberman campaigned for Norm Coleman's re-election. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Bob Geiger and the poem-of-the-week poet are both on well-deserved vacations this week. But, that really throws a wrench in my open thread. So, we'll start today with a message from our President-elect about his economic stimulus package:

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