Good morning folks. For those of you playing at home, the race to stop EFCA tightened up overnight. As of this morning, Sen. Norm Coleman’s lead against Democratic comedian Al Franken narrowed to just 236 votes—and that’s before the hand recount that is set to begin next week.

The Senate currently stands at 55 Democrats, 2 Independents that caucus with the Democrats, and Arlen Spector who voted for the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007. There are three undecided Senate seats in Alaska, Georgia, and Minnesota. The bottom line is clear: as former UFCW hack Paul Blank told the Wall Street Journal yesterday, the battle over EFCA is going to look like “political World War III.”

In the meanwhile, here is where we stand today:

• Today’s Tampa Bay Tribune has an editorial against EFCA titled “Unions Seek New Clout With Strong-Arm Tactics”:

  But labor does a disservice to those it would represent by using this time of economic uncertainty to strengthen its hand. Workers can ask for union representation if they want it, but unions should not be permitted to pressure workers to join against their will.

• The Investors Business Daily also has an editorial against EFCA:

  With a righteous wind at their backs and card-check legislation in their pockets, unions will aggressively try to organize low-price retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target. This might result in higher wages for some workers, but it could also increase prices for consumers as well as drive now-successful retailers into the same economic ditch that unions shoved the U.S. auto industry into.

• San Francisco Chronicle columnist Andrew S. Ross quotes Jonathan Tasini who asks a good question:

  “Now that the bill is closer to reality, will conservative Democrats go for it, especially given a knockdown, drag-out fight with the business community?”

• Finally, the Savannah Morning News editorializes that Georgia voters should support Chambliss to prevent passage of the “misnamed Employee Free Choice Act.”