Sen. Joe Lieberman is on board with Demcare now, but nutroots hero Al Franken couldn’t help exercising his power as chair on the Senate floor this afternoon to deny Liebs an extra minute or two to finish some remarks this afternoon.

Call it nutroots red meat. Or blue meat.

Liebs reacts with amusement: “Really?”

Liebs’ old friend John McCain fumed at the petty behavior, calling for “comity” in the Senate chamber.

Maybe he meant “comedy:”

CSPAN vid here.

***

Update 6:20pm Eastern:

Franken’s spokesperson justified the snit fit by telling a reporter that the urgency of passing the Senate defense authorization bill meant there was not a minute to spare:

Franken’s spokeswoman, Jess McIntosh, said that the Minnesota senator wouldn’t allow Lieberman to continue because time limits were being enforced by Senate leaders rushing to finish a defense spending bill and get to the health bill.

But as I type, Harry Reid is nearly an hour late to the Senate floor to make a motion to adjourn.

Ooutrageous outrage delaying decision-making for the troops!!!

***

6:34pm Eastern: Reid shows up more than an hour later than he told other Senators to come to the floor. Apologizes and says “other business” prevented him from being on time. Moves to recess Senate until 12:01am. This will clear the way to hold the cloture vote on the defense authorization bill as early as 1 hour after the Senate convenes, so the Dems can rush into health care.

Which reminds me: Nope, still no sign of the Reid vapor bill yet.

6:55pm Eastern. Senate adjourned on 59-38 vote. Rush, rush, rush to the health care vote on a bill no one has seen yet.

After delaying motion to recess vote for an hour, Reid demagogues on terrible delays and accuses GOP of “playing political games.”

7:00pm Eastern: McConnell on the floor talking about how Demcare has become a “literal political nightmare.” And “they want to rush this bill through by Christmas?” And “here’s the most outrageous part: They want us to vote on a bill that no one outside majority leader’s conference room has seen. No one has seen it…This entire process is a complete charade.”

Well, well, well.

The Congressional Black Caucus is trying to shake down the White House — and taxpayers — by holding a Democrat financial regulation “reform” bill hostage until Team Obama stuffs it with taxpayer goodies for a minority-owned radio station and other minority-owned businesses.

The story is here and here. In brief:

A clash between the Obama administration and the Congressional Black Caucus intensified Wednesday, illustrating how lawmakers’ unease about the economy has the potential to derail White House priorities. Ten black lawmakers refused to appear at a House committee vote on financial regulations Wednesday, a move that nearly allowed Republicans to kill a major Democratic bill. The move was the culmination of weeks of tension, including a testy meeting two weeks ago that included Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. In the meeting, Ms. Waters berated the administration for not doing enough to help minority-owned businesses, mentioning specifically a New York broadcaster that couldn’t get a loan reworked.

Less than two weeks after the meeting, the company, Inner City Broadcasting Corp., said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. agreed to restructure the loan. The exchange about the company, which to some administration officials sounded like a bid to have the government intervene in a corporate matter, heightened distrust on both sides, people familiar with the matter say. Caucus members at the meeting stressed they weren’t asking White House officials to do anything improper, people familiar with the matter said. It is unclear whether any government official played a role in having the loan reworked.

Of course, Goldman Sachs! Earning its “Government Sachs” nickname once again. Victor Davis Hanson notes: “Rarely has a single scandal summed up nearly all the current pathologies of the corrupt Washington scene, combining insider bailouts, revolving-door influence peddling, racial-identity politics, subsidies for failing institutions that have a proven record of partisan Democratic politics, and Democratic efforts to reward wealthy friends under the guise of social justice.” See also: Culture of Corruption.

Now, I have some back story that you may remember about the crony of color behind the CBC shakedown. Percy Sutton is head of Inner City Broadcasting Corp. The ailing radio station was in the middle of the Air America disaster several years back. Radio Equalizer blogger Brian Maloney and I collaborated on an extensive investigative series into the left-wing empire’s finances — and Sutton’s ICBC was entangled in the dealings as the minority front business/flagship station for the sinking ship. The company shunted aside its black-themed talk format at WLIB to accommodate Air America. In return, Air America made room for a few minority radio hosts and also entered into lucrative lease management agreements with Inner City Broadcasting, which owns and operates 17 radio stations in five markets.

Air America, of course, collapsed. And ICBC has apparently never recovered either.

Sutton and his son, Pierre (who now runs the business), are leaning on all their race-hustling friends to put you and me on the hook for rescuing the business. It’s not corporate welfare, you see, it’s “media justice!”

Things you should know about Sutton, as I reported in 2005:

The co-founder of Inner City Broadcasting is New York media mogul Percy Sutton, best known as Malcolm X’s lawyer and former Manhattan borough council president. Sutton helped bail Sharpton out after Sharpton was ordered to pay former Dutchess County prosecutor Steven Pagones over the Tawana Brawley race hoax. Sutton also raised and donated money for Sharpton’s 2004 presidential bid. Sharpton still broadcasts a Sunday radio show on WLIB. Sutton and Jackson are longtime friends and partners. Sutton served as Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign finance chairman. Jackson has lobbied on Sutton’s behalf. Sutton sits on Jackson’s Citizenship Education Fund. As original investors, Jackson and his wife reportedly hold more than 23,000 shares in Inner City Broadcasting.

The Orwellian Fairness Doctrine comes in many forms.

***

More fun facts: Ben Smith recalls Percy Sutton’s claim that Saudi royalty supported Obama through proxy ex-Black Panther/Muslim confidante of the Sauds Khalid al-Mansour.

It’s official. The Senate gets another buffoon. Don’t worry, Al. Bozo the VP Joe Biden’s shoes won’t be that hard for you to fill:

It is U.S. Sen. Al Franken.

The Minnesota Supreme Court today decided that Franken, a Democrat, won the highest number of votes in last year’s U.S. Senate race and deserves a signed election certificate.

The court said that Republican Norm Coleman didn’t prove that a lower court made mistakes requiring a rehearing of the case. Coleman had asked the court to order thousands of rejected absentee ballots counted. He had hoped the counting would allow him to overcome Franken’s 312-vote lead.

The court’s decision brings to an end the seven-month state fight over the Minnesota Senate race. Franken has had a lead since January and a trial court decided in April that he won the highest number of legally cast votes.

Showtime!

***

Update:

A STATEMENT FROM SENATOR NORM COLEMAN

“Thank you and may God bless Minnesota and America.”

(link)

It’s MLK Day. Barack Obama’s going to be sworn in. What more fitting time for Al Franken to tap into the emotion of the moment and celebrate history by e-mailing supporters…and asking them for money!

Al Franken: Doing his best to schlockify the schlock inauguration.

Dear Friend,

It’s all but official: A professional Democrat clown will join all the amateur ones already in the Senate.

Al Franken is going to Washington:

Democrat Al Franken will be declared the winner of the tight U.S. Senate contest in Minnesota, emerging from a ballot recount with a slim margin over Republican Norm Coleman, state officials said on Sunday.

But Coleman, the incumbent, has asked Minnesota’s supreme court to require that a few hundred additional absentee ballots be included in the recount — and he could then ask the court to investigate the contest all over again.

“At the moment, Franken has a 225-vote lead,” after the weekend counting of what were deemed the last uncounted absentee ballots, said Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat who oversaw the process.

Ritchie said unless the supreme court acts on Coleman’s request and orders more ballots to be counted, he will reconvene the state’s Canvassing Board on Monday to certify Franken as the winner of the November 4 contest.

Coleman’s campaign intends to do just that, but Minnesotan Ed Morrissey at Hot Air notes:

His best bet may be the inconsistencies in challenge resolutions and the lack of a statewide, uniform standard in addressing the absentee ballots. Even that may not help much at this point, though. According to Coleman’s team, up to 1,000 absentee ballots should have been included instead of excluded, but gaining 225 votes out of 1,000 ballots will be a tall order — although not impossible, as Franken gained 200 out of the 935 absentee ballots they did count. Ballot challenge inconsistencies will have less of a chance, as those are inherently subjective and the court will give the Canvassing Board the widest possible latitude.

In the end, a dead heat winds up getting decided by the incompetence of individual voters who under any other circumstances would not matter at all. That’s what we had here.

May Minnesotans get what they deserve.

***

WSJ spotlights the funny business in Minnesota:

Minnesotans like to think that their state isn’t like New Jersey or Louisiana, and typically it isn’t. But we can’t recall a similar recount involving optical scanning machines that has changed so many votes, and in which nearly every crucial decision worked to the advantage of the same candidate. The Coleman campaign clearly misjudged the politics here, and the apparent willingness of a partisan like Mr. Ritchie to help his preferred candidate, Mr. Franken. If the Canvassing Board certifies Mr. Franken as the winner based on the current count, it will be anointing a tainted and undeserving Senator.

Two more senior Hamas terrorists are dead. And this: 35 Palestinians killed by Islamists, 75 shot in legs in the past week “to ensure they don’t help Israel.” Allahpundit’s full coverage is here. The clock is ticking. U.S. tells UN Security Council to stuff it.

*Stuart Smalley is up 225 in the Minnesota Senate race recount.

*Reid + Blago + Cornyn = Juicy Senate fracas!

According to a Chicago Sun-Times report Saturday, Reid called Blagojevich on Dec. 3 and urged him to tap either state Veteran Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth or state Attorney General Lisa Madigan, both Democrats, to fill the seat. Blagojevich was arrested less than a week later on corruption charges that included allegations he was trying to sell the seat to the highest bidder.

The paper also reported that Reid advised the Illinois governor against selecting state Senate President Emil Jones, a mentor of President-elect Barack Obama, or Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Danny Davis —all of whom, Reid reportedly said, would face difficulty holding on to the seat when it is up for election in 2010.

“For the last several weeks, Senator Reid has led the charge to deny the people of Illinois a voice in choosing their next U.S. senator in a special election,” Cornyn said in a Saturday afternoon statement. “Now we learn that Senator Reid also took the extraordinary step to lobby against two sitting U.S. congressmen and the state senate Majority Leader in Illinois, and instead told Governor Blagojevich that he supported an appointment for an individual [Duckworth] who recently lost a U.S. House election.

“The people of Illinois deserve a simple explanation from Senator Reid: Why does he believe these three Illinois officeholders are ‘unelectable’ to the U.S. Senate?” Cornyn added.

This is the second day in a row that Cornyn — still new in his job as NRSC chairman — has come out with strong statements against Senate Democrats. On Friday, Cornyn threatened to filibuster any effort to seat Democrat Al Franken, who holds a tiny lead over Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in the prolonged Senate recount in Minnesota.

Dingy Harry responds here.

*And the latest on how your TARP money is being spent from the DMN:

Thanks to the government, PlainsCapital is getting bigger.

The Dallas-based bank received $87.6 million last month from the U.S. Treasury Department’s $700 billion rescue program, known as TARP. The bank says it intends to put the money to good use – increasing loans for businesses, students and even jumbo mortgages. But it doesn’t rule out using funds for acquisitions.

“As we see this economy shake out, there are going to be some that make it and some that don’t make it,” said Alan B. White, PlainsCapital’s chairman and chief executive. “And there are going to be good opportunities that people are going to be able to take advantage of. I hope I’m one of those.”

Congress and taxpayer groups have objected to using bailout funds for acquisitions and grown impatient with the lack of new lending. But the government didn’t dictate how banks can use TARP funds. And it has no system for monitoring the funds after they are handed over.

While the government can take credit for fulfilling the first part of its mission – stabilizing the financial system – it has failed to stimulate lending. Credit remains tight as banks – even those that received TARP capital – have been wary to take on risk as the economy worsens. And they are free to use the funds for less risky investments.

“Some of the banks that have received the money don’t need it but decided they would go ahead and take it since it was available,” said Robert L. Clarke, a senior partner at Bracewell & Giuliani in Houston who was comptroller of the currency under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. “But it has not changed their view of the risk of making loans.”

More snort-worthy goodness: Allah’s disputed ballot cheat sheet.

It’s on.

Minnesota-based Power Line has been keeping tabs. And so has Ed Morrissey.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Gah:

Not funny:

Democrat Al Franken is leading Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in early returns in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race.

With 8 percent of precincts reporting, Franken has 45 percent of the vote to Coleman’s 39 percent.

***

Update: The race is tightening. It’s neck and neck now.

Fortunately, Norm Coleman’s Senate campaign in Minnesota remembered, too.

Franken’s Air America debacle is the subject of a new campaign ad. Schadenfreude-licious:

***

Press release:

COLEMAN CAMPAIGN RELEASES WEB VIDEO “NO ACCOUNTABILITY AL”

While Air America Withheld Stolen Money From Boys And Girls Club, Al Franken Demanded His Million Dollar Salary

ST. PAUL – The Coleman for Senate campaign released a web video to highlight Al Franken’s lack of responsibility and accountability in the Air America-Boys and Girls Club scandal where Al Franken’s radio station refused to repay $900,000 that they borrowed from a Bronx Boys and Girls Club. Franken, despite signing a document acknowledging the loan, refused to act or demand an investigation, opting to instead ask for a raise.

“We’ve heard a lot about accountability this campaign season from Al Franken, but he refuses to be held accountable, or even accept responsibility, for his own actions,” said Cullen Sheehan, campaign manager. “While poor kids and seniors and others suffered from the loss of money taken from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, key executives with Air America and Gloria Wise were living it up. And, when Al Franken found out about it – he did absolutely nothing. So far we’ve seen him refuse to be held accountable for not paying his workers comp premiums, providing his employees with disability benefits and paying his income taxes – instead blaming the government and his accountant for his law breaking. It’s now time that Al Franken be held accountable for looking out for his own financial interests rather than demanding his company pay back the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club for money they stole from them.”

“No Accountability Al” Script:

“Almost 900,000 tax dollars taken from a Boys and Girls Club by a corporation. Falsified documents. Widespread fraud. Air America, the home of radio shock jock Al Franken took the money and ripped off thousands of kids. Blamed a crook. Said he didn’t know about it. When he finally admitted he knew, Al Franken still did nothing about it. Except Franken made sure he got paid – millions – but did nothing to make sure that the Boys and Girls Club got their stolen money back. Al Franken. Talks accountability, just doesn’t want to be accountable.”

“No Accountability Al” Backup:

“Almost 900,000 tax dollars taken from a Boys and Girls Club by a corporation.” “The former chairman of Air America Radio, Evan Montvel Cohen – who former colleagues said engineered transfers of more than $800,000 to the liberal radio network from a boys and girls club in the Bronx – is missing, according to a lawyer who is trying to have him served with legal papers. At least two people have said Mr. Cohen is in Hawaii. He has not responded to a series of e-mail messages in recent weeks from The New York Sun asking him about his role. Mr. Cohen, 39, helped lead the launch of Air America in March 2004. Less than two months later, Piquant LLC acquired the radio network from Mr. Cohen’s Progress Media. Piquant LLC has agreed to pay $875,000 to Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, without interest, in installments over the next two years.” (DAVID LOMBINO, “Network’s Former Chairman Is Missing” New York Sun, August 26, 2005)

“Falsified documents.” “Did Al Franken’s liberal radio network Air America divert city money for the elderly and inner-city children to itself? That’s the question people should be asking this week after the revelation that the New York Department of Investigation is looking into whether hundreds of thousands of dollars were illegally transferred from a Bronx community center to Air America. Only a community paper and a few Internet bloggers seem interested in what could be an egregious case of illegal funneling of tax dollars to a private, partisan organization. In late June, city officials designated the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, a nonprofit organization that runs mentoring programs for children and day care for Alzheimer’s patients, a ‘non-responsible city contractor.’ Investigators found ‘significant inappropriate transactions and falsified documents that were submitted to various City agencies.’ The city subsequently suspended the club’s contracts, which run well into the millions.” (Editorial, “Robin Hood and Air America,” Washington Times, July 29, 2005)

“Widespread fraud.” “Top employees of a city-financed Bronx charity diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars for personal expenses like home renovations, furniture and the purchase of a Volvo and a BMW, a city investigation has found. The widespread fraud in recent years at the charity, the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, which received $9 million a year in city financing to help children and the elderly, also included off-the-books bank accounts — created under the guise of supporting youth athletic programs — that were used to pay bonuses to the executive director and four other officials, according to the city’s Department of Investigation. Investigators said the breadth of the fraud suggested an ”absence of oversight” within nonprofit contractors. They said it resembled several patterns of fraud and abuse in other cases from recent years, like interest-free loans to executives that are never repaid; use of organizational bank accounts and credit and debit cards for personal expenses; and double pay for salaried employees also listed as consultants.” (SEWELL CHAN, “City Finds Widespread Fraud at a Bronx Charity,” New York Times, October 6, 2006)

“Crook.” “Jaime Horn, a spokeswoman for Air America, said the loans had come to the network through its former chairman, Evan M. Cohen, a venture capitalist, who resigned from Air America in May 2004 under pressure from other company investors. Ms. Horn added that investigators recently told the network that Mr. Cohen had served simultaneously as the development director for Gloria Wise, although the network was not aware of that at the time. Mr. Franken took up the issue on the air on Monday afternoon, telling his listeners that Mr. Cohen was ‘a crook’ who had borrowed money from Gloria Wise.” (ALAN FEUER, “Bronx Boys Club’s Finances Investigated,” New York Times, August 12, 2005)

“Didn’t know.” “Moments after Air America’s widely publicized, early-spring launch last year, checks bounced and the fledgling lefty net was yanked off stations in Los Angeles and Chicago. ‘I think [Cohen] was robbing Peter to pay Paul,’ Franken said, adding that the network’s current owners, Piquant LLC, did some ‘forensic accounting’ and learned about the defaulted loan. Franken said Piquant didn’t legally have to pay back the loan, ‘but we morally do, so they started to make arrangements to pay it back.’ ‘I didn’t know anything about this until last week,’ Franken claimed. ‘I really had nothing to do with this.’ The Post has been unable to reach Cohen in either New York or his native Guam.” (JOHN MAINELLI, “I WUZ ROBBED TOO : FRANKEN,” NY Post, August 9, 2005)

“The document shows that Mr. Franken signed off on the settlement.” “In light of documents that surfaced last week, it looks to be the case that as of November 2004, and possibly earlier, Mr. Franken knew the amount of money, the money’s origins and the dates the transfers occurred. This came to light after a settlement agreement between former and current owners of Air America – a document which details the Gloria Wise transfers – was leaked to Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney, who promptly posted the document on their Web sites. The document shows that Mr. Franken signed off on the settlement, and did so in the presence of a notary public, no less.” (Editorial, “Al Franken, explain this one,” Washington Times, September 11, 2005)

Another conservative blogger has been doing yeomen’s work in Minnesota dogging Franken and doing the investigative work the MSM won’t do. He’s Michael Brodkorb of Minnesota Democrats Exposed. I’ve pointed you to his work previously here and here. Now, the national MSM is catching up:

Senate candidate Al Franken wants to talk about jobs, health care and global warming. Republican blogger Michael Brodkorb wants to talk about Franken’s failure to pay all his income taxes on time.

Guess what everyone is talking about?

From the kitchen table in his tranquil suburban neighborhood, Brodkorb for the last year has used his blog “Minnesota Democrats Exposed” to launch a furious political assault on Franken. He’s labeled the former comedian and liberal commentator a “mean-spirited and un-Minnesotan” candidate who’s running a “desperate and ridiculous” campaign.

That’s routine stuff in the world of political blogging, but in the last two months Brodkorb has scored two direct hits that have the Franken campaign reeling. Brodkorb scooped the traditional media by detailing extensive bookkeeping problems in New York and California that ultimately prompted Franken, this week, to pay about $70,000 in back taxes to 17 states.

The stories have knocked Franken off balance as he prepares to take on Sen. Norm Coleman, in what’s expected to be one of the most expensive and toughest-fought U.S. Senate races this year.

Democrats have tried to downplay Brodkorb by portraying him as part of coordinated Republican attacks.

“When people talk about the right wing noise machine, that’s what it is,” said Franken spokesman Andy Barr.

But even some of his harshest critics admit Brodkorb, who has no real counterweight on the left, has been effective.

A typical Brodkorb scoop is splashed across his Web site under bold- faced banners like “Shock!” or “Breaking News!” The items are often followed soon after by a news release from the state Republican Party on the same subject, and many of his themes find their way into Coleman’s talking points.

In person, Brodkorb is a dark-haired, soft-spoken and polite 34-year- old whose infant twin daughters sometimes nap not far from his laptop.

…Brodkorb’s critics suggest some of his best stories are leaked from Republican campaigns, the state party and Republican-affiliated groups as part of a coordinated effort against Democrats. That includes Dave Colling, who managed the 2006 congressional campaign of Keith Ellison, a regular Brodkorb target.

“It’s about making them talk about something they don’t necessarily want to talk about,” Colling said.

Brodkorb won’t detail his methods, except to say he “gets tips all the time from Democrats and Republicans” and independently researches them before posting anything.

Brodkorb wouldn’t reveal how he first got the notion to check up on Franken’s business dealings in New York and California, but said simple searches on government Web sites delivered the goods: New York had levied a $25,000 judgment against Franken’s private corporation for failing to carry workers’ compensation insurance, and the corporation was in forfeiture in California.

Brodkorb often covers news conferences and other planned political events, but does most of his blogging from his home in the St. Paul suburb of Eagan.

Kudos to Brodkorb for afflicting the comfortable through good, old-fashioned journalism in a 21st-century medium. May he continue to provide Franken with many more sleepless nights.

***

Related: Scott Johnson at Power Line notes the beginning of a cover-up:

Observers naturally want to know how if Franken’s tax problems result from an oversight or something more serious, and whether they are confined to the period acknowledged so far (2003-2006). Franken has refused to release his tax returns and filed for an extension on his 2007 return.

Franken has blamed the problems on Allen Chanzis, his New York accountant. In an interview with Minnesota Public Radio, Franken said Chanzis told him he needed to pay taxes only in states where he lived.

Yesterday the Star Tribune contacted Chanzis to get his side of the story, but the Star Tribune found that Franken seems to have been one step ahead of them. Someone had already instructed Chanzis not to talk with reporters…

This week, Stuart Smalley’s in hot water over a “forfeited” California corporation.

Just imagine how well he would do in the Senate with your money!