With the recount now complete, absentee ballots have pushed Franken to a 225 vote lead over Norm Coleman, making Franken's eventual victory now appear all but certain.

Israeli troops enter Gaza.

From Iyad Allawi, courtesy of Reuters ...

Former U.S.-installed Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has denounced the policies of President George W. Bush as an "utter failure" that gave rise to the sectarian venom that ravaged his country.

In an interview published on Saturday in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Allawi found fault with American management of Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 as well as the government of present Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

...

"Yes, Bush's policies failed utterly," said Allawi, describing the U.S. administration that once backed him. "Utter failure. Failure of U.S. domestic and foreign policy, including fighting terrorism and economic policy."

"His insistence on names like 'democracy' and 'open elections', without giving attention to political stability, was a big mistake. It cast shadows on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Egypt, and I believe this will be remembered in history as President Bush's policy," he said.

As I said above, I certainly won't disagree. But let's not forget that Allawi connived with Bush for some time when Bush had power. In addition to being more or less accurate, Allawi's judgment is a telling sign of what it means to have power -- both in the deep sense and in the more immediate sense of controlling violence -- and what it means to lose it. President Bush had none of the power rooted in respect, judgment and persuasion. He won two elections and he controlled an army. Now he has nothing.

About 950 more ballots will be counted today (and possibly tomorrow) in the Minnesota Senate race, as Norm Coleman's six-year term officially expires. That and other political news in today's Election Central Saturday Roundup.

Interesting article by McClatchy's Warren Strobel on the possibility of an international force in Gaza as the basis of a new ceasefire. Part of the equation might be having Fatah reassume control not over Gaza itself but over the border crossings into Gaza.

Political self-interest being what it is, I'm not really sure what the calculus was by which the Franken and Coleman campaigns came to agreement on these absentee ballots.

From Bloomberg ...

U.S. regulators working to untangle Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme are probing other money managers suspected of using similar tactics, two people with knowledge of the inquiries said.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is pursuing at least one case in which investors may have been cheated out of as much as $1 billion, according to one person, who declined to name the manager and asked not to be identified because the probe isn't public.

Last Fall PIMCO chief Bill Gross was on the airwaves raising the alarm bell about how the backlog of toxic mortgage-backed securities were on the brink of crushing the US economy. And he certainly had some unique insight into the problem since over 60% of his firm's $830 billion in holdings were made up of those mortgage-backed securities. At the time, Gross was on the airwaves (on CNBC in particular) pledging that just out of a sense of patriotic duty he'd be willing to have his firm manage the government bail-out (i.e., government purchase of the crap CDOs) for free. Just for the sake of patriotism.

So now that his firm is one of the four that got a contract to run the program from the Fed, is he following through on the pledge? Doesn't seem like it. So far we've gotten through to three of the four firms, each of which has declined to comment on the fees the four companies are making for administering the program. PIMCO is the only one that hasn't responded at all. So it's seeming like the patriotic do-it-for-free plan hasn't panned out.

As Josh mentioned earlier in the week, the Fed has brought in -- with next to no transparency -- four firms to dispose of the $500 billion of toxic mortgage-backed securities the Fed has purchased as part of one of its bailout programs (separate and apart from the Treasury Department's TARP program).

So how much are these guys making under their contracts with the Fed? We called around and all of them declined to say.

We're still waiting to hear back from the Fed itself.

Republicans now accusing Obama of palling around with Democrats.

It's always a bittersweet moment. One of our vets, who did amazing work for us over more than two years, Greg Sargent, is moving on. Here's Greg's farewell post. He'll be missed and we were honored to have him.

From the Post:

The handover of the Green Zone from U.S. to Iraqi control Thursday presented such a powerful symbol of the waning American presence in Iraq that it would have been nearly impossible for both sides not to mark it with a formal ceremony.

They did, but the ceremony wasn't much. A podium was set up in the middle of a dirty street. Five small balloons and some tinsel decorated a seating area. The American ambassador and the top commander of U.S. troops didn't show up. Neither did Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Maliki instead attended an unannounced event where he watched what might have been one of the most stirring signs of the new Iraq: the raising of the Iraqi flag over what just a day earlier had been the U.S. Embassy. The decision to keep reporters away from this ceremony hinted at the unease and uncertainty both sides feel about the transition.

Almost goes without saying (but it shouldn't) that the transfer is largely a formality and U.S. troops are still providing security in and around the Green Zone.

Like many others, I've been saying this for years. So I'm surprised to be surprised. But the journalistic establishment in Washington, whether it's the Post or the Politico or much of the rest of the journalistic apparatus in the city, is essentially Republican in character -- not necessarily in terms of individual voting habits, though you'd be surprised, but in fundamental outlook about whose opinions matter and how government functions, which is what really counts. And you can see that resurfacing with increasing clarity just in that last week.

I was hoping it wouldn't be too long before the real nonsense kicked in. And it seems my prayers have been answered. According to this story in today's Post, some right-wingers think some of Obama's advisors are too liberal. Imagine that ...

Obama's Team Rankles the Right

To Some Conservatives, Advisers Are Alarmingly Liberal

To some staunch conservatives watching President Bush relinquish the reins of power to President-elect Barack Obama, a few too many ardent liberals are now crashing the gates.

Some well-known Democratic activists are advising Obama on how to steer federal agencies, including a few whom conservative Republicans fought hard to keep out of power in the Clinton administration. They include Roberta Achtenberg, a gay activist whose confirmation as an assistant housing secretary was famously held up by then-Sen. Jesse Helms (N.C.), and Bill Lann Lee, who was hotly opposed by foes of affirmative action and temporarily blocked from the government's top civil rights job.

Conservatives fear that some of these Obama transition advisers are too far left on the political spectrum and are a sign of radical policies to come.

Obama reportedly to meet with Congressional leaders on the stimulus package after he arrives in Washington on Monday. That and the day's other political and transition news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.

Noam Scheiber asks whether, in an effort to attract substantial Republican support, Obama is aiming for too low a dollar amount ($675-$775 billion over 24 months) in his upcoming fiscal stimulus package.

I'm torn on this. As Noam points out, that looks to be a starting point at the low end of what most economists think is necessary, leaving treacherously little safe room to negotiate down. And everything about our recent history and current predicament tells me we have to be bold and aggressive, on policy and politics. But I've always had a weakness for One Nation politics; so I'm not willing to discount the possibility that Obama reshuffle the deck politically, operate under a different calculus.

Former Rhode Island Sen. Claiborne Pell dies at 90.

Obama is very popular. Therefore he's Britney Spears.