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- The Minnesota judicial panel charged with ruling on the Senate recount case unanimously ruled in favor of Al Franken yesterday, leaving little doubt that he will eventually be seated as Minnesota's junior Senator. The gang at First Read observes that the Republican caricature of Franken has been conspicuously absent during the months-long trial, noting that "this has been a problem for the GOP in general the last few years when it comes to dealing with Democrats: They believe their own stereotypes about their opponents, rather than actually dealing with their opponents at face value." Also, it's worth pondering why Norm Coleman ever got into politics in the first place, given that he's a perennial failure at getting elected under anything but the most abnormal circumstances.
- Scott Horton reports that Spanish prosecutors are preparing a criminal investigation of six former members of the Bush administration for sanctioning torture at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As much as I'd enjoy seeing the likes of David Addington behind bars, and as unlikely as that outcome actually is, the real story here is the failure of our political and legal system to investigate these crimes ourselves.
- This story in Politico on the sorry state of the California GOP is an interesting read. And although the article cites hard data -- plummeting Republican voter registration numbers -- the reasons why this decline is happening are multifaceted, from the popularity of Barack Obama, to Arnold Schwarzenegger's alienation of the GOP base, and the party's studied indifference to the state's changing demographics.
- Marc Ambinder has a comprehensive look at who's running things for tomorrow's tea party protests and Brian Beutler has a nice timeline of how the protests came to be. Both highlight the rather fluid nature of the movement, as it were, and are a nice primer to this Dave Weigel piece on the internal divisions of the movement. One point of agreement amongst the factions, it seems, is that there is real popular support for the protests. Well, that's probably not true given that almost half of Americans are content with the amount they are currently taxed and nearly 75 percent have confidence in Barack Obama's handling of the economy.
- Showcasing his party's knack for innovative ideas, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor has put up a spiffy online presentation that showcases the cutting edge of the GOP's policy thinking, such as lowering corporate tax rates by 10 points to "grow the economy," suspending the capital gains tax, and starving the government of revenue. Keep reaching for that rainbow, fellas!
- Remainders: Even with Pat Toomey officially in the race, the national GOP (unsurprisingly) is backing the Lincoln Chafee of 2010, Arlen Specter; savetherich.com is a helpful guide to tomorrow's protests; Sarah Palin provides another reason to thank God she wasn't elected vice president; and New York Times editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal thinks facts are open to debate and that Maureen Dowd is a "very serious" columnist. Comforting to know the Gray Lady is in such capable hands.
--Mori Dinauer
