If Franken has to get adjudicational help from the Senate, sure he's got a better chance of winning. But you know, the Right's Wurlitzer will never let go that " this was a stolen election interference in State's rights by an overweening Congress " etc. They'll harp on it and especially to deny "legitimacy" if Dems would get the 60 from it. (Or, with Joe the Traitor would it be 59 1/2 at best?) Not only the "principle" of the thing, but they'll never forgive Franken for books like "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" and Air America etc. If he does get in, it's hard to imagine a more interesting (and I presume, mostly reliably progressive) Senator!

BTW I'm putting my science/philosophy oriented blog below, since typing into "URL" doesn't work. What's up with that, and not remembering personal info, etc? I'm getting tired of it, who else is?
http://tyrannogenius.blogspot.com

I wish Martin's campaign had been better: Chambliss' ads have been quite negative (except where he has his extended family around him, and getting his granddaughter to say 'vote for my grandpa' is child abuse IMHO). Lotsa lies and distortions (about Martin's old votes in the Legislature and his tenure at Dept. Family and Children's Services..)
The Baptists have really rallied around Saxby, the jerk..

When all other election news is yesterday's fishwrap, we'll still have the never ending drama that is Alaskan politics to keep us glued to our screens.

Just imagine, two ruthless female Republicans going at each other with stiletto smiles and bludgeon-like verbal assaults.

I can hardly wait.

Franken was the wrong candidate--not a great speaker, a poor debater, too many off-track wanderings, subject to "carpet bagger" charges, too long a trail of statements, writings and comedy routines, etc., etc.,--in fact he was probably the only one who could make Norm Coleman a contender.

The only thing to look forward to now is Coleman being charged with ethics/criminal violations with regard to the $75K payments to his wife for her "insurance consulting" work in Texas.

Murkowski had better watch her back. The whole reason a governor can no longer appoint a replacement senator is because her father appointed her as his replacement when he became governor. That did not go over well in Alaska. And her father got royally trounced by Palin in the primaries because he was such an utterly incopotent governor so the Murkowski name does not mean what it did ten years ago. She will be extremely vulnerable when she comes up for reelection in 2010.

Palin does not have clear ride to Senate however. She only has a limited window to cash in on her current popularity. The drop in oil prices will crush the state's economy much as a similar drop did back in the late 80s and early 90s. She'll actually have to start governing here pretty soon rather than passing a tax on windfall oil profits and handing checks to people. By the time the opporunity to go against Begich comes she'll have presided over a state mired in a massive recession. Not a solid platform to run from.

Her best shot at a national seat is to take out Murkowski (which she has good shot on doing) in the primaries and hope there is enoungh left over love from the oil checks and a 'screw the lower 48' attitude for her treatment by the national press to put her over the top. It will be tight and much depends on if she is capable of handling a state in decline or how capable she is in shifting the blame for her failures onto others.

I would love to see Palin challenge Murkowski.

It would help everyone see if Palin actually will learn about issues or if she will just spew grammatically challenging sentences for all of us to try and comprehend.

Mel Martinez not running again.

Too bad. I think it would be cool for Bill Clinton to serve in the Senate. There seems to be this idea now that once you've been president, you're done, but I like the idea of ex-presidents serving in other offices--John Quincy Adams served in the House after he was president, and Taft was on the Supreme Court. It helps to reduce the imperial aura that people like Cheney want to put up around the presidency and remind us that the president is a public servant.

Murkowski really opened-mouth-inserted-foot. She came across like a coward. I won't argue whether one or the other would be a more effective Republican senator in Alaska, they're both dolts as far as I'm concerned. But Murkowski came across like a caged animal curling up and baring her fangs when an Alpha was placed nearby. I do think that, if any primary debates were judged objectively, Palin would get trounced from damn near any other Republican. Palin would get trounced in a debate by a piece of balsa wood, IF debates were judged objectively. But they rarely are. Palin has her little cult of personality who will judge her as a success than tailor the reality to fit that opinion, not 'tother way around. Palin would pretty much have to be caught sitting on her daughter's baby-daddy's face while placing her own baby on ebay for her base to start looking at her with anything less than a loving and approving eye. What I don't know is whether or not enough Alaska Republicans can remain objective to see through her jackassery during a debate (didn't work during her run for the governor, obviously).

...subject to "carpet bagger" charges... -Neal

Franken was raised in Minnesota. Both Coleman and Franken were born in New York, but while Coleman spent most of his formative years in New York, Franken moved to Minnesota at a very early age.

How about Al Franken for HRC's seat? I think he still has a place in Manhattan...

I caught about 10 seconds of Palin on Countdown with Keith, and cannot understand how she is even still relevant. Her smirk and condescension is so blatant that one could hardly not notice it, unless one were without rational human sensibility. I thought the election outcome sent a message. Apparently not. Obama is masterfully handling his building of consensus and cooperation in the new government. Those who choose to resist will feel the pain of their own creation. He is not forcing anything; he is allowing the process to unfold and those who choose old style politics will be left behind.

peace,
st john

I think perhaps Alaska needs to experience an overwhelming number of Democrats migrating into that State. With these people in charge any longer, that beautiful place will wind up totally decimated. Including, and especially, ANWAR.

I'm willing to sacrifice a congressional seat if that gets rid of Bachmann. It isn't as if we'd be losing actual representation.

Excellent analysis, thorin-1. Going to be interesting watching Alaska politics these next couple of years.

I'm willing to sacrifice a congressional seat if that gets rid of Bachmann. It isn't as if we'd be losing actual representation.

If the DFL holds on to the House and Senate and can somehow win the Governorship, the most likely outcome would be the merging of the three suburban and exurban districts (CD - 2, 3, and 6) into two. If that were to happen, two out of the three of Kline, Paulsen and Bachmann would be in the same district. Given where the three of them live, my guess would be that Kline and Paulsen would have to vie for the endorsement in one district, while Bachmann wouldn't have an incumbent opponent.