Schultz criticized Franken while talking with his producer James Holm about President Obama making another campaign trip to Minnesota (audio) –

SCHULTZ: Well, he’s got to make up for Al Franken, that’s what he’s got to do, because Al Franken is at odds with the Communication (sic) Workers of America and Al Franken voted to extend the Bush tax cuts. So I guess he’s going to mop up for Al!
HOLM: Maybe …
SCHULTZ: Al who doesn’t do media. This guy is the most inept senator I have ever seen in my life. I don’t care if you liked him as a talk show host or not. I’m in the tell it like it is business. What is with this guy?! What’s this strategy he has?

HOLM: I don’t know.

Franken suffered another embarrassing moment Wednesday morning when he mistakenly recognized Sen. Tom Udall as the “senator from Utah.”

Udall quickly corrected Franken by noting that he’s from New Mexico.

“Oh, God,” Franken boomed into his microphone. “I’m sorry.”

“The senator from New Mexico,” Franken said, emphasizing “New Mexico” to make up for his mistake.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76Q8hht7w8c

The final recount vote in the race, determined six months after Election Day, showed Franken beat Coleman by 312 votes — fewer votes than the number of felons whose illegal ballots were counted, according to Minnesota Majority’s newly released study, which matched publicly available conviction lists with voting records.

Furthermore, the report charges that efforts to get state and federal authorities to act on its findings have been “stonewalled.”

He said his group was largely ignored when it turned over a list of hundreds of names to prosecutors in two of the state’s largest counties, Ramsey and Hennepin, where fraud seemed to be the greatest.

A spokesman for both county attorneys’ offices belittled the information, saying it was “just plain wrong” and full of errors, which prompted the group to go back and start an in-depth look at the records.

“What we did this time is irrefutable,” McGrath said. “We took the voting lists and matched them with conviction lists and then went back to the records and found the roster lists, where voters sign in before walking to the voting booth, and matched them by hand.

“The only way we can be wrong is if someone with the same first, middle and last names, same year of birth as the felon, and living in the same community, has voted. And that isn’t very likely.”

The report said that in Hennepin County, which in includes Minneapolis, 899 suspected felons had been matched on the county’s voting records, and the review showed 289 voters were conclusively matched to felon records. The report says only three people in the county have been charged with voter fraud so far.

A representative of the Hennepin County attorney’s office, who declined to give her name, said “there was no one in the office today to talk about the charges.”

But the report got a far different review in Ramsey County, which contains St. Paul. Phil Carruthers of the Ramsey County attorney’s office said his agency had taken the charges “very seriously” and found that the Minnesota Majority “had done a good job in their review.”

The report says that in Ramsey, 460 names on voting records were matched with felon lists, and a further review found 52 were conclusive matches.

Carruthers attributed differences in the numbers to Minnesota Majority’s lack of access to nonpublic information, such as exact birth dates and other court records. For example, he said, “public records might show a felon was given 10 years probation, but internal records the county attorney has might show that the probation period was cut to five and the felon was eligible to vote.”

Carruthers said Ramsey County is still investigating all the names and has asked that 15 investigators be hired to complete the process. “So far we have charged 28 people with felonies, have 17 more under review and have 182 cases still open,” he said. “And there is a good chance we may match or even exceed their numbers.”

McGrath says the report shows that more still has to be done.

“Prosecutors have to act more swiftly in prosecuting cases from the 2008 election to deter fraud in the future,” he said, “and the state has to make sure that existing system, that flags convicted felons so voting officials can challenge them at the ballot, is effective. In 90 percent of the cases we looked at, the felons weren’t flagged.”

“We aren’t trying to change the result of the last election. That legally can’t be done,” said Dan McGrath, Minnesota Majority’s executive director. “We are just trying to make sure the integrity of the next election isn’t compromised.”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVyuB-cy_wY

The sources said Franken was the most outspoken senator in the meeting, which followed President Barack Obama’s question-and-answer session with Senate Democrats at the Newseum on Wednesday. But they also said the Minnesotan wasn’t the only angry Democrat in the room.

“There was a lot of frustration in there,” said a Democratic senator who declined to be identified.

“People were hot,” another Democratic senator said.

Democratic senators are frustrated that the White House hasn’t done more to win over the public on health care reform and other aspects of its ambitious agenda — and angry that, in the wake of Scott Brown’s win in the Massachusetts Senate race, the White House hasn’t done more to chart a course for getting a health care bill to the president’s desk.

In his public session with the senators Wednesday, Obama urged them to “finish the job” on health care but did not lay out a path for doing so. That uncertainty appeared to trigger Franken’s anger, and the sources in the room said he laid out his concerns much more directly than any senator did in the earlier public session.

The private session was set up in a panel format, with Axelrod joined at the front of the room by Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine and Democratic strategist Paul Begala.

A Democratic source said that Franken directed his criticism solely at Axelrod.

The high court rejected a legal challenge from Republican Norm Coleman, whose options for regaining the Senate seat are dwindling.

Justices said Franken is entitled to the election certificate he needs to assume office. When Franken is sworn in, he’ll give Democrats a big enough majority to overcome Republican filibusters.

Coleman hasn’t ruled out seeking federal court intervention.

Stuart Smalley is now a US Senator! God help us!

Q. Joe, are you done?

A. Yes, I’m done.

Q. Let me ask you in a different way. Is Norm done?

A. Well, I think that we have been trying this case with the appeal record in mind, and that’s where we’re going, and it’s going to be a very quick appeal, and then I will know whether or not it worked.

Q. Well, when you say quick appeal, are you confident that you are going to lose the case in front of the three-judge panel? By losing the case, I mean Norm ends up with less votes.

A. I think that’s probably correct that Franken will still be ahead and probably by a little bit more. But our whole argument was that it was a constitutional argument, and it’s an argument suitable for the Minnesota Supreme Court, not for the trial court. So we will see whether we were right or not.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – The Minnesota Supreme Court has rejected Democrat Al Franken’s petition for an election certificate that would put him in the U.S. Senate without waiting for a lawsuit to be resolved.

Franken is ahead of Republican Norm Coleman by 225 votes. Coleman’s ongoing lawsuit argues some uncounted absentee ballots were wrongly rejected.

Franken sued to force Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to sign an election certificate. Franken argued that federal law required it.

But the state Supreme Court disagreed. In their ruling Friday, the justices said states aren’t required to issue such certificates by the date that Congress convenes.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)—Attorneys for Norm Coleman are arguing that their legal case is still valid and that about 1,725 rejected absentee ballots should be opened and counted.

The court papers filed Friday respond to an effort by Al Franken’s attorneys to dismiss Coleman’s lawsuit challenging the Minnesota Senate recount.

Franken’s attorneys argue Coleman has failed to meet his burden of proof that in the case. He is trying to overcome Franken’s 225-vote lead.

Coleman’s attorneys say documents and testimony show the court should count certain votes.