It's now been roughly 36 hours since polls closed in Minnesota, and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) is still in the process of fending off a challenge from comedian and talk-show host Al Franken. The final (unofficial) vote tally had Coleman up by an minuscule 467 votes out of a total of more than 2.4 million cast.
This has triggered an automatic statewide recount that is expected to take several days. If Franken wins, the Democrats pick up another seat in their now quixotic attempt to reach 60. If he loses, Coleman goes back to the Senate where he is nearly certain to face an ethics probe (sound at all familiar?) into his receipt of a gift of some $75,000 that failed to make its way onto his Financial Disclosure Forms.
Since his violation is specifically tied to Senate ethics rules, and since his high-profile as a U.S. Senator helps fuel the story, there have been suggestions from certain quarters that Coleman's best legal strategy is to lose the recount and relinquish his seat. His future is now out of his hands, to be determined by optical scanning machines. This race is still a tossup.
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