Thank goodness for Talking Points Memo who provides my daily dose of the Minnesota Senatorial election legal opera (also known as  Gotterdammerung for the GOP) between Al Franken (who may be ahead by some 220 votes) and Norm Coleman (whose courtroom antics look like 6th grade hissy fits). Unlike the Florida 2000 spectacle we know so well, the good folks of Minnesota don't do spectacle no matter how much Coleman's camp (that includes Florida 2000 alumnus Ben Ginsberg) would to turn it into a circus or a violation of constitutional rights on a cosmic scale.  In the latest installment, the Minnesota election court rejected "the testimony of a key witness involved in Coleman's claim that absentee ballots had been double-counted." Not sure what that means for a final resolution of this never-ending saga (almost four months and counting) but it's another step to...well, somewhere.

Obama-Iraq:  With President Obama set to announce more details for his get out of Iraq plan tomorrow at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, it's worth mentioning that I just finished The Forever War by New York Times foreign correspondent Dexter Filkins (see one of the better reviews here.) It is unflinching, unsentimental, powerful and a reporter's journal of uncommon depth -- and shows, not intentionally because this isn't a partisan screed, that for the most part, America is out of her depth in the Middle East cauldron. And the learning curve to come won't be any more forgiving.