Posts by Sam Stein

Sam Stein is a Political Reporter at the Huffington Post, based in Washington, D.C.

Deal or No Deal? Obama and Reid Butt Heads Over Burris
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on January 7, 2009 at 9:19 AM.

The apparent decision to seat Roland Burris came after aides to President-elect Barack Obama contacted senior Senate Democrats and suggested that they reverse course and accept Gov. Rod Blagojevich's controversial appointment, according to a senior Dem congressional aide.

Just minutes after the decision to seat Burris was reported, Obama offered the veteran Illinois pol praise and promised a working relationship.

"That is a Senate matter," he said of the news. "But I know Roland Burris, obviously he is from my home state. He is a fine public servant, if he gets seated then I am going to work with Roland Burris like all other senators to make sure that the people if Illinois and the people across the country are served."

Confusion remains as to what will happen with Burris. While reports signaled his imminent seating, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the AP report was "wrong," and that "there have been no decisions."

Later, at a press conference following a meeting with Burris, Reid praised Blagojevich's pick as "candid" and "forthright," but said the Senate is waiting for a court to rule whether the signature of the Illinois secretary of state is needed for Burris to take the seat.

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Democratic Senators: Franken Won't Be Seated with New Class
Posted by Sam Stein, Ryan Grim, Huffington Post on January 6, 2009 at 9:16 AM.

Fallout from the surreal political scandal in Illinois has now wafted into Minnesota.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is refusing to seat Roland Burris, appointed by disgraced Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, for lack of state certification. That's a problem for Al Franken, who also lacks final state certification despite the fact that the state canvassing board declared him the winner Monday.

Will Senate Democrats seat Franken without official certification? "I don't think so," said Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois.

"Republicans will object to trying to seat him," said Reid spokesman Jim Manley. Later in the day, Manley said that Democratic leadership would not seat Franken when the new class of Senators was sworn in on Tuesday. "Now that the bipartisan state canvassing board has certified Al Franken as the winner, we hope Senator Coleman respects its decision and does not drag this out for months with litigation... However, there will not be an effort to seat Mr. Franken tomorrow."

The remarks from Senate's top two Democrats cast a shadow on what was an otherwise bright day for Franken's political objectives. The comedian-turned-Senate aspirant claimed victory on Monday after the Minnesota canvassing board's final tallies showed him with a 1,212,431 to 1,212,206 vote victory.

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Conservatives Preparing for Franken Victory
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on December 31, 2008 at 6:40 AM.

As the window closes on Norm Coleman's chances for retaining his seat in the Senate, some conservatives are beginning to envision life without the Minnesota Republican.

In a filing on the conservative website, NewsMax.com, author David A. Patten looked at the numbers and saw in them a Coleman-less Senate.

The counting of improperly rejected absentee ballots will probably increase Democratic challenger Al Franken's lead over incumbent GOP Sen. Norm Coleman according to a new analysis of voting trends, effectively relegating Coleman to filing lawsuits considered unlikely to reverse the outcome of the election.

Others on the right are not ready to accept defeat. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair John Cornyn released a statement on Tuesday indicating that some GOP senators would resist seating Franken before the courts have their say, even if the Democratic challenger is declared the winner of the recount. "I expect the Senate would have a problem seating a candidate who has not duly won an election," Cornyn claimed.

In private, meanwhile, GOP officials have begun to contemplate Al Franken -- whose lead stands at a scant 50 votes and with largely favorable absentee ballots left to count -- ending up in Washington D.C.

By and large, such discussion has not surfaced in public. Coleman's hopes hinge on uncovering enough wrongfully rejected absentee ballots to overcome his current deficit but also the possibility of legally challenging the results.

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Coleman Threatens to Derail Recount, Secretary of State Expects Resolution
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on December 30, 2008 at 6:35 AM.

Entering the final stages of the Minnesota recount process, Sen. Norm Coleman has made some dramatic moves meant to improve his long-shot chances. In the process, the Republican Senator is threatening the conclusion of the election.

On Monday, the Minnesota Republican identified a scant 136 wrongfully rejected absentee ballots (out of 1,346) that he wanted to be counted in the final tally. In addition, Coleman proposed to add 700 contested absentee ballots for review (Al Franken proposed adding 85), suggesting that he is more interested in reclaiming the lead rather than operating in good faith. Since resolution of the absentee-ballot issue is dependent on both campaigns and local officials agreeing on which votes should be reconsidered, Coleman's actions threaten to derail the delicate path on which the recount process had set.

As the Associated Press reported on Monday, "Coleman's proposed additions skew heavily toward suburban and rural counties, where he did best in the election."

And yet, as suspicious as the moves seem on the surface, local officials kept a calm veneer. Reached by phone, Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie tried to assuage concerns that Coleman's actions would endanger any short-term consensus on a Senate winner. Stating, simply, that he expected both campaigns to be "amenable" during this stage of the recount, Ritchie described the Coleman campaign's move on Monday as just another step in a meticulous process of declaring a final vote official.

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Trying to Read the Tea Leaves: A Look at Filling Clinton's NY Senate Seat
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on December 27, 2008 at 4:14 AM.

Gov. David Paterson, the keyholder to the coveted Senate seat in New York, returned on Christmas Eve from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan with a potential filler of that vacancy.

Rep. Steve Israel accompanied Paterson and fellow Rep. Anthony Weiner at a press conference in the halls of LaGuardia Airport on Wednesday. The topic was the trio's trip to the two war zones -- an educational and important venture, Paterson said, that was appropriate for the holiday season.

But Israel's three-day-long private audience with the governor has spurred speculation that he could eventually be asked to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate. As has news that the Long Island congressman hired a former Clinton aide to assist him in winning Paterson's support.

The Senate vacancy was addressed during the question-and-answer session in the airport terminal, much to Paterson's chagrin. The governor insisted that he and Israel did not talk about the seat while on the trip.

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Potential Franken Victory Sends GOP into Paranoid Fits
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on December 25, 2008 at 12:19 PM.

The possible, perhaps, impending victory of Al Franken to the Senate has sent GOP officials into a paranoid tizzy.

In an "urgent message" to supporters, the Republican National Lawyer Association accuses Franken and his "liberal allies" of "working feverishingly [sic] to steal the Minnesota Senate election."

"As you may know, the precinct recount phase of the Minnesota Senate race was won by Sen. Norm Coleman on Election Day," reads the petition, signed by the group's executive director, Michael Thielen. "But Al Franken still won't concede. Instead, Franken raised millions of dollars from liberals in New York and Hollywood to fight a "legal" battle to undo the will of the voters. He even got the Minnesota Supreme Court to order canvassing boards to consider about 1600 previously rejected and questionable ballots. Now, Republican Norm Coleman has until December 31st to fight against Franken's liberal legal team to keep his Senate seat. RNLA and Norm Coleman are fighting for every vote -- literally!"

From there, the RNLA asks readers to donate money so that it can uphold the sanctity of the Minnesota election and prevent Franken from "stealing" the Senate seat.

For those following the recount closely, the letter is filled with a variety of obvious misinterpretations and inaccuracies. For instance, the RNLA gives the impression that during the canvassing process, officials "found errors favoring Franken so incredibly statistically improbable that statisticians are questioning the officials in these counties." It's not clear which statisticians the RNLA is referring to. But a study done by a Dartmouth professor actually predicted the very gains made by Franken.

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Gates Is Making it Hard for Obama to Staff the Pentagon
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on December 24, 2008 at 5:25 AM.

President-elect Barack Obama has run into some difficulty staffing the top rungs at the Department of Defense, with the expected short tenure of Secretary Robert Gates creating a problem for potential candidates, officials within the transition and in the defense community said.

The delay has created a rare speed bump in an otherwise historically fast-paced transition effort.

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton and the president-elect had settled on two deputy secretaries of state to serve under the former first lady. Jim Steinberg, a seasoned foreign policy hand who worked in the Clinton administration and was an adviser to Obama during the general election, will presumably play the role of policy hand. Jacob Lew, Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Bill Clinton, will help secure and structure Foggy Bottom's budget.

At the Pentagon, however, officials said there has been some difficulty in staffing the deputy spot under current Secretary Gates. The problem is that Gates' time at the Pentagon is likely to be short-term, and the perception is that the deputy slot will not be a placeholder for Gates' successor, but rather a temporary slot that will turn over when Gates leaves his position.

Uncertainty about the future construct of the Pentagon is causing pause among potential deputies and undersecretaries. And the desire to offer the new Defense Secretary a clean break from the Gates tenure is persuading Obama to hold off on putting a likely future secretary in the deputy slot.

"There have been some problems," said a source close to these discussions. "Because, again, how long is Gates going to stay. It is up in the air... I think everybody feels Gates will be there about a year. And that makes it awkward. How much say will Gates have in staffing?"

"I am concerned," the source added. "I understand the reason for keeping Gates and for the need for continuity for Iraq and Afghanistan. On the other hand, I would say if he wants to sign up, he should stay for the whole tour."

The early rumor mill held that Richard Danzig, Secretary of the Navy under President Clinton, would serve as deputy under Gates. But that talk has fizzled a bit as time progressed -- suggesting that Danzig may simply take over the Pentagon once Gates goes.

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Al Franken Projected to Win Minnesota's Senate Seat
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on December 18, 2008 at 5:02 PM.

Democratic challenger Al Franken finds himself on the cusp of winning a seat in the United States Senate after Minnesota's canvassing board awarded him a host of challenged votes during deliberations on Thursday.

As of 8PM ET, the Minneapolis Star Tribune projected that Franken would finish the recount process with a lead of 89 votes, positioning him to become the 59th Democratic senator in the upcoming Congress.

According to local paper tallies, Franken currently trails Sen. Norm Coleman by a mere five votes, down from the 358-vote margin that the Republican held just last night. The Associated Press had the count even closer, with Coleman ahead by two votes.

The gains came as the canvassing board sifted through hundreds of ballots that Coleman had contested during the recount process. On Friday, the canvassing board will consider another 400 or so Coleman challenges. If the pattern remains consistent, Franken should vault past his opponent to a projected lead of approximately 89 votes, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The process by which the Senate race has come to this stage is often confusing. Coleman held an approximately 200-vote lead after the state went through a hand recount of all ballots. However, there remained approximately 1,500 ballots that one or the other campaign contested (and temporarily removed from the overall vote tally). Coleman challenged about 1,000 of these, Franken the rest.

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Rick Warren, Obama's Invocation Choice, Causing Real Rift With Progressives
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on December 18, 2008 at 5:36 AM.

Ever since Barack Obama was elected president, the media has been pining to write a story about liberal dissatisfaction with his transition efforts. By and large, the meme has been blown out of proportion, as the press overestimated how divisive Obama's cabinet choices were for progressives.

The press may now have its conflict moment. And it comes in the form of the spiritual leader chosen to launch Obama's inauguration.

On Wednesday, the transition team and Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced that Rick Warren, pastor of the powerful Saddleback Church, would give the invocation on January 20th. The selection may not have been incredibly surprising. Obama and Warren are reportedly close -- Obama praised the Megachurch leader in his second book "The Audacity of Hope." Warren, meanwhile, hosted a values forum between Obama and McCain during the general election. Nevertheless, the announcement is being greeted with deep skepticism in progressive religious and political circles.

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Is Caroline Kennedy Winning Over Skeptics?
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on December 17, 2008 at 5:02 AM.

When Caroline Kennedy first let it be known that she was interested in being New York's junior Senator, she received a chilly reception from Hillary Clinton backers and some members of the progressive community. Now, it seems, the tide of popular opinion is turning towards the former first daughter and Barack Obama confidante.

Several prominent voices have lent their support to her political aspirations, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Meanwhile, Clinton herself has let it be known that her supporters should do nothing to impede Kennedy. Already, members of the Clinton rank-and-file are sounding that very tune.

"[Hillary] has been a mensch about the message of reconciliation to the hardcore friends and supporters of her," said Lanny Davis, one of Clinton's most ardent supporters. "I think what she did today is a big, big signal to everyone ... [Caroline] is certainly capable of being a great Senator. And, having said that, she wasn't the only one who disappointed me by endorsing Barack Obama, I had to deal with my own son."

Davis' remarks typify the type of emotional and political hurdles that Kennedy has had to face in her efforts to secure the seat once held by her uncle Bobby. In the past few days, prominent Clinton supporters, including Rep. Anthony Weiner and fundraiser Robert Zimmerman, have criticized her candidacy. Moreover, a growing number of progressives have wondered aloud what type of qualifications she would bring to the post. Surely, they say, there are other New York Democrats with sharper political ids and fatter resumes.

Cognizant of such skepticism, Kennedy's staff in New York has launched what is being dubbed the "whispering campaign" (contrasted to the listening variety), strategically reaching out to key constituencies.

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Franken Wins Major Recount Victory; More Allegations Against Coleman Revealed
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on December 12, 2008 at 12:09 PM.

Franken Wins Major Victory Over Rejected Absentee Ballots

Al Franken received a potentially major boost towards his hopes of becoming Senator on Friday, when Minnesota state officials ruled that absentee ballots rejected because of clerical or administrative errors should, in the end, be counted.

The decision by the state canvassing board -- which was unanimous -- is, essentially, an official request for county officials to go back and count the wrongfully rejected absentee votes. This process has already begun in many counties and could portend sizeable gains for Franken.

The Democratic challenger has spent the past few weeks demanding that the state review the approximately 1,500 absentee ballots that they contend were unlawfully dismissed. Many of these votes have come from traditionally Democratic locales where, for one reason or another, voters are more likely to make clerical errors when completing their ballots.

The state has set December 19th as the end date for the sorting and counting of this absentee ballot pool (hardly a restrictive time frame for completing the task). The Coleman campaign retains the right to appeal the decision to a district or state court.

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Bold Words: Democrats Are Going After Blagojevich
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on December 10, 2008 at 4:29 PM.

Senator Harry Reid is drawing a fairly bold line in the political sand in regard to the ethical missteps surrounding Rod Blagojevich.

On Wednesday, the Majority Leader and Sen. Dick Durbin drafted a letter -- which they subsequently urged their Democratic colleagues to sign -- that calls on the Illinois Governor to not just remove himself from office but to "under no circumstance" make a last-minute appointment to fill Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.

Should Blagojevich disregard these warnings, Reid and Durbin write, the Senate would "be forced to exercise our Constitutional authority under Article I, Section 5, to determine whether such a person should be seated."

The letter, obtained by the Huffington Post, was sent around to Democratic offices this afternoon. And it leaves very little wiggle room for potential signatories -- you either think Blagojevich should be gone or you don't.

"We write to insist that you step down as Governor of Illinois and under no circumstance make an appointment to fill the vacant Illinois Senate seat," the letter reads. "In light of your arrest yesterday on alleged federal corruption charges related to that Senate seat, any appointment by you would raise serious questions."

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Franken-Coleman Update: FBI Investigating Coleman? Race Decided By Friday?
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on December 10, 2008 at 8:18 AM.

The Minnesota Senate recount election will make a giant step towards a conclusion on Friday, when the state's canvassing board meets to determine the fate of improperly dismissed absentee ballots.

On Tuesday, Al Franken's chief counsel traveled to Washington D.C. to brief reporters on the current status of the election. He deliberately did not close the window on legal action if unlawfully rejected absentee voters were not counted.

"We purposely made a point not to appeal. We wanted to let this canvassing board have an opportunity to figure out where it wanted to go with these uncounted absentee ballots... we will await the hearing on Friday," said Mark Elias. But "if voters in Minnesota are disenfranchised, all options will be on the table. We will not walk away from hundreds, if not thousands votes that did not get counted because of administrative errors."

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The Damage Rod Blagojevich's Arrest Could Do
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on December 9, 2008 at 4:17 PM.

The arrest this morning of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has sparked intense discussion in the political universe over how great a taint his ethical follies will have both on the next Illinois Senator and Barack Obama.

The governor, accused of seeking cash for the political appointment of Obama's Senate replacement, is not a close associate of the President-elect. Indeed, in the affidavit, Blagojevich called Obama a "motherfucker" for wanting him to appoint an official that the governor either did not like or wouldn't receive money from. Local news reports, meanwhile, suggest that it was Obama chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel who blew the whistle on the governor.

But the fact that Blagojevich put, in essence, a for-sale sign on Obama's Senate seat -- and some of the lengths he went to in order to extract financial benefit from the process -- could create for long-term damage for the Democratic Party and, by extension the President-elect.

This is "a new low," said U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, discussing the arrest on Tuesday. "The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave."

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Obama's Afghanistan Dilemma: 'Growing Dissent' on More Troops
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on December 9, 2008 at 6:55 AM.

No more than one year ago, it was widely assumed that the great foreign policy challenge facing the next president would be what to do with U.S. troops in Iraq. The surge had produced a unexpected geopolitical dilemma: was the reduction of violence enough for American forces to leave, or simply affirmation that a sizable U.S. military presence was necessary?

That question, however, has largely been solved -- taken off the political shelf by the signing of a Status of Forces Agreement between the United States and Iraq. And now, somewhat remarkably, the foreign policy issue being hotly debated is one where there was once seemingly wide consensus.

Afghanistan, the so-called 'good war,' was and remains a dangerous theater. During the closing months of the presidential campaign it was taken as gospel that America needed to send more troops there. Even John McCain, initially skittish on the notion, came to argue that a greater U.S. military buildup was needed.

And yet, over the last few weeks, the progressive community that once pleaded for greater resources and attention to Afghanistan has begun to raise concerns about the idea that additional forces could change that country's increasingly dire situation.

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