The Political Bridge

THE MINNESOTA SUPREME COURT WILL SOON HEAR COLEMAN V. FRANKEN

From CQ Politics

"The state Supreme Court has set June 1 as the date to hear arguments from both sides in the case. "

(from DrTed) The media has received the briefs that both sides filed with the Minnesota Supreme Court.

The brief for Al Franken contain a request that the Court direct Governor Pawlenty to certify Franken the winner if the court rules for him.

(Back to the article in CQ Politics)

"Coleman’s brief did not include any mention of Franken’s request .

Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg said the former incumbent’s legal team didn’t address the matter because “the court will do what the court does...” Coleman, though, has not ruled out an appeal to the federal courts if his legal efforts in the state courts fail. "

 

FORMER SENATOR COLEMAN’S BRIEF TO THE MINNESOTA SUPREME COURT CONTENDS THAT COUNTY-BY-COUNTY VARIANCES ON BALLOT COUNTS VIOLATED DUE PROCESS

From the Minneapolis-St Paul Star-Tribune

"In a preview of their upcoming confrontation before the Minnesota Supreme Court, Norm Coleman's legal team Friday sharply disputed Al Franken's insistence that varying practices by local officials didn't tip the balance in the U.S. Senate election.

"Thousands of uncounted absentee ballots would have been accepted if judged by another Minnesota jurisdiction on Election Day," the Coleman team wrote in its final brief. "The disparate treatment affected the outcome of the election."

 

HERE COMES MORE BAILOUTS: THIS TIME IT'S BILLIONS FOR SIX MAJOR LIFE INSURERS

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Treasury Department has agreed to extend billions in bailout funds to six major life insurers,  

The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. was the first to disclose Thursday that it had been notified by the Treasury Department that it was eligible for $3.4 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Lincoln National Corp., which commonly goes by the name Lincoln Financial Group, said it has been initially approved for a $2.5 billion injection from TARP's Capital Purchase Program.

DR RAND PAUL, POSSIBLE REPUBLICAN U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE IN KENTUCKY, SPEAKS OUT AGAINST THE AUTO BAILOUTS

FromWBKO in Bowling Green, KY: "As the auto industry continues to struggle, Bowling Green eye doctor and son of Texas politician, Ron Paul , is weighing in.

Rand Paul, who has been considering a run at Republican Jim Bunning's Senate seat, says the Obama administration made a mistake in bailing out the automakers.

He says rather than receiving a handout from the federal government , the companies should be looking at radically over-hauling the way they do business."

BREAKING NEWS ON THE 2010 U.S SENATE RACE IN KENTUCKY: DR RAND PAUL(R) ANNOUNCES THE FORMATION OF AN EXPLORATORYCOMMITTEE

From a friend of DrTed's: I just heard on the Rachel Maddow show that Dr. Rand Paul (Ron Paul's son) is opening an exploratory committee for a possible run for Bunnings Senate seat. Dr. Paul is a Republican. Check theMSNBC website to watch this announcement.

SEE HOW YOUR FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVE VOTED ON APPROPRIATING $97 BILLION FOR WAR FUNDS

 

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 265 (Democrats in roman; Republicans in italic; Independents underlined)

      H R 2346      YEA-AND-NAY      14-May-2009      4:10 PM
      QUESTION:  On Passage
      BILL TITLE: Supplemental Appropriations, FY 2009

	Yeas	Nays	PRES	NV
Democratic	200	51		4
Republican	168	9		1
Independent
TOTALS	368	60		5

---- YEAS    368 ---

Abercrombie Ackerman Aderholt Adler (NJ) Akin Alexander Altmire Andrews Arcuri Austria Baca Bachmann Bachus Baird Barrett (SC) Barrow Bartlett Barton (TX) Bean Becerra Berkley Berman Berry Biggert Bilbray Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (NY) Bishop (UT) Blackburn Blumenauer Blunt Boccieri Boehner Bonner Bono Mack Boozman Boren Boswell Boucher Boustany Boyd Brady (PA) Brady (TX) Braley (IA) Bright Broun (GA) Brown (SC) Brown, Corrine Brown-Waite, Ginny Buchanan Burgess Burton (IN) Butterfield Buyer Calvert Camp Cantor Cao Capito Capps Cardoza Carnahan Carney Carson (IN) Carter Cassidy Castle Castor (FL) Chaffetz Chandler Childers Clay Cleaver Clyburn Coble Coffman (CO) Cole Conaway Connolly (VA) Costa Courtney Crenshaw Crowley Cuellar Culberson Cummings Dahlkemper Davis (AL) Davis (CA) Davis (IL) Davis (KY) Davis (TN) Deal (GA) DeFazio DeGette DeLauro Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Dicks Dingell Donnelly (IN) Doyle Dreier Driehaus Edwards (TX) Ellsworth Emerson Engel Eshoo Etheridge Fallin Fattah Fleming Forbes Fortenberry Foster Foxx Franks (AZ) Frelinghuysen Fudge Gallegly

Garrett (NJ) Gerlach Giffords Gingrey (GA) Gohmert Gonzalez Goodlatte Gordon (TN) Granger Graves Green, Al Green, Gene Griffith Guthrie Hall (NY) Hall (TX) Halvorson Hare Harman Harper Hastings (FL) Hastings (WA) Heinrich Heller Hensarling Herger Herseth Sandlin Higgins Hill Himes Hinchey Hinojosa Hirono Hodes Hoekstra Holden Holt Hoyer Hunter Inglis Israel Issa Jackson (IL) Jackson-Lee (TX) Jenkins Johnson (GA) Johnson, E. B. Johnson, Sam Jones Jordan (OH) Kanjorski Kennedy Kildee Kilpatrick (MI) Kilroy Kind King (IA) King (NY) Kingston Kirk Kirkpatrick (AZ) Kissell Klein (FL) Kline (MN) Kosmas Kratovil Lamborn Lance Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latham LaTourette Latta Lee (NY) Levin Lewis (CA) Linder Lipinski LoBiondo Loebsack Lowey Lucas Luetkemeyer Luján Lummis Lungren, Daniel E. Lynch Mack Maffei Maloney Manzullo Marchant Markey (CO) Marshall Matheson McCarthy (CA) McCarthy (NY) McCaul McClintock McCollum McCotter McHenry McHugh McIntyre McKeon McMahon McNerney Meek (FL) Meeks (NY) Melancon Mica Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Miller (NC) Miller, Gary Minnick Mitchell Mollohan Moore (KS) Moore (WI) Moran (KS) Moran (VA)

Murphy (CT) Murphy (NY) Murphy, Patrick Murphy, Tim Murtha Myrick Nadler (NY) Neugebauer Nunes Nye Obey Olson Olver Ortiz Pallone Pascrell Pastor (AZ) Paulsen Pence Perlmutter Perriello Peters Peterson Pitts Platts Poe (TX) Pomeroy Posey Price (GA) Price (NC) Putnam Quigley Radanovich Rahall Rangel Rehberg Reichert Reyes Richardson Rodriguez Roe (TN) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Rooney Ros-Lehtinen Roskam Ross Rothman (NJ) Roybal-Allard Ruppersberger Rush Ryan (OH) Ryan (WI) Salazar Sanchez, Loretta Sarbanes Scalise Schauer Schiff Schmidt Schock Schrader Schwartz Scott (GA) Scott (VA) Sessions Sestak Shadegg Sherman Shimkus Shuler Shuster Simpson Sires Skelton Slaughter Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (TX) Smith (WA) Snyder Souder Space Spratt Stearns Stupak Sullivan Sutton Tauscher Taylor Teague Terry Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Thornberry Tiahrt Tiberi Titus Tonko Turner Upton Van Hollen Visclosky Walden Walz Wamp Wasserman Schultz Watt Waxman Westmoreland Wexler Whitfield Wilson (OH) Wilson (SC) Wittman Wolf Wu Yarmuth Young (AK) Young (FL)

---- NAYS    60 ---

Baldwin Campbell Capuano Clarke Cohen Conyers Cooper Costello Doggett Duncan Edwards (MD) Ehlers Ellison Farr Filner Flake Frank (MA) Grayson Grijalva Gutierrez

Honda Inslee Johnson (IL) Kagen Kaptur Kucinich Lee (CA) Lewis (GA) Lofgren, Zoe Markey (MA) Massa Matsui McDermott McGovern Michaud Miller, George Napolitano Neal (MA) Oberstar Paul

Payne Petri Pingree (ME) Polis (CO) Royce Schakowsky Sensenbrenner Serrano Shea-Porter Speier Thompson (CA) Tierney Towns Tsongas Velázquez Waters Watson Weiner Welch Woolsey

---- NOT VOTING    5 ---

Delahunt McMorris Rodgers

Sánchez, Linda T. Stark

Tanner

WALL STREET JOURNAL SURVEY: ECONOMISTS SEE A SUBDUDED RECOVERY

Economists in the latest Wall Street Journal survey see an end to the recession by autumn, but say it will take years for the economy to fully recover.

"In general, I think it will be a subdued recovery," said Paul Kasriel of The Northern Trust Corp.

On average, the 52 economists who participated in the survey project that the recession will end in August. They expect gross domestic product to contract 1.4% at a seasonally adjusted annualized pace in the current quarter, compared with the 6.1% drop recorded in the first quarter.  

SENATORS BUNNING(R-KY) AND STABENOW(D-MI) UNVEIL A BILL TO PUNISH CHINA FOR THE UNDERVALUED YUAN

Washington--A bipartisan group of 40 lawmakers unveiled new legislation in Congress on Wednesday that would punish China and other countries that manipulate the value of their currency to subsidize their exports. Sponsored chiefly by Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Jim Bunning, R-Ky., the bill would require the Commerce Department to treat currency misalignment as a prohibited subsidy, which could lead to punitive tariffs on imports from the offending country under World Trade Organization rules.

 

.  

WATCH CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN(D-OHIO), SENATOR DEBBIE STABENOW(D-MI), SENATOR JIM BUNNING(R-KY) AND OTHERSINTRODUCE THE CURRENCY REFORM FOR FAIR TRADE ACT, H.R. 2378

ECONOMIC COLUMINIST PAUL B. FARRELL WONDERS SHOULD THOSE TOP CATS AT GOLDMAN SACHS BE INDICTED AS RACKETEERS OR REVERED AS REVOLUTIONARY AMERICAN HEROES?

 Robert Rubin(Clinton's Treasury Secretary) and Henry Paulson(George W's  last . Treasury Secretary) have been wth Goldman Sachs for many years...

Paul B. Farrell writes:

"With Henry Paulson at Treasury earlier, Goldman Sachs had absolute power, with the absolute backing of the party then in control of Washington. Flash forward: Now, with all their people, programs, lobbyists and connections left behind like landmines inside Washington's new administration, the power of the "Goldman Conspiracy" may now be absolute, as in Lord Acton's historic warning that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely

Yes, Goldman is an elite training program for government leaders. "

 The rest of the story...