Post publisher Katharine Weymouth to readers: We sure screwed the pooch on those planned pay-for-access private dinners.

Sarah Palin: "It always feels good to do what is right."

TPM Reader MC checks in ...

Am I living in Bizarro world? Does anyone really think that there is any realistic way Palin could be a candidate for President after resigning as governor? Yet pundit after pundit is saying this is a "risky" move that "may pay off". This is absolutely preposterous, and any professional putting such ideas into print should be relegated to writing copy for infomercials. All one needs to do is imagine the campaign ads (Can we Trust S.P. to Finish What She Starts?; Palin Quits When She's Tired, Winners Quit When They're Done; or just string together a few clips from the Mistake by the Lake) to realize there is no recovering from this. This is no wily strategic move; it's running from a scandal.

As I said earlier, I think there's a small chance there's no specific scandal and that Palin is just very mentally unstable. But MC is 100% correct that any pundit who thinks this is some risky but potentially brilliant strategic move is absolutely smoking crack. Hitting the crack pipe, or, just as likely, being witlessly contrarian to set themselves apart from the common herd of sane people. The kinds of ads MC mentions are right on the mark. But they're really only the beginning.

Read more »

Gov. Palin releases a new statement explaining her sudden (which she says was not sudden at all) decision to resign her office little more than half way through her term of office.

Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, has also sent out a letter rejecting claims that Palin's resignation is tied to investigations of the Wasilla Sports Complex, during Palin's tenure as mayor, or their house on Lake Lucille. In the letter Van Flein also threatens defamation suits against Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, Huffpo, Washington Post, the NY Times and MSNBC for discussing these claims.

It seems like old times -- Barack Obama and John McCain release dueling messages on Independence Day. That and other political news in today's TPMDC Fourth of July Roundup.

Peter Ferrara, who says Palin's resignation is "a brilliant liberating move for her career, and a potential turning point for the national conservative movement," writes at FoxNews.com: "She should also lead the nation's mothers to oppose mandating replacement of incandescent light bulbs with the new mercury poison gas bulbs."

(Thanks to TPM Reader JB for the catch.)

TPM Reader LG:

Is it just me or does Palin's announcement of her leaving office remind anyone else of McCain's bizarre "I'm suspending my campaign" moment during the 2008 election run-up?

Each share several key components:

* Seems - on the face of it - very bizarre.
* Comes out of the blue
* A quickly arranged almost ad-hoc press conference delivers the news.
* Yet the announcement is pretty much that only - short on filler or any real reason on what he/she concretely hopes to accomplish by doing same.

I'm just saying ... maybe Palin was a good match for McCain. ...

We were talking amongst ourselves here yesterday afternoon about how difficult it will be to explain the Sarah Palin phenomenon in, say, 30 years to someone who didn't experience it.

It's a task made more difficult by the poor quality of the contemporaneous accounts, like this one from today's lead story in the Post:

Sarah Palin, the Republican Alaska governor who captivated the nation with a combative brand of folksy politics, announced her resignation yesterday in characteristic fashion: She stood on her back lawn in Wasilla, speaking into a single microphone, accompanied by friends and neighbors in baseball hats and polo shirts.

From that description, you'd think she were a latter-day Huey Long.

BEFORE:

Rod Dreher, Dallas Morning News, Sept. 7, 2008:

She's a fighter, this one. And worth fighting for. Come what may in November, we now know what the future of the GOP and the conservative movement looks like.

Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 4, 2008:

Sarah Palin may come from the backwoods of Alaska, but she has the heart of a street fighter.

Jim Wooten, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Sept. 3, 2008:

Republicans want a fighter. I do believe they have one in Gov. Sarah Palin.

AFTER:

David Brody, CBN, today:

Oh and by the way, the last time I checked, her nickname is "Sarah Barracuda." Palin is a fighter.

Palin spokesperson Meghan Stapleton, quoted by the AP, today:

Palin remaining as governor is not good for Alaska, given the "political bloodsport" by her critics, Stapleton said. Stepping down is a "fighter's move," Stapleton said, essentially Palin stepping around political barriers in her way and pursuing her vision.

John McCain and his shrewd judge of character.

As David noted below, many commentators have taken little more than an hour to proceed from slack-jawed bewilderment to belief that Sarah Palin's unexplained resignation may be a political masterstroke.

For the moment there's no clear evidence of or explanation for some massive political or scandal bombshell that would have driven Palin from office. And it can be difficult not to allow the preposterous to become credible when many supposedly rational people are saying it.

But logic and common sense seldom fail as a guide to understanding politics. And the idea that Gov. Palin just up and decided for no reason in particular to resign her office little more than half way through her term, with a hastily assembled press conference and a rambling and histrionic speech, is just too silly for serious consideration. Another sign of the confusion on the inside are the comments reporters are getting from supposed Palin insiders. Palin insiders told Andrew Mitchell that Palin was "out of politics for good." But she told the Executive Director of the Republican Governors Association that she's resigning to campaign for more candidates in the continental US, work on her book, all with an eye to gearing up for her run for president in 2012. Call me cynical but it seems hard to reconcile those two explanations.

As with her speech itself, the tell is that the decision was apparently so rushed and sudden that there was not enough time to come up with a plausible cover story or to get out the word about what it was.

It looks like a duck and quacks like a duck. Either Palin is resigning ahead of some titanic scandal (which should emerge in short order if it exists) or her resignation was triggered by an even more extreme mental instability than we'd previously suspected.

Perhaps the best part of Palin's announcement today:

Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: "Sit down and shut up", but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out.

Quitters stick to it. Winners quit.

At 4:06 ET, when news first broke that Sarah Palin was resigning the governorship, Fox News got Palin's Svengali, Bill Kristol, on phone who said he was "real surprised" by the decision. "[Y]ou know when I first heard it I thought that's a little crazy, giving up the governorship for a year and a half," Kristol told viewers.

What a difference an hour makes.

At 5:06 ET, Kristol posted on the Weekly Standard website: "If Palin wants to run in 2012, why not do exactly what she announced today? It's an enormous gamble - but it could be a shrewd one."

Is it a huge gamble or a shrewd move? Kristol leaves himself a big out there.

Late Update: Fox is coming around, too. A little while ago, Stuart Varney said, "Let's get back to this resignation," before pausing to correct himself. "Not the resignation but stepping aside from the governorship."

We've rounded up the Top 10 Sarah Palin videos we've posted on the site since her selection as McCain's veep last year. These are the most-viewed clips of her stumbles and bumbles and of the coverage surrounding her -- in all their viral loveliness.

Watch Sarah Palin's resignation announcement: Part 1 and Part 2.

Any stabs at identifying the other shoe that is certain to be dropping soon?

In other news, it seems our Top Seven Sarah Palin Moments of the last year slideshow may need some revising.

Here's the transcript of Gov. Palin's rambling resignation statement.

Andrea Mitchell says sources close to Gov. Palin say she is now "out of politics for good."

Okay, we're getting our first indication of what happened. It seems like a colossal sulk on Palin's part, or perhaps better to say an effort on her part to ingeniously combine anti-liberal media bias agitation with Christianist politics by portraying herself as having been crucified by the liberal media.

Said Palin, according to a reporter at the press conference, "You are naive if you don't see a full-court press on the national level, picking apart a good point guard."

More shortly.

3:52 PM ... So what happened exactly? As I just mentioned in our editorial chat, this clearly happened so quickly that Palin hasn't even had a chance to come up with a coherent cover story for her resignation. Some context is probably helpful here, however. Remember that based on the public record, Palin is a wildly unethical public official, guilty at a minimum of numerous instances of abusing her authority as governor. And a lot of very damaging information has come out about her in the last few days -- though mainly embarrassing information about her character rather than new evidence of bad acts. I would not be surprised if this latest round of revelations shook something else loose that we haven't heard about yet.

4:06 PM ... Wow. It just gets better and better. Apparently one of Palin's rationale's for resigning is that she would not stand by while so many taxpayer dollars were being spent investigating her. This from Politico has to be the best ...

Palin allies contend that her star power will still benefit her home state.

"She can be more of a help to Alaska from the outside now," said one Palin loyalist.

Now?

4:20 PM ... Hmmm. Even better. This is Gov. Palin's 'announcement', such as it is, on Twitter ...

We'll soon attach info on decision to not seek re-election... this is in Alaska's best interest, my family's happy... it is good, stay tuned

She apparently didn't realize she was resigning yet. Stuff obviously moving pretty quickly ...

At first, the reports were contradictory. But now we've seen multiple reports that Sarah Palin plans to resign her office as governor of Alaska at some point in the very near future. Initially reports suggested only that she wouldn't run again; quickly followed by reports of an imminent resignation.

More in a moment.

3:26 PM ... A few have suggested that she's resigning to free up time to run for president in 2012. (She would have left office at the end of next year.) But I'm not so sure about that. Generally, when you run for election to a high office it's understood that you'll stick around to do the job. Many people run for another office while they're serving out one term and then resign to take the next job. Obama did that, after all. As did Bush and Clinton before them. But resigning an office just to run for another one leaves you open to a lot of criticism for not fulfilling your commitments. So I'm not certain this is really about freeing up time to run for president full time. And if it is, the wisdom of the move, from her perspective, is questionable.

Local station KTVA in Alaska has this ...

Palin announced that she will transfer power to Lt. Governor Sean Parnell. Parnell will be sworn in during the upcoming governor's picnic in Fairbanks on July 25. An emotionally choked-up Parnell said he plans to keep all state commissioners and continue to pursue a natural gas pipeline.

Palin did not field questions and would not give any indications as to her future plans.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

In trying to gin up claims that President Obama fired an inspector general for political reasons, Republicans look to have backed the wrong horse.

Some sort of brouhaha at a health care roundtable organized by Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) at a hospital in Omaha this morning. SEIU claims Johanns' staff called the police on the union even though the union was invited to participate. We talked to Johanns' office and they tell us nothing of the sort happened: that hospital security moved union protesters across the street, that the senator's staff had nothing to do with it, and that union representatives and other reform advocates invited by Johanns participated in the roundtable as planned.

Late Update: Worth noting that the SEIU state director, Jane Kleeb, who is complaining about what happened this morning, is married to Johann's Democratic opponent from the 2008 campaign, Scott Kleeb.

Does Wal-Mart's concession on health care reform give it political cover to fight harder than ever against EFCA?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: "I'm not very good at twisting arms. I try to be more verbal and non-threatening."

(Thanks to TPM Reader RL for the catch.)

TPM unearths important old document.

We interrupt the wall-to-wall Michael Jackson coverage for this breaking news: "Thriller" is not the best-selling album of all time (via former Crawdaddy editor Greg Mitchell).

Late Update: This is like kicking an ant hill of music record-keeping aficionados. TPM Reader RW:

The Eagles Greatest 1971-1975 is the best selling album of all time. But it is a compilation album of tracks from the first four Eagles albums (the ones sans Joe Walsh.)

Thriller is the best selling album containing original songs of all time.

As such, having Thriller sell as many albums as it did is arguably the more impressive feat.

PS: I owned the Eagles Greatest on 8 track, on record, and later on cd (though I have since upgraded to an Eagles box set), so you can count me down for three of those sales.

Only own the latest remaster of Thriller.

Later Update: Enough readers have taken issue with the RIAA sales figures (domestic sales only, double counting of double albums, etc) that we've set up an open thread at TPMCafe for the Eagles and MJ fans to hash it out -- and kill time on this holiday.

Jon Stewart to Mark Sanford: "God killed Michael Jackson to save your ass -- and you gave another interview?!?"

His wife may be willing to forgive him, but not his book publisher. Sentinel has dropped Mark Sanford's contract to write a book about fiscal conservatism.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: The Only Thing Worse...

Melinda Henneberger has a nice blow by blow run-down of the various, overlapping, often contradictory and mainly just painful explanations from WaPo executives about their abortive pay-for-play/pay-for-schmooze operation discussed this morning by Politico.

How big does your house have to be before it's a compound?

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Gov. Sanford's wife releases a new statement.

We have an update on this incident over the weekend in SD which was in equal parts bizarre, horrific and comic. A Sheriff's deputy got called to the home of two Democratic activists who were holding a fundraiser for congressional candidate Francine Busby. The complaint he was responding to was what appears to have been a bogus noise complaint called in by a neighbor who simultaneously yelling anti-gay slurs from outside the event (a lesbian couple hosted the event).

So Deputy Marshall G. Abbott shows up at house and within a few moments he's literally going berserk, twisting the hosts' arms behind their back and throwing them to the floor and then pepper spraying multiple guests. (Reading the various accounts the whole thing sounds like some Saturday Night Live episode, though probably less so to the attendees who had pepper spray squirted into their eyes.) Apparently convinced he was in some sort of imminent danger from the group middle-aged, mainly female Democratic activists, Abbott proceeded to call in back up, which lead to eight more deputies, a helicopter and a canine unit being dispatched to the scene.

Now the Sheriff's Department is in lockdown, refusing to answer any questions while allegedly conducting their own internal investigation of the incident. But what jumps out to me is that the DA's Office in San Diego is still deciding whether or not to file charges against the two women Abbott arrested during his rampage.

You may remember Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) as the guy who thought he'd stumped the Nobel Prize winning Energy Secretary about the origins of oil. Now he's picked up the story about the EPA economist who's picked up climate science as a hobby but couldn't get his 'report' included in the Agency's official findings and thinks it's a scandal on par with Watergate.

The buzz this morning is that former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) may now be mulling a run for governor in his home state of Minnesota.

But does he really want to go there? Think about it. Coleman has put together quite a record over the last decade. He's now been beaten by an ex-professional wrestler (Jesse Ventura in 1998 for governor) and an ex-professional comedian (Al Franken in 2008 for senate).

Can Coleman's dignity really withstand another run? Who would another Norm candidacy pull out of the woodwork to keep the record going by beating him this time?

An ex-porn star? Ex-juggler? Someone help me here. How much worse could it get?

We were discussing in the office yesterday who should play Mark Sanford in the movie. Kevin Costner? Mark Harmon? But that was before we saw Andy Cobb play the role. He's a dead ringer for Sanford.

We're just digging into this story the Politico broke this morning about the Post offering lobbyists access for cash payments. But I'd say the Post has a real problem on its hands.

Here's the lede ...

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post has offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few": Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and -- at first -- even the paper's own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its "health care reporting and editorial staff."

And Dave Weigel has an email Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli just sent out to the editorial staff saying reporters now will not participate.

It's worth noting the obvious competitive backstory behind the story. Politico is lead on the editorial side by a team of ex-Posties and it has targeted a big part of the paper's business. But facts are facts. And Politico seems to have gotten some that the Post really needs to explain.

Who says no second acts in politics? Norm Coleman is serious about running for governor of Minnesota next year. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Soul Mates

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

In part two of his leave-no-rock-unturned interview with the Associated Press, Mark Sanford says that at least he will "be able to die knowing I had met my soul mate," as David noted below. And if that's not enough, he says that for all the grief his affair has caused, that if the affair means he can never run for president (think the ship's sort of sailed on that one), that it will have been worth it.

I know there are a lot of people who are genuinely questioning Sanford's sanity at this point -- when you put together the furtive trips and the endless new revelations. But am I the only one who thinks that he appears to be deeply in love with this woman and should just go be with her?

Read more »

Mark Sanford: "I will be able to die knowing that I had met my soul mate."

From TPM Reader JC ...

Usually just ignorant and stupid but i think Drudge is pushing the envelope today with today's (inflammatory and misleading) headline.

Feds Hunt for Guns, One House at a Time.

It is a pretty low bar, admittedly. But it's of a piece with the right's flirtation with gun paranoia and paramilitary violence in the ramp up against Obama.

Franken takes over Coleman's Capitol Hill office -- literally.

The George W. Bush-not-conservative-enough meme is finding traction in an internal GOP memo that blames "The Great Bush-Obama Economic Intervention" for making the financial crisis worse.

Murdoch media blow gasket over Franken victory.

I take it as a sign of progress that Jews in America can now not only be doctors and lawyers and entertainers and professors but also borderline fascistic right-wing radio maniacs. All the jobs are now open to us.

Pics of the final day of Election 2008 from Minnesota.

Of all the problems Republicans face today, effective recruitment of non-ridiculous whistleblowers and cause celebre federal bureaucrats has to be rated high on the list.

First we had fired IG Gerald Walpin, whose supporters may now be considering firing him themselves. And now we have EPA climate scientist Al Carlin, whose critical report on the scientific basis of global warming was suppressed by officials at the EPA. It's been all over Fox for the last few days. And Sen. Inhofe says there must be a criminal probe into the suppression of Carlin's finding.

Only Carlin isn't a climate scientist at all. He's not even a scientist. He's an economist at EPA, who's been there since 1971 and recently took up climate science as a hobby. Details, details ... He decided to submit a report on his own initiative that no one seems to have asked him to write. Zack Roth has the shocking story.

TPM Reader CM flags a couple of unequivocal statements on health care by Joe Lieberman during his 2006 campaign against Ned Lamont. They're pretty interesting in light of Joe's low profile on this issue of late -- well, until he announced his opposition to a public option yesterday:

July 6, 2006 primary debate:

And what I'm saying to the people of Connecticut, I can do more for you and your families to get something done to make health care affordable, to get universal health insurance, to make America energy independent, to save your jobs and create new ones. That's what the Democratic Party is all about.

Sept. 21, 2006, during the general election campaign:

After spending most of his Senate career advocating piecemeal health care reforms, Joseph I. Lieberman said Wednesday he strongly supports universal health care.

Lieberman devoted a conference call with reporters to an issue that his main rival in the U.S. Senate race, Democratic nominee Ned Lamont, has highlighted in recent days.

"I have long supported the goal of universal health care," Lieberman told reporters. "Ned Lamont can talk about it. I've been doing something about it all the time I've been here."

With a headline like "Reading Barack Obama's mind on health care," you knew it was gonna be good:

The Obama doctrine on bipartisanship becomes clearer with every major issue he tackles - and it's a shell of what he advocated during the campaign.

As a candidate, Obama promised to unite a coalition of Republicans, Democrats and independents behind an agenda of sweeping change. As president, he likes Republican votes and hopes for the best, but not so much that it stops him from pushing ahead with what he wants.

Joe Lieberman: I stand with the small minority of Americans who oppose public option.

Former CIA counter-terrorism expert and bin Laden tracker Michael Scheuer seems to have become unhinged, telling Glenn Beck last night: "The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States." Watch.

Supreme Court term-ending consensus: Chief Justice Roberts steadily moving the court rightward. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Milestones

Images of the day US combat troops withdrew from cities across Iraq and Iraqis celebrating the day.

There was a lot of high octane political news today. And with all that going on, I fear some of you may have missed this great piece we published this morning by TPMMuckraker's Zack Roth and TPM Research Intern Pete Martin. As Roth and Martin explain, the Republican faction on the Commission, operating on an ideological opposition to the very concept of campaign finance regulation, have essentially put the FEC out of the enforcement business.

We've received a report that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) was taken this afternoon to Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles.

We contacted Waxman's office in order to confirm the story. A source in the office confirmed to us that the Congressman wasn't feeling well today, and went to a hospital for what were described as routine checks. Further details were not immediately available, and the source was unable to confirm which hospital Waxman was taken to.

(ed.note: Additional reporting by Eric Kleefeld.)

The Top 10 Best Moments of the Franken-Coleman post-election saga.

Listening to the commentary on the Ed Show right now, I think the idea is that getting a 60th senator really puts the Dems in a tough spot. Didn't realize it was such a bad thing for them.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

From Todd Purdum's new piece in Vanity Fair ...

None of McCain's still-loyal soldiers will say negative things about Palin on the record. Even thinking such thoughts privately is painful for them, because there is ultimately no way to read McCain's selection of Palin as reflecting anything other than an appalling egotism, heedlessness, and lack of judgment in a man whose courage, tenacity, and character they have extravagantly admired--and as reflecting, too, an unsettling willingness on their own part to aid and abet him. They all know that if their candidate--a 72-year-old cancer survivor--had won the presidency, the vice-presidency would be in the hands of a woman who lacked the knowledge, the preparation, the aptitude, and the temperament for the job.

It's a high bar to find shocking new revelations about Palin's character and political identity. But this piece may bring home how truly shocking a decision it was for McCain to pick Palin. Not a bad decision or an ill-considered one, but one that in single stroke showed McCain had no business being president. An angry, resentful, small-time crooked pol. And she really could have been president because of McCain's recklessness. Read Purdum's piece. But I have little doubt and some direct knowledge that we'll be hearing new shocking details of who this woman is for months, perhaps years, to come.

Watch Al Franken's victory press conference live.

Watch.

The governor of Minnesota will sign Franken's certificate of election today.

President Obama's statement noting Franken's victory.

A senior Democratic Senate aide told us a short time ago, but before Norm's concession, that Franken could be seated as early as next week. I suspect it'll be sooner than that now.* Franken has waited a very long time for this. At least one member of Congress has stepped down and her successor been elected in the time Franken was waiting for his race to be resolved.

*Poor Al -- I'm reminded that the Senate isn't in session until next week. So he'll have to wait a little longer.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), chairman of the NRSC, reacts to the Franken victory:

The implications of this Senate race are particularly significant because the Democrats will now have 60 votes in the Senate. With their supermajority, the era of excuses and finger-pointing is now over. With just 59 votes, Senate Democrats in recent months have passed trillion-dollar spending bills, driven up America's debt, made every American taxpayer a shareholder in the auto industry and now want Washington to takeover America's health care system. It's troubling to think about what they might now accomplish with 60 votes.

He concedes.

Eric Kleefeld has covered the Minnesota election saga exhaustively for us at TPMDC (in fact, the site changed names during the course of our coverage). Here's his rundown on the race finally, mercifully coming to an end.

Need to get something off your chest about the Franken-Coleman ruling? We've just opened this TPMCafe open thread for discussion. No stinkin' thinkin'!

Coleman presser at 4 p.m. ET. Franken's at 5:15 p.m. ET.

Note how quickly Coleman is speaking to press. Also worth noting that the Franken camp originally scheduled its presser for 4:30, then within minutes pushed it back to 5:15. I smell a concession in the wind ...

Who was who in the endless Franken-Coleman court battle? Check out our slideshow of all the key figures.

And where does this go from here? Is it over? We'll know a lot more by the end of the day. But here's what we can tell you as of this moment. The Minnesota Supreme Court's decision was telegraphed well in advance. But the unanimous ruling probably shuts down whatever hope Coleman had, which was minimal, to keep dragging this out. Coleman can try to appeal this decision into the federal courts. But Bush v. Gore notwithstanding, it seems very hard to see where the Feds would want to intervene in a case where a state Supreme Court has issued a unanimous ruling. Probably even more unlikely that a federal judge would try to prevent Gov. Pawlenty from issuing the election certificate which Franken has to present to the senate to get his seat.

More likely, though I'd say still a longshot, is that Senate Republicans will try to block Franken's seating. Over recent months, Republicans have made noises about trying to block seating Franken. A lot of that was probably puffing for partisans. But earlier on there was some chance Franken could get certification in advance of the Supreme Court ruling. Now, though, it's gone through every last step of the process in Minnesota. And the Court ruled unanimously. So it's really hard for me to imagine they're going to go there. But I've been wrong on this front before. So if there's any real obstacle remaining, it's the GOP senate caucus.

Late Update: Under Minnesota appellate procedure, as I understand it, the Supreme Court's ruling doesn't become final for 10 days. That's not, as MSNBC suggested a few minutes ago, a window in which to appeal to the federal courts for intervention. In fact, I'm not sure Coleman could appeal to federal courts until he asked for the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision within that 10-day window (a formality because the Supreme Court is unlikely to reconsider its own unanimous decision). But the opinion itself makes no mention of any 10 days except a reference to the period for reconsideration and doesn't establish any timeline for federal appeal (nor could it).--DK

Minnesota Supremes rule unanimously for Al Franken.

More shortly ...

Key quote ...

For all of the foregoing reasons, we affirm the decision of the trial court that Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled under Minn. 32 Stat. § 204C.40 (2008) to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota.

Our full report on the Court's decision.

We hear the wait for a Franken-Coleman decision from the Minnesota Supremes may be about over.

As long as your donors are getting cuffed and pepper-sprayed, you might as well try to leverage the publicity for some campaign cash.

Tearful apologies lose their oomph when it turns out the confession was less than complete.

Late Update: One of the liaisons included "what was to be a farewell meeting in New York chaperoned by a spiritual adviser soon after his wife found out about the affair." What does that kind of meeting look like exactly?

Later Update: Dude, please just stop digging:

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says he "crossed lines" with a handful of women other than his mistress -- but never had sex with them.

The governor says he "never crossed the ultimate line" with anyone but Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentine at the center of a scandal that has derailed Sanford's once-promising political career.

During an emotional interview at his Statehouse office with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanford said Chapur is his soul mate but he's trying to fall back in love with his wife.

Digging Ever Deeper Update: Just STOP!!!

"This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story," Sanford said. "A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."

Oklahoma pol trying to pass resolution blaming "libertines and godless people" like Obama for the financial crisis.

Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism: "Fully 93% of cable coverage studied on the Thursday and Friday following his death was about the King of Pop."

Jon Stewart has some fun with Mark Sanford's King David-invoking refusal to resign.

The hostess who was thrown to the ground and arrested at her home when the San Diego Sheriff's Department responded to a noise complaint about a Democratic fundraising event has released a statement.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has succeeded in crippling the FEC by ensuring the appointment of a bloc of anti-enforcement Republican commissioners who simply refuse to enforce campaign finance laws. His efforts have been mostly flying under the radar, but TPMmuckraker takes a close look at what's been happening and the consequences.

U.S. combat troops are "officially" out of Iraqi urban areas, ceding control to the Iraqis. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Small Solace

TPM is hiring seven new members of its editorial staff -- positions in DC and NY. Here's my post from this morning. Here's the list of jobs and job descriptions, instructions for applying, etc.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Sen. Vitter (R-LA) decides to go easy on fornicators in new fundraising appeal.

President Obama just said the US government regards the coup in Honduras as "not legal" and still recognizes now-exiled President Zelaya as the country's legitimate president.

As noted earlier, here's our interview with congressional candidate Francine Busby (CA-50), discussing the incident over the weekend in which San Diego Sheriff's deputies raided a Busby fundraiser with eight squad cars and a helicopter, pepper-spraying numerous attendees and arresting one of the hostess after putting her in a restraint hold.

Obama calls out official Washington for being lazy and out of shape. Will the Senate couch potatoes get moving in time to pass the climate change bill the House is sending over?

Not sure we've got a good general heading to put this under. But over the weekend Francine Busby was holding a fundraiser in an upper-income neighborhood in San Diego, prepping to run again in the fairly Republican CA-50 district. Remember, that's Duke Cunningham's old district, now represented by Brian Bilbray. So Busby's holding her fundraiser. Some neighbor calls the cops complaining of noise. And before you know it, the sheriff's department is there with eight squad cars and a helicopter, dousing multiple attendees with pepper spray and arresting one of the hostesses. (Click here for our TPMDC interview with Francine Busby discussing the incident.)

Only it gets better, or worse, depending on your perspective.

There's evidence the noise complaint was bogus. Busby did use a microphone to communicate with the crowd for a period of time -- a crowd she described as "middle aged and above." But no other neighbors heard any noise to speak of, according to reports. And there is this. The fundraiser was hosted by a lesbian couple. And not long before the sheriff's deputies showed up, someone was heard outside screaming anti-lesbian epithets.

As you can see, a lot of unanswered questions. Here's our initial report. We've got an interview with Francine Busby coming shortly.

This won't come as the slightest surprise to those versed in health care policy issues. But I fear it's only barely permeated the health care reform debate in the country, certainly in Washington. And that's this: the opposition to a so-called 'public option' comes almost entirely from insurance companies who have developed monopolies or near monopolies in particular geographic areas. And they don't want competition.

Note, I'm not saying more competition. I'm saying any competition at all. As Zack Roth explains in this new piece 94% of the health care insurance market is now under monopoly or near-monopoly conditions -- the official term of art is 'highly concentrated'. In other words, there's no mystery why insurance costs keep going up even as the suck quotient rises precipitously. Because in most areas there's little or no actual competition.

Read more »

As I mentioned on Friday, TPM is doubling the size of its editorial staff.

Today we are announcing seven new job openings -- three in Washington, DC and four at our main office in New York City. Four of the seven are reporting jobs; the rest are a mix of writing, editing and production positions.

For job descriptions and instructions for applying see our job announcements page here.

The top anti-Sotomayor group's reaction to Ricci decision on its website: "NOT EVEN ONE JUSTICE APPROVED SOTOMAYER IN RICCI CASE."

Madoff gets 150 years.

Gotta figure he's not going to be alive in 150 years. So I guess you'd call that life.

Zack Roth has more.

The Ricci decision, much watched as part of the Sotomayor confirmation process, just came down. The Supreme Court reversed in a close decision. That is, the majority did not agree with Sotomayor.

Quick read from CBS News' legal affairs guru Andrew Cohen: "Could have been a lot worse for Sotomayor, whose candidacy for Court finds solace from four dissenting Justices. Political damage minimum."

Majority opinion by Kennedy, joined by Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito. Separate concurring opinions by Scalia and Alito. Dissent by Ginsburg, joined by Stevens, Souter and Breyer.

Late Update: The RNC reacts.

As the health care debate heats up over the summer one of the central arguing points will be the possibility of creating a "public" or government-run insurance option as part of the reform bill. We take a look at how the early argument is shaping up and how important a public option seems to be to President Obama in today's Sunday Show Roundup ...

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

I was out enjoying a beautiful Sunday so I didn't get a chance to watch the old media v. new media clash yesterday on Howard Kurtz's CNN show until this morning. I assume I'm not alone. Watch.

Sotomayor Watch: The Supreme Court decision in the New Haven firefighters comes down this morning. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

More from the evolving story of the Coalition Against Competition. This from TPM Reader RP ...

Not getting enough notice is the fact that in manylocal health care markets there are very few insurance companies offering care plans. In many places there are one or two companies that provide most of the insurance. Particularly true if you set aside the uninsured people and the people the plans reject who can only get coverage from the high cost state coverage pool. If you look at US Representatives and Senators who oppose the Public Option, in many cases they are receiving political funds from insurance companies with near monopolies in their coverage locations. TPM Muckraker could/should compile a table of representatives, the health care insurance companies donating to them and the percentage of their markets they control. That would tell a big story about what is really happening.

Amanda Palmer covers 'Billie Jean' at the Troubadour in West Hollywood a few hours after Michael Jackson died.