Him, Al Franken
Good news from Minnesota this afternoon. The state Supreme Court ruled that Democrat Al Franken was the winner of the U.S. Senate race there (in November 2008) by I think 312 votes over the Republican Norm "Sore Loser" Coleman. After an hour or so of collective holding of breath, Coleman finally conceded. Franken becomes the 60th Democratic senator and a potential end to Republican filibusters of health care and other important issues for America.
I first saw Al Franken on Saturday Night Live in the mid-1970s. He was mainly a writer on the show, but occasionally appeared on camera to do political commentaries that inevitably got around to the question of, "What does it mean to me, Al Franken?" Franken is smart, liberal, and progressive in the Minnesota tradition.
Coleman can't be blamed entirely for this fiasco. He was put up to the recount fight and financed by the national Republican Party, who desperately wanted Franken and his 60th vote kept out of the Senate as long as possible. And no, it wasn't the same as Gore vs. Bush in Florida in 2000. Gore never received a fair count by unbiased officials. Coleman got that and more, but the handwriting on the wall was clear long ago that Franken had won.