Utah’s Bob Bennett nabbed the Homeland Security post. Jim Inhofe of land-locked Oklahoma picked up Coleman’s seat on Foreign Relations. Idaho Sen. Jim Risch will take over the vacant seat on the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

All were being held for Coleman, should he prevail in court and win re-election over Al Franken.

With Coleman gone, Minnesota won’t have representation on Homeland Security, Foreign Affairs or Small Business, since Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken aren’t members.

Klobuchar does sit on Agriculture, and Franken was assigned to the Special Committee on Aging, where Coleman’s seat fell to Georgia’s Saxby Chambliss, who unlike Coleman triumphed in a post-election showdown.

But even Klobuchar, sporting approval ratings among the highest in Minnesota, tip-toes by Bachmann when speaking to Minnesotans about filling out their Census forms.

The U.S. Senate took an hour out of its time Thursday to honor former Sen. Norm Coleman. Here are video clips with the complete tributes to Coleman from 10 senators (seven of Coleman’s fellow Republicans and three Democrats, including Amy Klobuchar), as well as transcribed highlights of their remarks — with particular attention to what they had to say about their former colleague’s future.

In the order in which they spoke, listed below are the 10 senators who gave Senate-floor testimonials to Norm Coleman on Thursday. After each name is an text excerpt from and full video of the senator’s speech. Click on the senator’s name to see the full transcription of his or her remarks.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.):

Today we honor our colleague and friend for that long career that we hope is far from over. And we punctuate an incredibly hard fought campaign that some people thought might never end. In the end, it didn’t turn out the way many of us had hoped it would. … And I have no doubt that this is not the last we will hear from Norm Coleman.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.):

I enjoyed serving with Norm … I wish Senator Coleman the very best in his future endeavors …

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.):

If Norm Coleman could have found some way to make the 2000 Presidential election Bush v. Gore v. Coleman, Norm would have been a participant in every single one of the most spectacular political races of the last decade. … He proved to be determined and courageous and, in the Minnesota tradition, a happy warrior in attempting to make sure that every Minnesota vote counted in the race, which was decided by just a few votes.

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.):

Norm and Laurie are my friends. I wish them the very best as they go forward in their lives. I know they will find other opportunities to be of service to the people of Minnesota and to the people of the United States, and I might daresay also to the people of Florida because Norm has a great affection for my State, where he has spent a lot of his time.

Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah):

I simply add my voice of gratitude for the opportunity of serving with Norm Coleman and my best wishes for him in his future activities. He is a young and vigorous enough man that I think we will hear far more from him in the years ahead.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.):

So to Norm Coleman I simply say we will miss you in the Senate. We are not going to let him go away, though. I still talk to him on a regular basis and will continue to do so and will seek his advice …

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.):

I had the opportunity to talk with Norm right after the supreme court in Minnesota ruled against him. I was struck, once again, by his determination to do what he felt was best for his state, even though it was not best for him. I was also touched by his commitment, once again, to his constituents and to moving on and ensuring that they had two Senators representing them.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.):

He was always very courteous and always a gentleman with me. I never heard him say a negative word about me. I cannot ever recall saying anything negative about him. … [H]e is a relatively young man, and I am sure with his educational background and his notoriety in Minnesota, he will have a bright future.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.):

Second only to his family has been his dedication to public service. It has literally defined his adult life. Maybe it was sheer destiny that he found his way to the Senate. After all, he is a graduate of James Madison High School in Brooklyn, which is also the alma mater of two of our Senate colleagues — Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders. Norm hit the ground running in politics, and he has not stopped.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.):

If he were here, I think he would tell you that in coming to the Senate–and I would tell you the same thing — he can now look back on some of the things he was involved in getting done, such as being involved in the big debates over the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts or Justice Sam Alito — these were big debates in which we were all involved in seeing good people put on the Supreme Court of this country.

Saxby Chambliss Photo: WDCpix

Republican Saxby Chambliss defeated Democrat Jim Martin in Georgia’s runoff election Tuesday, preventing Democrats from gaining a filibuster-proof “super majority” in the Senate. With 71 percent of precincts reporting, the race was called, The Hill reports, as Martin trailed 61 to 39 percent. Now it’s all eyes on Minnesota — although with a tad less intensity, now that the veto-proof majority is thwarted — as the race between incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken is the lone remaining seat from Election ’08 to be decided.

Who knew that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s classic turkey-slaughter TV interview would usher in a golden age of uncomfortable, Thanksgiving-themed television ads featuring conservatives? Two ads that surfaced in the past few days qualify in separate categories for Slaughtered Turkey Awards.

The Slaughtered Turkey Award for Racial Harmony goes to what is either the last TV ad of the presidential campaign or the first Sarah Palin reality-show promo. When last heard from, the Our Country Deserves Better PACwas running a spot that associated now-President-elect Barack Obama with Che Guevara, Palestinians, Hamas and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright (saying, “God damn America”). Now the PAC, the brainchild of former California state Rep. Harold Kaloogia, offers “Thank You, Sarah Palin,”a 30-second spot with brief testimonials from a convincingly amateurish crew of grateful Palin admirers, including a man who may be the first dark-skinned person the PAC has presented who isn’t supposed to be evil.

The Slaughtered Turkey Award for Awkward Editing goes to Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who appears to be groping a granddaughter with an exuberant one-handed hug at the end of a TV ad with a family-photo-type setup that should have provided harmless help for Chambliss’ U.S. Senate run-off election today. The false move is so blatant it’s got to be an innocent faux pas — but one that should have found a home on the cutting-room floor after one look.

“Thank you, Sarah Palin” (Our Country Deserves Better PAC)

Saxby Chambliss ad (Chambliss for Senate)

The missing link here is Sarah Palin stumping for Saxby Chambliss over the weekend:

In fact, had Democrats found better candidates in both races, Democrats might not be in this current situation. Minnesota would already be in the bag, and Georgia might have been won on Election Day.

Given that Franken ran 12 points behind Barack Obama (albeit in a contest with a strong third-party candidate), and given that Minnesota had never before elected a Republican senator while voting for a Democratic presidential candidate by a double-digit margin, this conclusions seems fairly unassailable.

With Democrats now controlling 57 Senate seats — just shy of the veto-proof majority they’d gain with 60 — all eyes are on Minnesota’s race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken… as Huffington Post’s All-Al-All-the-Time dedicated page (see logo above) suggests. The margin has narrowed considerably between the two, but has held firm most of today at 239.

NBC’s Doug Adams takes a look at the Dems’ journey to 60. If Franken can squeak out a victory, the party will have 58 seats. And a D-column win in Alaska’s race between convicted felon Ted Stevens and Mark Begich would bump it to 59. (Begich trails Stevens by a 3,400 votes, but some 55,000 absentee ballots haven’t been tallied yet.) That leaves the 60th seat up in the air: in George, where neither Republican Saxby Chambliss nor Democrat Jim Martin won a majority vote on Tuesday, a December 2 runoff has been scheduled. John McCain — and possibly even Sarah Palin — will be heading there to campaign on Chambliss’ behalf. A request for a Georgia visit by President-Elect Barack Obama has already been requested by Martin’s campaign.