The 2008 Minnesota Senate Race Is Starting to Look a Whole Lot Like Florida in 2000

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Fraud Alert

There are worries about what's up in that Minnesota Senate race where Republican incumbent Norm Coleman was ahead of Democrat Al Franken by 725 votes the morning after the election.

But Franken has narrowed the gap to about 200 even though a recount is not yet underway. That is because election officials are correcting supposed typos in how the numbers were reported. Those corrections have added 435 votes to Franken while taking away 69 from Coleman, and virtually all of Franken's new votes came from just three of the more than 4,100 precincts.

The campaigns are also negotiating ballot security standards after an unsuccessful challenge by Coleman to halt the counting of 32 absentee ballots that were supposedly left for days in the trunk of an election official's car.

Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty says, "These changes seem to disproportionally — overwhelmingly favor Al Franken."

Panic Attack?

There are signs the same kind of derangement syndrome liberals exhibited over George W. Bush and Sarah Palin may now be afflicting some conservatives over Barack Obama.

Georgia Republican Congressman Paul Broun says he fears President-elect Obama could establish a Marxist dictatorship. Broun said in an interview Monday, "It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but... he's the one who proposed this national security force."

Broun is referring to a July speech by Mr. Obama in which he called for a civilian force to relieve the military of some of its national security burden, but as former Bush aide Pete Wehner points out, such a force is already being created, called the Citizen Corps under the Department of Homeland Security.

But Broun says, "That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did... he's showing me signs of being Marxist... you have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany."

Making Changes

The specifics of President-elect Obama’s agenda are no longer available on his transition Web site. Promises on how Mr. Obama will handle 25 issues ranging from Iraq and immigration to taxes and urban policy are gone from Change.gov.

What is left is a vague paragraph about a plan "to revive the economy, to fix our health care, education, and social security systems, to define a clear path to energy independence, to end the war in Iraq responsibly and finish our mission in Afghanistan, and to work with our allies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, among many other domestic and foreign policy objectives."

Mr. Obama's detailed agenda is still available on his campaign Web site, but when asked about Change.gov, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said, "We are retooling the entire Change.gov Web site."

Better Late Than Never

Three years behind schedule and almost $360 million over budget, the Capitol Visitor Center will finally open its doors next month. It is the largest single construction project in the Capitol building's 200-year history in both size and expense.

The final cost is $621 million — more than double the $265 million estimate for its original completion date of December 2005. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in 2000.

There has been grumbling from some lawmakers about delays and rising costs. Following the September 11 attacks, Congress decided to add a pair of tunnels — one for truck deliveries and another as an escape route.

— FOX News Channel's Zachary Kenworthy contributed to this report.