Eight months after the November 2008 elections, Al Franken is about to be sworn in, on Paul Wellstone's family Bible, as a United States Senator from the State of Minnesota. You can watch it here starting at 11:00 am Central (12:00 noon Eastern) thanks to The UpTake.

While trying to make a virtue of what might have been necessity on her part, Sarah Palin takes dead aim at the actions of fellow governor, Republican and presidential wannabee, Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty: "...I thought well about how much fun some governors have as lame ducks - travel around their state, maybe travel to other states, maybe take their overseas international diplomatic trade missions, so many politicians do that. Then I thought that's what's wrong - many just expect that lame duck status, they draw a pay check and milk it and I'm not going to put Alaskans through that."

“I am not going to Washington to be the 60th Democratic Senator,” said Franken to a crowd of supporters and assembled media, “I am going to be the second Senator from the state of Minnesota.”

You know what to do, kitty! Here it is, folks -- the moment we've been waiting for since last friggin' November: Norm Coleman concedes the election contest to Al Franken. Guess John Cornyn was sick of seeing $145k a week going into the pockets of Tony Trimble, Fritz Knaak, Joe Friedberg et al, when it could be going to shore up the campaigns of endangered Senate Republican candidates

The Minnesota Supreme Court It's here. At long last, it's here. After seven and a half months, we're about to see the end of the 2008 Minnesota senatorial election. The Minnesota Supreme Court has issued its ruling today in RE: Coleman v. Franken. And, also as has been rumored would happen, it comes down pretty damned solidly in Franken's favor.

Norm's staffers bailing as the MN Supreme Court decision looms...

There have been persistent rumors locally -- rumors referenced by Dan Feidt at Politics in Minnesota -- that the Supreme Court will be handing down a ruling in the Coleman appeal sometime today. My own particular source for this allegedly got the information simply by asking a person quite close to the case.

In the face of what looks to be an imminent slam-dunk win for Senator Al Franken, his soon-to-be colleague John Cornyn (R-Texas) has, um, graciously decided to allow America's newest Senator to be seated after all. How good of him.

When Minnesota's Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty, announced yesterday that he was not running for re-election, I noticed two things right away: None of the local evening news shows mentioned how he was tanking in most of the polls, and how re-election might have been tricky for him next year; and lots of commenters online, including yours truly, suspected that this gives him carte blanche to screw the state as he rushes to please the Republican primary voters so he can get onto a presidential ticket in 2012.

UPDATE: F-C Update is now Pawlentier! As in, we won't have Tim to kick around anymore. . . . Meanwhile, how screwed is Norm?