Go read Nate Silver taking the WSJ editorial board to task over their claims regarding Minnesota’s “illegitimate” senator:

The Wall Street Journal is bar none one of the best newspapers in the country — except when its Editorial Board is having a bad day. And today the Board is having a very bad day, having published an editorial that declares Al Franken’s provisional win in Minnesota, which the state just certified moments ago, to be illegitimate, while accusing Minnesota’s Canvassing Board of being inconsistent and biased in favor of Franken.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with taking such a position. The Journal’s editorial, however, has several basic facts wrong, makes several other assertions based on flimsy or nonexistent evidence, and generally has little understanding of the process that has taken place to date.

People who are bad at their jobs shouldn’t be allowed to continue unabated.

Al Franken appears to have come out of challenge-ville with a slim lead:

The Star Tribune reports that Al Franken holds a 48-vote lead over Norm Coleman, with thousands of withdrawn challenges having been added back in to the respective candidates’ totals. This number would be roughly in accordance with the 35-50 vote lead projected by the Franken campaign.

Coleman is pretty screwed here.  He doesn’t have a whole lot going for him, and his only real possibilities for gains will be from rejected absentee ballots and possible reduction in Franken votes due to alleged duplicate ballots.  Both avenues appear extremely unlikely to net him enough votes.

Let’s stop and give a hand to the Minnesota State Board of Elections and the Minnesota Secretary of State.  This recount has been handled fairly well, given the circumstances, and things will likely be resolved in a decent manner.  Also, I think Minnesota has set the standard for transparency during a recount process, by posting vote totals and procedures online, as well as displaying the review boards decisions live on flat panel TV’s.  Also, the Minnesota Star Tribune has been indispensable during the process, providing all challenged ballots online for your perusal.

So, I say: Good job, Minnesota. (Even if FoxNews doesn’t think so…)