He's a heartbeat away from the presidency, but that apparently didn't help Joe Biden get a movie ticket Saturday night.
Employees at the Regal Brandywine Cinemas say the vice president-elect and his wife, Jill, tried to attend the 7:45 showing of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" at the theater on Concord Pike but left after they were told the movie was sold out.
There's been no confirmation from the Biden camp, but the theater employees say they are sure it was him.
Inshirah Muhamut, an associate manager, said she closed her box-office line when she saw what appeared to be a Secret Service agent coming her way. The man asked her about tickets for the movie, which stars Brad Pitt, then left.
A few minutes later, she said, the Bidens came into the lobby. Jill Biden walked up to speak with Muhamut while Joe stood nearby.
"She was asking me about other shows, but they really wanted to see 'Benjamin Button,' " Muhamut said. "He was maybe five feet away, looking at her. He was standing with his other Secret Service men."
Remarkably, none of the other moviegoers appeared to notice. Employees said nobody mobbed Biden or called his name or asked for an autograph. "It didn't seem many people recognized him," said employee Becky Gingrich, 21. "Honestly, I think people were just too wrapped up in themselves to notice."
The brush with Biden did give the employees a thrill, though. "I was a little excited -- I'm not gonna lie," said Muhamut, a 21-year-old senior at West Chester University. "The Secret Service guy told me to calm down."
Muhamut plans to go to the Jan. 20 inauguration, so seeing the Bidens up close was a kick. "I recognized him as soon as he came up," she said. "He had a black jacket and jeans on. He looked real casual. His wife had on a very stylish jacket."
Gingrich and Muhamut said the Bidens didn't ask for special treatment. They simply mulled over their movie options and left.
"We're just so crazy in here tonight [with patrons] that we would have had to go into the theater and move people around," Gingrich said.
Becky, bunch of big dudes in suits come in looking serious people do notice. They just didn't give a sh*t 'bout em. Its not like he wasn't recognized with his face all over the place for 5 months.
They simply mulled over their movie options and left.
Hate to tell ya smokin Joe, hasn't been anything worth that much money out in quite a while.
#3
Saw this the other day. Sent a copy to my Brother who is an Alaskan Fisherman (a Dragger out of Dutch Harbor). The EcoThugs and Government are trying to do to him what they did so well to the Lumber Industry. You know he has to hire and pay for (and insure) an 'observer' to be on board to watch him fish...
The Washington Post is reporting that Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Sanjay Gupta. Hes expected to accept the job, the Post says, citing two unnamed sources. Gupta declined the Posts request for comment.
Besides his CNN gig, Gupta also appears on CBS and writes for Time Magazine. He was a White House Fellow and a special adviser to Hillary Clinton when she was First Lady. Oh, and hes a neurosurgeon at Emory and associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Atlantas Grady Memorial Hospital.
Theres a certain logic to picking a TV talking head to be surgeon general, because the surgeon general is largely a talking head. The top doc does oversee the 6,000-member Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, but the real work of the job is traveling around the country, using the title as a bully pulpit to advance a public health agenda.
In this media-saturated era, who could do that better than a doc whos famous for explaining health issues on cable TV?
#1
In 2003, Gupta traveled to Iraq to cover the medical aspects of 2003 invasion of Iraq. While in Iraq, Gupta performed emergency surgery on both U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians. Gupta was embedded with a Marine medical unit at the time. A Marine named Jesus Vidana suffered a severe head injury and the Marines asked for Gupta's assistance because of his background in neurosurgery. Vidana survived and was sent back to the United States for rehabilitation.
I don't have a problem with this. I mean, shit, remember Joycelyn Elders?
#2
That's actually a smart pick. The Surgeon General is mainly a spokesman for various public health initiatives, not an administrator. Dr. Gupta is a good public speaker and a decent guy.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/06/2009 16:47 Comments ||
Top||
#4
...I will NOT watch CNN because of their admission that they covered up/ignored evidence of Saddam Hussein's atrocities in Iraq so as not to lose 'access'. However, Dr. Gupta seems like a straight shooter and during a trip to Iraq got caught in an attack on US troops and jumped into an operating room to help save their lives. That counts for a lot, as far as I'm concerned.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/06/2009 17:16 Comments ||
Top||
#5
US Navy-lite uniforms, medals, sprokets, Hindi Turban head gear, multi-cult. What's not to like. The One quite possibly got it right this time.
#6
"got caught in an attack on US troops and jumped into an operating room to help save their lives"
Was he the one who was condemned by the media for actually getting involved, Mike? Or was that a different doctor/reporter? (Not that it matters - good for him for remembering he's a doctor first.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/06/2009 17:50 Comments ||
Top||
WASHINGTON Roland Burris failed in his bid to take President-elect Barack Obama's Illinois Senate seat on Tuesday in a scripted piece of political theater staged just before the opening of the 111th Congress.
"My credentials were not in order, I will not be accepted, I will not be seated," Burris, 71, told a mob of reporters who had followed him across the street for a news conference in a cold and steady rain outside the Capitol.
The former Illinois attorney general said he was "not seeking to have any type of confrontation" over taking the seat that he was appointed to by embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich. But Burris, who would be the Senate's only black member, also said he was considering a federal lawsuit to force Senate Democrats to seat him.
It was a major distraction for majority Democrats eager to project an image of progress with Obama on an economic stimulus package that could cost up to $1 trillion.
Democrats and Obama have said that the corruption charges against Blagojevich would strip credibility from anyone he appoints to the seat. Burris and many of his supporters have suggested that the real reason for the rejection involved race.
Blagojevich denies federal accusations that he tried to sell Obama's seat. Democrats, for their part, deny that race has anything to do with Burris' rejection and say that it's a reflection on Blagojevich.
That Secretary of the Senate Nancy Erickson turned away Burris was no surprise; Senate Democrats had warned for weeks that if Burris showed up to be sworn in on Tuesday without the signature of the Illinois secretary of state, he would be turned away. That's just what happened.
But if what Burris really wanted a circus, he got one.
A mob of reporters awaited him outside the Senate's North Door, where Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer and a throng of officers escorted him through security and up to Erickson's office on the third floor.
There, more reporters waited. Once again Burris went through a metal detector and into Erickson's office, nestled between the elevators and the press gallery.
Twenty-one minutes later, Burris left; a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid confirmed that Burris had been rejected.
Burris left the building, escorted by Gainer and his officers.
And soon, a noisy throng of reporters followed him across the street, and Burris confirmed that he'd been turned away.
An attorney for Burris, Timothy W. Wright III, said that "our credentials were rejected by the secretary of the Senate. We were not allowed to be placed in the record books. We were not allowed to proceed to the floor for purposes of taking oath. All of which we think was improperly done and is against the law of this land. We will consider our options and we will certainly let you know what our decisions will be soon thereafter."
Asked what his options were, Wright said there possibly could be a court challenge and he said that Burris also would continue to talk to the Senate leadership.
There had been earlier indications that the Senate would disallow Burris to take his seat, at least in part because his letter of appointment from Blagojevich was not co-signed by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White.
Some of Burris' supporters have bemoaned the fact that Democrats would stand in the way of the Senate gaining its only black member. Burris himself downplayed the issue of race, telling reporters: "I cannot control my supporters. I have never in my life, in all my years of being elected to office, thought anything about race."
Earlier Tuesday, Burris had tense negotiations with Terrence Gainer, the Senate's sergeant at arms.
"I'm presenting myself as the legally appointed senator from the state of Illinois. It is my hope and prayer that they recognize that the appointment is legal," he said earlier in a nationally broadcast interview.
Burris dismissed the Senate Democratic leadership's position that he cannot be seated because he was appointed by a governor accused in a criminal complaint of trying to benefit financially from his authority to fill the seat that Obama vacated after winning the presidential election.
Burriss said his belief is that his appointment is constitutional and that "I have no knowledge of where a secretary of state has veto power over a governor carrying out his constitutional duties."
Burris also maintained that the announcement by Blagojevich Monday of a date for an election for a successor to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., proves the governor still has legal authority to carry out his duties. Emanuel will be Obama's White House chief of staff.
"There's nothing wrong with Roland Burris and there's nothing wrong with the appointment," Burris said.
Burris has found little support among fellow Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had said Monday that Burris would not be permitted to take his seat because Burris "has not been certified by the state of Illinois," a reference to incomplete paperwork that only touches on the dispute. Senate Democrats maintain that Burris' appointment is tainted because of the charges against Blagojevich.
While Blagojevich has signed formal appointment papers, White has not, and Senate rules require that signature. Burris, in turn, has gone to court hoping to win an order for White to sign the necessary paperwork, and he has also threatened to sue to take his seat in the Senate.
#1
This is not my comment. I found it somewhere else. "On one hand, we have Dems threatening not to seat an African American duly appointed to serve in the US Senate by a sitting governor; an African American who has worked his way up from local office through statewide office before this appointment.
On the other hand, we have Dems cheering the naming of a wealthy white woman who has never held public office, interviews badly, but has an important surname and the right pedigree."
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/06/2009 15:11 Comments ||
Top||
#2
...and a "comedian" who may, or may not, have won the election.
The Obama transition team was aware of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's relationship with the firm currently being investigated, CDR Financial Products, because Richardson had introduced the firm's founder, David Rubin, to Obama fundraisers during the Democrat convention in Denver last August.
Richardson withdrew his name from nomination for Commerce Secretary due to a grand jury investigation into possible financial dealings between his New Mexico administration and Rubin's firm, CDR Financial.
But it isn't just Obama and Richardson that Rubin has ties to. According to federal law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation, federal officials are also looking into CDR's political and financial ties to Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, as well as to Democrat state and local officials in Illinois, California, Florida, and Pennsylvania.
Rendell placed Rubin on a political patronage commission in Pennsylvania, and Rubin was also given a seat on a Los Angeles City commission back in 2002, both seemingly as the result of political contributions to political action committees. Rubin has also been a financial supporter of Rev. Al Sharpton.
CDR also had close business ties to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, marketing and selling financial instruments created through low-income housing "lease to own" programs across the country. "If someone wants to understand just how deep Democrats are into the housing bubble and the economic crisis, they should look at some of the financial wheeling and dealing around some of those 'lease to own' programs," says a former Freddie Mac lobbyist based in Washington. "It's a veritable 'who's who' of Democratic state and local politics from New York to Los Angeles."
Rubin, founded the firm known for many years as Chambers, Dunhill, Rubin & Co, though there is no Chambers or Dunhill associated with the firm. It appears that after a number of embarrassing investigations into alleged IRS investigations into back-door deals related to municipal bond financing in Atlanta and other localities in the late 1990s, the firm's name was changed to CDR Financial.
Richardson's relationship to Rubin goes back to the early 2000s, in which time Rubin has given Richardson and his PACs more than $100,000. In October 2003, Rubin gave $25,000 to Richardson's Moving America Forward. In 2004, Rubin cut another check for another Richardson PAC, "¡Si Se Puede! Boston 2004." Translated, from the Spanish, the PAC is called Yes, We Can, and it financed Richardson's political activities for the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.
According to a Bloomberg News report and New Mexico records, between 2003 and 2004, CDR made $951,566 advising the New Mexico Finance Authority on $420 million of interest rate swaps. By comparison, when New York City offered $900 million in derivatives, it paid its adviser about $400,000.
"Long before Bill Richardson was governor, New Mexico was known to be one of the most corrupt states in the country," says a current Federal Bureau of Investigations official who has overseen criminal investigations related to drug-trafficking and organized crime in the state. "If there is anything to this investigation, it appears that it's just politics as usual for New Mexico."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
It is interesting that the jet-setting couple, former Ambassador Joe Wilson and wife, Valerie Plame, slithered out of DC and retired to a ranch in New Mexico. He was the last man out of Baghdad before Oil-for-Food was set up...turned down the chic Paris apartment for a ranch on the border?
#3
Fox News for a while that Washington State Gov. Christine Gregoire was 'in the loop' to replace Richardson as the Commerce Sec. Now it seems that's not the case.
Perhaps someone (thankfully) in the "O-Team" decided that a raving moonbat nutcase might not be the best suited individual for this job.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/06/2009 11:36 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Queen Chris took off to visit the troops in the ME.
But I got a story from my little sister in Michigan, seems their governor is also being looked at as commerce secretary.
Question: after looking at the economic powerhouse that is Michigan, why would there be any other candidates considered?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to re-write House rules today to ensure that the Republican minority is unable to have any influence on legislation. Pelosi's proposals are so draconian, and will so polarize the Capitol, that any thought President-elect Obama has of bipartisan cooperation will be rendered impossible before he even takes office.
Pelosi's rule changes -- which may be voted on today -- will reverse the fairness rules that were written around Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America."
In reaction, the House Republican leadership is sending a letter today to Pelosi to object to changes to House Rules this week that would bar Republicans from offering alternative bills, amendments to Democrat bills or even the guarantee of open debate accessible by motions to recommit for any piece of legislation during the entire 111th Congress. These procedural abuses, as outlined in the below letter obtained by HUMAN EVENTS, would also include the repeal of six-year limit for committee chairmen and other House Rules reform measures enacted in 1995 as part of the Contract with America.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Could it be? Mrs Nancy is more dangerous for our country than the Pope of Hope ( by a Rantburg University grad student... and I'm so sorry, a senior moment lends itself to me misremembering just which grad student that deserves the credit.. I think I know.... I think I know... but just hate being proven wrong... and that's my story and I'm stickin' to it)
Now, back to our regularly scheduled commenting..... this Pelosi thing scares me plenty. I stopped the game of conjuring up in my head, the scenarios of what our country could become with the Pope of Hope as our president...
But, Miss Nancy? Who is there to stop her? Not enough Repubs in the house to stop her. We as voters have no control over her.... we can't, as a nation, call for her recall.... is she eligible for impeachment? I think not.
I will admit to grabbing a SF zip code and getting around her zip code thingy (more than once) to send her an email, stating my total opposition to some of her past actions....
Prolly didn't help, but at least, I got recorded as a "voter" in her district, opposing something she favored. Surely did help my attitude for the rest of the day.
She is truly the unstoppable woe... gathering more and more power to herself with the Pope of Hope in charge......
And there is something about him, and the wife that he has chosen, that I don't think he has the guts to stand up to Nancy.
And she is Number 3 in the line of succession to become our president.
Obama scares me.... this move by Grancy Nancy... I'm not sure my little bunker of a small Texas town can withstand her.
#6
Let's see: Pelosi stifles all debate; the Senate, according to Reid, can decide who wins an election or can be seated based on how they FEEL about the process.
Sounds like a real winner for the Democratic dictatorship to come. Oh yes, stir in the MN "recounts" for good measure for a bit of spice.
#7
Hilderbeast approved as Secretary of State. Biden resigns, returns to his (yet unresigned) and very warm senate seat. Hilderbeast annointed as moves up to VP, awaits the impeachment or resignation of The One. Clintonian staff already in place. Pat Robertson smiles.
#10
Interesting course of events, Besoeker. I do think that she can do more harm to "O" from State, however it would be more apparent. To sit back (as VP) and quietly wait doesn't really seem to fit Hil's modus operandi although it would give her enormous opportunities to appear 'detached' from the day-to-day 'drain-spin' that the chOsen will try to micro-manage.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/06/2009 9:50 Comments ||
Top||
That may be in the cards anyway. I believe that Nancy P. is deranged and drunk on power. She is bound to cross the line in such a way that someone may be motivated to sanction her. She is very dangerous.
#13
Before we get heated about this, did she just restore the pre-1995 stuff or did she go beyond that?
Because to be honest the almost the same dual "our-party" versions of various bills was more of a trick the voters, cover my ass, sort of thing in the long run.
ABC News' Rick Klein and Z. Byron Wolf Report: Among those who will take the oath of office Tuesday, when the 111th Congress convenes, is a man who has no intention of further service as a member of Congress: Sen. Joe Biden.
Biden, D-Del., was reelected to the Senate on the same day that he and Barack Obama won the presidential election. He plans to be sworn in Tuesday for the seventh time as a senator, even though he'll resign his seat shortly before taking the oath of office as vice president Jan. 20.
We've asked Biden's office why he thinks it's appropriate to take an oath for a term he won't come close to filling out. We will update this posting when we get a response.
Obama, by contrast, resigned his Senate seat shortly after Election Day -- creating the vacancy that is has caused so much controversy in Illinois and beyond.
ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Biden last month on "This Week" why he hadn't resigned from the Senate -- and part of the answer Biden gave was, at best, misleading. "Two reasons," Biden said. "One is that, from my perspective, I shouldn't acknowledge it, but being sworn in for the seventh time as a United States senator from Delaware, the greatest honor I've ever had is the people of Delaware electing me. And, and it will in no way effect the seniority of the person who will follow me, number one.
"Number two, there was a period there when it was thought that it may be useful for me to be in the Senate, in terms of some of the votes that were going to be cast in the Senate that may have been very close, that would have been consistent with our incoming administration's position that I could have been voting on those. It turned out that did not occur."
Biden's swearing-in for the seventh time will extend a state record that may never be broken. And he could have voted -- but didn't -- during this post-election period that he's still been a senator.
But his claim about his decision not affecting seniority isn't true. If Biden were to resign before Tuesday, his replacement could be sworn in before the other freshman senators. The new senator from Delaware would get seniority over all other newly elected senators -- giving him a better shot at top committee assignments and choice office space.
As it is, Biden's replacement will move to the back of the line -- at best No. 98 in seniority when he finally gets the job Jan. 20, and lower still assuming the Minnesota recount and the Illinois debacle are still unresolved. It probably won't matter much in the long run: Delaware's governor has said she will name former Biden aide Ted Kaufman to the job, and Kaufman has said he won't seek a full Senate term on his own.
But in the meantime, keeping the job has allowed Biden -- one of the Senate's least-wealthy members -- to continue to collect a salary during the transition period. At his annual Senate salary of $169,300, that's meant another $28,000 so far.
Biden also remains chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But he told Stephanopoulos that he would immediately yield committee leadership responsibilities to his successor in that post, Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Two More Weeks of Senator Biden -- But Why?"
Some Senator from Pennsylvania stuck his head out of his limousine and saw his shadow so there are two more weeks of Biden.
#5
Biden also remains chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But he told Stephanopoulos that he would immediately yield committee leadership responsibilities to his successor in that post, Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass.
#6
Narcissists put in place by the narcissistic media. We are headed for interesting times indeed. When these folks enable the next attack on a major city, will flyover Americans care or even notice it?
Posted by: ed ||
01/06/2009 8:04 Comments ||
Top||
#9
When these folks enable the next attack on a major city, will flyover Americans care or even notice it?
That depends. If it is some Liberal craphole like NY, DC, SF...etc.) not so much. Good riddance actually. However, if it is in the heartland, there won't need to be that bounty I spoke of last night.
Oh, Barbara, no bag limits. The goal will be to thin them down to manageable levels.
#10
Yes Ed, we care - its not like we don't have family and friends around the US and world; the percentage of flyovers who volunteer for military service and volunteer for fire fighting is outstanding. Yes we notice, especially when coasties move out here because they can't take it where they left from yet still cling to their failed policies and try to enact them here. We have our own stuggles exasberated by city folk crap like fart taxes - an idea which would never originate in flyover country.
When we do visit we are treated as hinterland rubes and not listened to, yet we forgive with soft words and continue on. Out here we wave at people because that might be the only car we see for 10 miles; we don't have AAA we have Good Samaritan. Y'all come out here and make fun of us like its some sort of cowboy wave. We forgive with soft words and drive y'all back to the airport.
No offense, but if you are tired of tripping over garbage, then clean your house. How are we supposed to respect you big time states when those people allow crap like MN happen with barely a whimper. We are the Greeks of yore compared to what we see when we visit. Show us something worth saving and we will be there.
/rant, no offense intended - Rantburgers and Soldiers are always welcome at my house.
A Minnesota board has certified election results showing Democrat Al Franken has won the U.S. Senate recount -- by 225 votes. But that doesn't mean the former Saturday Night Live comedian's race against his Republican opponent, incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, is over. Fox News has learned that Senate Democratic leaders will try to seat Franken on Tuesday, but a legal challenge probably will keep the race in limbo. Franken aides say the Democrat has no plans to travel to Washington yet.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
They just need to clean up that little issue of having more ballots than voters.
#9
It seems Skidmark misread the propaganda he was supposed to post. 2004 was beyond the level of error. The only rcount was in Washington State where the Democrats kept counting until they got the result they wished.
In 2000, the same was attempted in Florida, but the Supreme Court of the USA stopped that cheating attempt to recount until the desired results were obtained by the Democrat criminals. Later independent audits showed that Bush did win that election legitimately. It is only the mentally ill who continue this fight 8 years later.
#10
And thanks to the Free Market system they continue to self-regulate themselves by annually replacing faded Gore and Kerry bumper stickers so that the DMV does not, as with driver's ed vehicles, have to put a cone on top of their vehicle to warn of additional driving hazards.
#11
Interesting historical note. Gore never believed for a second that he had won in Florida in 2000. The lawsuits and endless recounts were intended to prevent the Florida vote from being certified. If it hadn't been certified by the time the electoral college met to vote, Gore would have won the electoral vote, and thus the presidency.
#13
Franken getting more than a dozen votes would have been a disappointment. Like Obama, evidently Minnesotans think pretty highly of him. Be careful what you'ze ask for.
An Illinois woman has been charged with submitting false information on voter registration cards, including turning in cards from nursing home residents without their knowledge.
A federal indictment released Monday says 44-year-old Deidra Humphrey of East St. Louis forged voter registration cards to election officials in St. Louis city and county. It charges her with two felony counts of voter registration fraud.
U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway's office says Humphrey worked for ACORN and the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition between June and August 2008.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Obama transition team was aware of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's relationship with the firm currently being investigated, CDR Financial Products, because Richardson had introduced the firm's founder, David Rubin, to Obama fundraisers during the Democrat convention in Denver last August.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to re-write House rules today to ensure that the Republican minority is unable to have any influence on legislation. Pelosi's proposals are so draconian, and will so polarize the Capitol, that any thought President-elect Obama has of bipartisan cooperation will be rendered impossible before he even takes office.
ABC News' Rick Klein and Z. Byron Wolf Report: Among those who will take the oath of office Tuesday, when the 111th Congress convenes, is a man who has no intention of further service as a member of Congress: Sen. Joe Biden.
A Minnesota board has certified election results showing Democrat Al Franken has won the U.S. Senate recount -- by 225 votes. But that doesn't mean the former Saturday Night Live comedian's race against his Republican opponent, incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, is over. Fox News has learned that Senate Democratic leaders will try to seat Franken on Tuesday, but a legal challenge probably will keep the race in limbo. Franken aides say the Democrat has no plans to travel to Washington yet.
An Illinois woman has been charged with submitting false information on voter registration cards, including turning in cards from nursing home residents without their knowledge.
