LIGHTNING ROUND: BRINGING OUT THE BIG GUNS.

• While the rest of the Beltway chatters about the 60th Democrat in the Senate, the immediate significance of Al Franken going to Washington is his appointment to the Senate Judiciary and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committees, which will soon produce, respectively, hearings for Sonia Sotomayor, heath care reform legislation, and debate on EFCA. Meanwhile, RNC Chair Michael Steele should try to find the silver lining like his NRSC counterpart John Cornyn, instead of murmuring about being "deeply disappointed in the decision made by the state Supreme Court." Finally, if you're unconvinced that Franken won simply because he won more votes, this Politico piece helpfully explains "why Norm Coleman lost."
• I think it's a good idea for the administration to dispatch VP Joe Biden to Iraq to act as an "unofficial envoy" during the draw-down of U.S. forces in the country. But this illustrates just how poorly conceived the office of Vice President is in the first place. At best, the office can be malleable for situations like Iraq. At worst, you get a Cheney shadow government in the absence of a strong executive. It's a pretty major flaw in Article II's conception of the executive branch.
• It isn't exactly news that the John Roberts-led Supreme Court has been steadily drifting rightward, but these two stories in the Times and Post illustrate this reality nicely. The more troubling concern is that even if Barack Obama is in office for two full terms and likely gets three chances at appointment, there still won't be an opportunity to reverse the conservative drift of the Court until after 2016.
• You'd think that Sen. Joe Lieberman would want to play ball with the administration as it pursues health care reform, considering Obama personally aided Lieberman's return to Democratic respectability. Truth is he's always been against a public option in health care, claiming otherwise when there's an election to win, and constantly making sacrifices on the alter of bipartisanship. If only the public agreed with Dr. Joe...
• Remainders: House Republicans have had enough of Michele Bachmann's census shenanigans; National Security Adviser James Jones opens up for Bob Woodward's book on the Obama White House; and Dave Weigel profiles the "sovereignty caucus."

--Mori Dinauer