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Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gap Fest for the 3rd of July, the day before we celebrate America's independence.

And I'm here with Emily and David in the Washington office.

It's a great celebration.

And today we're going to talk about Al Franken, who's finally a senator.

Did you come to Washington to celebrate July 4th,th? Was that why you came? She's wearing a

powdered wig at the moment to celebrate our framers. Now that you mention it, I have a friend who is on

the city council in Tacoma Park, Maryland, who is an excellent Fourth of July parade.

And I'm really sorry that I can't stick around for it.

Our second topic is Sarah Palin, who's been in the news this week in a variety of fashion.

There's an excellent piece by Todd Purdom in Vanity Fair about her, and then she also was in Runner's World.

And even more excellent photo spread.

And then the third topic is going to be the Supreme Court wrap up with the all-important New Haven Firefighters case being decided this week.

Emily will guide us through that.

But let's start on Al Franken.

After eight months, it was declared that he has, in fact, won by 312 votes.

He will now come to Washington after the 4th of July and be the 60th Democratic Senator, David,

your view.

Well, it's about time.

A good day for the citizens of the good state of Minnesota.

I don't know.

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