And a new twist that could throw an enormous wrench into tomorrow's works!
By Brad Friedman on 1/5/2005, 5:13pm PT  

We will have further details on all of the following later this evening, including some firsthand accounts of the crazy day today on Capitol Hill in and out of loads of Senate offices...

For the moment, however, three quick hits...

  • AP reports on the House Judiciary's 102 page report on everything that went wrong in Ohio, called "Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio?"

    The AP article is right here.

    The report itself, with executive summary, is right here [PDF].

  • 24 House Democrats have sent a three-page letter to leaders of both parties and in both houses urging them to challenge the Electoral votes. The Representatives who signed it are John Conyers, Jr, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Jim McDermott, Maxine Waters, Lynn Woolsey, Bernard Sanders, Eleanor H. Norton, Sam Farr, Chaka Fattah, Donald Payne, Anthony Weiner, Diane Watson, Barbara Lee, Elijah Cummings, Robert Wexler, Juanita Millender-McDonald, José E. Serrano, Major Owens, Danny K. Davis, Dennis J. Kucinich, Sheila Jackson Lee, William Clay, Jr. and Barney Frank.

    The letter is right here.

  • Finally, and were it not from Keith Olbermann --- who regular BRAD BLOG readers will recognize to be an exceptionally sloppy "journalist" --- we might have said "most notably" and added a siren to this item, Olbermann reports on his blog that "it appeared all but certain in early evening Wednesday that House Democrats had secured the support of up to half a dozen Senators to formally challenge the Electoral College slate from Ohio".

    He also mentions an interesting twist that we hadn't thought of before concerning the fact that a quorum may not be present tomorrow to debate such a challenge should at least one House Member and one Senate Member sign on to the challenge.

    That thought, actually, puts another in our head: While it's assumed that any such challenge would ultimately be rejected by the House and Senate after debate, that assumption is based on the fact that Democrats are outnumbered in both houses. However, that "conventional wisdom" could be turned on its head if a quorum does exist to allow both debate and vote on any such challenge, but if Democratic members outnumber Republicans at tomorrow's session...well...there could be a few surprises waiting...

    Olbermann's report is right here.

  • MORE LATER THIS EVENING...

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