The recount of Minnesota's Senate race between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, left, and Democrat Al Franken will stretch into next year.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) – Attorneys with Norm Coleman's Senate campaign on New Year's Eve are again asking Minnesota's high court on the issue of improperly rejected absentee ballots in the state's still unresolved race between the Republican incumbent and Democrat Al Franken.

The court ruled earlier this month that both campaigns and local election officials must agree on the ballots that were improperly rejected before the canvassing board can open and count them. Ballots that are rejected improperly are typically the result of clerical error.

Local elections officials had identified approximately 1,350 ballots that may have been rejected in error. The Coleman campaign is asking the court to force Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and the state canvassing board to consider not only those but hundreds more that they say they've identified unilaterally.

Ritchie's office said that the process was drawing to a close.

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Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced Roland Burris as his pick for Illinois' open Senate seat on Tuesday.

(CNN) — Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pick of a prominent African-American to succeed Barack Obama in the Senate has led to suggestions that the move is calculated, but the governor says he's just doing his job.

Blagojevich on Tuesday announced he'd appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to replace Obama in the Senate, ignoring warnings from Senate Democrats who say they will block anyone he appoints.

Obama said Tuesday that he agrees with the Senate Democrats' decision to block an appointment by Blagojevich, but it's unclear if the Senate has the right to do so.

FBI agents arrested the governor on December 9 after federal prosecutors alleged, among other things, that he had tried to sell Obama's former Senate seat. Blagojevich denies wrongdoing and has ignored calls to resign.

Blagojevich's announcement left observers asking — whether the governor was playing a game of racial "chicken," daring Senate Democrats to snub a respected African-American.

Conservative radio host Larry Elder said race was clearly a part of Blagojevich's plan.

"What he has done is this: He's chosen a black person and dared the Democratic Senate not to seat him because there would then be no black senators in the Senate whatsoever.

"I'm not saying that the former attorney general isn't a man of integrity and wouldn't otherwise, in his own right, be able to serve competently as a senator.

"But you don't have to be a cynic to understand that race was part of Blagojevich was doing right here," he said.

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2008 didn’t go quite as planned for either Clinton.

(CNN) – Bill and Hillary Clinton will celebrate the end of the year in the heart of a city just as happy as they are to see the tail end of 2008, joining New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to watch the crystal ball drop in Times Square tonight.

The former president and the secretary of state-designate share more with the mayor than an adopted hometown: former Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson has signed on to advise Bloomberg during his re-election bid.

Neither Clinton has ever endorsed Bloomberg, who was often a Wolfson target during past election cycles.

A new poll shows that President-elect Barack Obama is viewed as a strong, confident leader.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A national poll suggests that three-quarters of the public thinks President-elect Barack Obama is a strong and decisive leader, the highest marks for a president-elect on that characteristic in nearly three decades.

Seventy-six percent of Americans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Wednesday said Obama is a strong and decisive leader.

"That's the best number an incoming president has gotten on that dimension since Ronald Reagan took office in 1981," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. "The public's rating of his leadership skills is already as high as George W. Bush's was after 9/11 and easily beats the numbers that both Bush and Bill Clinton got at the start of their first terms in office."

Watch: See how President Bush fared in the latest CNN/ORC poll

Just six in 10 felt that Bush was a strong leader when he took office in 2001. After the attacks of September 11, that number rose to three in four. Sixty-seven percent thought Bill Clinton was a strong leader when he took office in January 1993.

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The Obama family (above: the president-elect with daughters Malia and Sasha) will have a quiet New Year’s celebration as their vacation draws to a close.

(CNN) — President-elect Barack Obama will ring in the New Year quietly at the rental home in Hawaii, according to transition spokesman Ben LaBolt. “The Obama family is staying in Kailua, celebrating with friends,” LaBolt said, referring to he part of the island of Oahu where the family has been staying for nearly two weeks.

The Obamas are planning to move into a DC hotel this weekend.

Vicki Iseman is suing editors and reporters at the New York Times who worked on a story about her and Sen. McCain.

(CNN) — A lobbyist who was romantically linked to Sen. John McCain in a New York Times article has sued the paper for $27 million, saying the story has damaged her career and "sense of personal self-worth."

Vicki Iseman sued the New York Times Company and writers and editors who worked on the front-page story, which she said falsely intimated she had an affair with the senator and used their relationship to gain perks for her clients.

"The damage to Ms. Iseman caused by the story has continued to the present and has not abated," the lawsuit said. "The article destroyed the heart and soul of Ms. Iseman's professional identity and sense of personal self-worth."

The Times issued a statement saying it stands by the story, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The lawsuit charges that The New York Times acted with negligence and malice in publishing the article, having "utterly failed to find evidence supporting their preconceived hypothesis that Sen. McCain and Ms. Iseman had a romantic relationship."

The lengthy report, which ran February 21, said McCain aides became so concerned about the relationship between the two that they blocked her access to the senator during his first campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

The lawsuit details comments that reporters and editors from other media outlets made about the story in which they said the Times implied an inappropriate or romantic relationship.

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CNN=Politics Daily is The Best Political Podcast from The Best Political Team.

(CNN) — Barack Obama won the White House, Sarah Palin appeared on the national political stage, Joe the Plumber stole the campaign spotlight, and sex scandals claimed political careers: just some of the most memorable moments of 2008. What else topped the list of political hits and misses this year? In the latest installment of CNN=Politics Daily, CNN’s Jim Acosta takes a look at the best of 2008, and the blunders.

Plus: A showdown over Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, as embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has defiantly appoints former state attorney general Roland Burris to serve out the remainder of the president-elect’s term, sparking outrage from his own party. CNN’s Ed Lavandera has the latest as the controversy continues to develop.

And: Senate Democrats have threatened to block any selection made by Blagojevich — but can the Senate really refuse to seat the appointee of a duly-elected governor? CNN’s Jim Acosta investigates.

Finally: What is President-elect Barack Obama’s reaction to the fight over his old seat? CNN’s Ed Henry finds out.

Click here to subscribe to CNN=Politics Daily.

Rush spoke at Blagojevich’s press conference revealing the Burris pick.

(CNN) — A day after warning critics of Roland Burris’s Senate appointment not to “hang or lynch” the former Illinois attorney general, Chicago congressman Bobby Rush said Democrats opposing Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s move to fill the open seat risk finding themselves “in the same position” as segregation-era figures Bull Connor and George Wallace.

"You know, the recent history of our nation has shown us that sometimes there could be individuals and there could be situations where schoolchildren — where you have officials standing in the doorway of schoolchildren," Rush told CBS Wednesday morning. "You know, I'm talking about all of us back in 1957 in Little Rock, Ark. I'm talking about George Wallace, Bull Connor and I'm sure that the U.S. Senate don't want to see themselves placed in the same position."

Rush told CNN Tuesday that the lack of African-Americans in the Senate was "a moral outrage" that "should make most fair-minded Americans very, very angry."

Watch: This is a good decision,' says Rush

Congressional Democratic leadership said Tuesday they will oppose seating any candidate appointed by the scandal-scarred Illinois governor to fill the remainder of President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate term.

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Reid and other congressional Democratic leaders have said they will block the seating of any Blagojevich appointment.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democratic leaders are devising a plan to block the appointment of Roland Burris to the Senate for weeks in hopes it will prevent Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich from deciding who fills the seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama, a Senate Democratic leadership aide told CNN Wednesday.

The aide also rebuffed suggestions by constitutional law experts that the Senate cannot block Blagojevich’s appointment of Burris on the basis that “anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois,” as the top five Democrats in the Senate asserted Tuesday in a statement. Blagojevich is facing criminal corruption charges in Illinois.

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Roland Burris said Gov. Rod Blagojevich is innocent until proven guilty.

(CNN) — The man appointed by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat said Wednesday his appointment to the position is legal, despite the charges against the governor.

WATCH: Burris on American Morning

Former Illinois Attorney Gen. Roland Burris said Blagojevich is innocent until proven guilty, even though his behavior "is reprehensible."

"I don't look upon the governor's problems as my problems. I look at the governor's problems as his problems," Burris said.

Blagojevich faces allegations of influence peddling, among other charges.

The governor, a Democrat, on Tuesday named Burris to serve the last two years of Obama's Senate term.

Obama said Tuesday it is disappointing that Blagojevich ignored warnings from Senate Democrats about appointing a successor to his Senate seat.

Senate Democratic leaders have said they will block the appointment and are urging the governor to step down after his arrest on corruption charges — a move Obama endorsed.

"Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat," Obama said in a statement.

"I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Gov. Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it."

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A Chrysler 300C, like the one Obama drove before his campaign.

NEW YORK (Fortune) – One of the least explored personal sides to our new president is the amount of gasoline in his veins. We know all about his affection for the basketball court and his tendency every now and then to sneak out for a cigarette. But we've heard very little about what drove him to acquire one of the least politically-correct cars on the planet: a Chrysler 300C. With its high torque and horsepower, voracious appetite for fuel and gangsta car persona, it is hardly the kind of vehicle you'd expect a consensus-building politician to drive. But those are Obama's wheels.

Or were. During the campaign he sold the 300C in favor of a hybrid Ford Escape, and as president of the United States, he won't be getting into the driver's seat very often – unless he's at a military base or some other secure location where he can let loose. He'll be spending all his time in the back seat of an armor-plated Cadillac.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) — A number of atheists and non-religious organizations want Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony to leave out all references to God and religion.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington, the plaintiffs demand that the words "so help me God" not be added to the end of the president's oath of office.

In addition, the lawsuit objects to plans for ministers to deliver an invocation and a benediction in which they may discuss God and religion.

An advance copy of the lawsuit was posted on a Web site by Michael Newdow, a California doctor and lawyer who has filed similar and unsuccessful suits over inauguration ceremonies in 2001 and 2005.

The new lawsuit says in part, "There can be no purpose for placing 'so help me God' in an oath or sponsoring prayers to God, other than promoting the particular point of view that God exists."

Newdow said references to God during inauguration ceremonies violate the Constitution's ban on the establishment of religion.

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Barack Obama's campaign inspired a huge grassroots movement and broke fundraising records.

(CNN) — From an historic presidential election to a wealth of political scandals, 2008 has been nothing short of extraordinary.

Here's a look back at some of the top political stories of the year.

Obama-mania

From a junior senator from Illinois to the next president of the United States, Barack Obama broke down barriers and inspired an unprecedented grassroots movement in 2008.

He defeated one of the most powerful families in politics to get the Democratic nomination, and easily took down long-time Sen. John McCain in the general election.

Obama's campaign was marked by his eloquent speeches, passionate supporters and worldwide fanfare for the Democratic candidate.

The Democrat's ground team helped him smash fundraising records and sail into the White House, making him the first African American to win the presidency.

Palin power

Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Bobby Jindal, Joe Lieberman — they were considered the front-runners for the No. 2 spot on the Republican ticket. But, in one of the biggest surprises of the year, John McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

The first-term governor went from obscurity to superstar fame overnight. She energized the Republican base and brought record crowds to McCain's campaign events.

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CNN: Obama family to move to DC this weekend, say aides
The Obama family is planning to move to Washington this weekend, say two transition officials. “They will stay at a Washington hotel through the 15th and then they will move into the Blair House,” said the first official.

CNN: Obama chides Illinois governor's decision to fill Senate seat
President-elect Barack Obama said Tuesday it is disappointing that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich ignored warnings from Senate Democrats about appointing a successor to his Senate seat.

CNN: Lobbyist linked to McCain sues NY Times for $27 million
A lobbyist who was romantically linked to Sen. John McCain in a New York Times article has sued the paper for $27 million, saying the story has damaged her career and "sense of personal self-worth."

CNN: Inaugural committee unveils contest to win swearing-in tickets
The presidential inaugural committee has borrowed a page from the president-elect's campaign playbook, offering donors the chance to enter a lottery so they can be on hand for the big event — and now, an essay contest that promises the same chance for those who keep their purse-strings closed.

CNN: Road to stimulus: Speed bumps ahead
Democratic lawmakers want to pass a far-reaching bill to save the economy by Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.

CNN: Blagojevich pick has long political history
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pick to fill Barack Obama's empty U.S. Senate seat was the first African-American to be elected to statewide office in Illinois, winning the first of three terms as comptroller in 1978.
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The Obamas are moving early in part so daughters Malia and Sasha, above, can start school on time.

(CNN) — The Obama family is planning to move to Washington this weekend, say two transition officials. “They will stay at a Washington hotel through the 15th and then they will move into the Blair House,” said the first official.

President-elect Barack Obama and wife Michelle are coming to DC early in part to be there for the beginning of school for daughters Malia and Sasha, but will not specify which day that will be.

The officials also note that the President-elect will be in Washington to “continue work on an economic recovery plan.” Democratic officials have previously said they’re expecting the Obama team to get the economic recovery plan to the Hill the first week of January.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wants Congress to holds hearings on the stimulus package.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Top congressional Republicans cautioned Democrats not to rush through a massive stimulus package that lawmakers hope to send to President-elect Barack Obama shortly after he takes office next month.

A House Democratic leadership aide told CNN on Tuesday that Congress will likely take up a stimulus bill the second week of January.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said the Congress must prove to taxpayers that the stimulus bill, which some economists suggest could amount to $1 trillion, "is not wasting their money."

"We should have a simple test: will the yet-unwritten, reportedly trillion-dollar spending bill really create jobs and grow the economy — or will it simply create more government spending, more bureaucrats and deeper deficits?" McConnell said in a statement Monday.

McConnell's $1 trillion figure for the stimulus bill may be an overestimate, however.

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Inauguration preparation continues in Washington.

(CNN) — The presidential inaugural committee has borrowed a page from the president-elect's campaign playbook, offering donors the chance to enter a lottery so they can be on hand for the big event — and now, an essay contest that promises the same chance for those who keep their purse-strings closed.

But the committee still expects something in return for a shot at the prize announced Tuesday, which includes: round-trip tickets to Washington, DC, a hard to come by two-night hotel stay, and tickets for winners and a guest to Barack Obama's swearing-in, the inaugural parade, and one of the night's official inaugural balls.

Those interested need to submit an essay by midnight on Thursday, January 8 on the question: "What does this inaugural mean to you?" Committee staff will pick the ten winners.

The committee has said they need to turn to untraditional fund-raising efforts because of new limits the Obama team has placed on the size of donations to help fund inaugural festivities.

Obama's team used a similar fundraising approach during the presidential campaign, offering supporters the chance to win tickets to his acceptance of the Democratic nomination in Denver this summer, and election night celebration in Chicago last month.

Stimulus push comes as consumer confidence drops to an all-time low.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Democratic lawmakers want to pass a far-reaching bill to save the economy by Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.

That's the goal.

But the reality may be a little different. Enactment of an economic stimulus bill could be pushed into late January or early February, said Dan Clifton, a Washington-based analyst with the investment research firm Strategas Research Partners.

The reason: The measure will be big and complex – exceeding $700 billion by some estimates. And getting buy-in from lawmakers angered about the mounting toll of government rescues might take more time than expected.

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Burris was elected Illinois comptroller 30 years ago.

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pick to fill Barack Obama's empty U.S. Senate seat was the first African-American to be elected to statewide office in Illinois, winning the first of three terms as comptroller in 1978.

Burris will appear on CNN's Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull tonight at 8 p.m. ET

Twelve years later, Burris was elected attorney general in the state, the second African American in the country to reach that position.

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Kennedy donated to both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Caroline Kennedy’s $2,300 donation to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was not returned because of her decision to endorse Barack Obama in the Democratic primary, a Clinton aide told CNN — it was sent back because the New York senator’s loss meant she would not be able to keep funds that had been contributed for her general election campaign.

The return was first reported Monday by the New York Post’s Page Six. Information available on Opensecrets.org confirms that a donation to Clinton from Kennedy was returned in August of this year, but does not provide any reason that the $2,300 was returned. Information available from the Web site of the Federal Election Commission shows that Kennedy donated the legal maximum of $4,600 to Clinton in June 2007 in two separate donations of $2,300 each.

Individual donors are limited to $2,300 to support a candidate’s primary run, and $2,300 to support a general election run for the White House.

A spokesman and adviser to Sen. Clinton informed CNN that Kennedy was one of approximately 8,000 donors who all had their contributions for Clinton’s general election bid returned on the same day four months ago.