Politics Today: What's Next For Franken, Coleman?
Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in Politics, written by Kevin Hechtkopf:
**Franken wins
**President Obama to hold health care online town hall
**Latest on Gov. Mark Sanford
Following the ruling, Coleman conceded the race to Franken, saying, "The Supreme Court of Minnesota has spoken... I respect its decision and will abide by its result."
A short time later, Franken said: "I can't wait to get started." He will likely be sworn in next week when Congress returns from its Fourth of July recess.
"The two candidates and their allies spent over $50 million on their campaigns, the recount and the trial," writes Pat Doyle of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.
"At the heart of Coleman's appeal was his insistence that the varying treatment of absentee ballots violated voter rights to equal protection under the Constitution. But the justices said voter rights weren't violated because local officials merely applied state election law differently for the convenience of their residents. There has to be evidence of an intent to discriminate, they wrote."
"From its opening summary to its closing sentences, the Minnesota Supreme Court meticulously sealed Norm Coleman's U.S. Senate chances Tuesday in a way that legal scholars agree left him little wiggle room," adds the Star Tribune's Mike Kaszuba.
"The scholars also said that Coleman had to realize that eight judges appointed by Republican, Democratic and Independence Party governors -- three on the trial court and now five high court justices -- had come to the same conclusion. 'There's a kind of an impartiality to it,' said Ed Foley, a professor of election law at Ohio State University who closely followed the Minnesota race."
"For years after a split U.S. Supreme Court famously ended a partial recount in Florida, essentially awarding Republican George W. Bush the presidency debates raged among legal scholars on what lasting legal impact the 2000 decision would have," writes the Pioneer Press' Rachel E. Stassen-Berger and Dave Orrick.
"The crux of the issue: Do inconsistencies between polling places, election offices and courts violate the basic levels of fairness guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution if they weren't intentional, malicious or based on a fundamentally flawed system?
"No, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled unanimously, noting in its opinion: 'No claim of fraud in the election or during the recount was made by either party.'"
Nationally, what's also of note is that this now gives the Democrats 60 votes in the Senate, a filibuster-proof majority. But many will also point out that 60 votes on any given piece of legislation will not be a given.
"I know there's been a lot of talk about the fact that when I'm sworn in I'll be the sixtieth member of the Democratic caucus... But that's not how I see it," Franken said during his news conference yesterday. "I'm going to Washington to be the second senator from the state of Minnesota, and that's how I'm going to do this job."
Perry Bacon of the Washington Post puts it this way: "The Democrats now have their largest majority in the Senate since 1978, but their ability to prevent filibusters as they attempt to push President Obama's agenda is likely to prove illusory. A pair of prominent Democrats, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) and Robert C. Byrd (W.Va.), have missed a raft of votes this year because of illness and, although Byrd was released from a Washington area hospital yesterday, it is unclear how often either will be present in the chamber.
So what's next for Coleman? Some think he might be gearing up to run for governor of Minnesota, as Pam Louwagie and Mike Kaszuba write in the Star Tribune.
And Politics Daily's Jill Lawrence notes the pressure is now on Franken as well.
"Franken, the former 'Saturday Night Live' comedian and liberal radio talk show host, master of the art of the understated book title (his oeuvre includes 'Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them' and 'Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot'), has been eerily scarce, serious and well-behaved for the last eight months," Lawrence writes.
"Can he keep it up? Does he need to keep it up? He won! Maybe we could have a few jokes from time to time, jokes that are clean, and don't insult people who Franken may need or want to work with. Can jokes like that be funny? This will bear watching."
Star Tribune's Bob Von Sternberg, "Main points of the Supreme Court ruling"
Video: WCCO's Pat Kessler on the end to the race
CQ Politics' Bob Benenson, "Don't Expect Sen. Franken to Be a Barrel of Laughs"
According to the White House, there will be about 200 in the audience, invited by Northern Virginia Community College where the event will be held and by the White House Office of Public Engagement. Included will be school administrators, students, faculty and staff, as well medical professionals, activists and elected officials.
Mr. Obama's senior adviser Valerie Jarrett will moderate the town hall.
Also on the health care front, Wal-Mart announced that it backs a employer mandate to provide care in a letter to the White House and congressional officials and issued jointly with the Service Employees International Union, reports the New York Times' Sheryl Gay Stolberg.
"'Not every business can make the same contribution, but everyone must make some contribution,' Wal-Mart's chief executive, Michael T. Duke, wrote... adding that he favored 'an employer mandate which is fair and broad in its coverage.'
"But Wal-Mart's embrace of the employer mandate may come at a price. In its letter, the company says that if Congress imposes a requirement that employers offer insurance, it must also offer a guarantee to business that health care costs will in fact be contained, perhaps through a so-called trigger mechanism that would impose reductions if certain spending targets were not met.
Also, there's a new poll on health care released today from Quinnipiac. "Although 69 percent of voters nationwide say Americans should have the option of government-run health insurance, only 28 percent would choose to be covered by it, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today," according to a release from the polling institute.
"Voters say 49 – 45 percent they would pay more to reform health care, but a total of 72 percent don't want to pay more than $500 a year."
New York Times' Reed Abelson, "Many With Insurance Still Bankrupted by Health Crises"
Although he called Chapur his soul mate, Sanford said he was trying to fall back in love with his wife because he owed it to his children and "to the last 20 years with Jenny."
Meanwhile, there are more calls for Sanford to resign, writes Roddie Burris, Clif LeBlanc and Gina Smith in The State.
"Six of 27 members of the conservative Senate Republican Caucus Tuesday night issued a letter calling on Gov. Mark Sanford to resign," the paper reports.
"Two additional senators considered among Sanford's staunchest allies, also said they want him to resign though they did not sign the letter. Two other senior senators who spoke to the State said Tuesday's revelations moved them closer to asking Sanford to step down...
"It marked a major break in the silence of the General Assembly, which has the authority to remove the governor. Senators have been debating what to do about Sanford since late last week, while House members have largely remained silent."
At least six newspaper editorial boards in the state are now also calling for Sanford to resign, the Associated Press reports, but Sanford reiterated that he won't step down. The papers are: The Greenville News, The Herald-Journal of Spartanburg, The Herald of Rock Hill, the Morning News of Florence, The Times and Democrat of Orangeburg and The Item of Sumter.
Also of note, the state attorney general has called for an investigation by the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
"These admissions, in turn, prompted Attorney General Henry McMaster to ask SLED to review Sanford's travel records to determine whether any laws had been broken. At day's end, SLED's director hinted that a preliminary examination of the government's records had uncovered no criminal wrongdoing," writes Tony Bartelme and Yvonne Wenger of The Post and Courier in Charleston.
Washington Post's Philip Rucker, "Man Who Would Succeed Sanford Has Own Baggage"
Also Today: The White House says Mr. Obama today will also sign a bill awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots, a group of more than 1000 women who flew non-combat military missions during World War II.
Economy:
McClatchy's Kevin G. Hall, "Treasury details new consumer agency, and banks cry foul"
Wall Street Journal's Elizabeth Williamson, T. W. Farnam and Brody Mullins, "Finance Lobby Cut Spending as Feds Targeted Wall Street"
Washington Post's Binyamin Appelbaum And ProPublica's Paul Kiel, "After Call From Senator's Office, Small Hawaii Bank Got U.S. Aid"
Foreign Affairs:
Washington Post's Bob Woodward, "Key in Afghanistan: Economy, Not Military"
Washington Post's Dan Balz, "Have We Forgotten Iraq?"
New York Times' Simon Romero, "Obama's Stance Deflects Chávez's Finger-Pointing"
New York Times' David E. Sanger, "Second Thoughts on North Korea's Inscrutable Ship"
Supreme Court:
New York Times' Adam Liptak, "Roberts Shifts Court to Right, With Help From Kennedy:" "Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. emerged as a canny strategist at the Supreme Court this term, laying the groundwork for bold changes that could take the court to the right even as the recent elections moved the nation to the left. The court took mainly incremental steps in major cases concerning voting rights, employment discrimination, criminal procedure and campaign finance. But the chief justice's fingerprints were on all of them, and he left clues that the court is only one decision away from fundamental change in many areas of the law."
CBS News' Andrew Cohen, "Supreme Court Term in Review"
Washington Post's Robert Barnes, "Term Saw High Court Move to The Right"
Energy
New York Times' John M. Broder, "With Something for Everyone, Climate Bill Passed"
Washington Post's David A. Fahrenthold, "EPA to Let Calif. Set Own Auto Emissions Limits"
Obama Administration
New York Time' Kate Phillips, "Obama Cabinet Plans a Listening Tour of Rural America"
The Hill's Roxana Tiron, "Gates: 'More humane' enforcement of gay ban studied"
Future Races
2010 Conn. Senate: The Hill's Aaron Blake and Reid Wilson, "Schiff polling shows him competitive with Dodd"
2010 Pa. Senate: CQ Politics' Greg Giroux, "Sen. Specter Gets Ex-Opponent Torsella's Backing"
2010 Alaska House: CQ Politics' Rachel Kapochunas, "No Retirement For Alaska's Don Young"
ETC
The Hill's Ian Swanson, "Sen. Byrd released from hospital"
Politico's Jonathan Martin, "Sarah Palin story sparks Republican family feud"
The Hill's Aaron Blake, "A bigger majority means more Democratic defectors"
CBS News' Bob Orr, "Ex-CIA Officer Charged in Algiers Rape"
