Search
RSS Feed
Archives
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
Blogs Eric Reads
Down the Tubes
The next U.S. Senator for Alaska will be Mark Begich:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has lost his bid for a seventh term. The longest-serving Republican in the history of the Senate trailed Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 3,724 votes after Tuesday’s count. That’s an insurmountable lead with only about 2,500 overseas ballots left to be counted.
Stevens, who turned 85 Tuesday, also revealed that he will not ask President George W. Bush to give him a pardon for his seven felony convictions.
Begich leads by 1.18%, surpassing the 0.5% threshold for a mandatory recount. Congratulations, Senator-Elect Begich!
Update: Oh yeah, that makes 58!
Update 2: Really, this is just obligatory at this point. Tubes Techno Remix!
Weekend Update
Hey, did you miss me?
- Vermont Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders have both publicly called for Sen. Joe Lieberman to step down as the chairman of the Homeland Security. I’m all for it considering how Lieberman just spent the past year and a half running around the country telling everyone that only his BFF John McCain can keep us safe. Unfortunately, the rest of the Senate Democrats are doing what Senate Democrats usually do (i.e. being a bunch of pansies). Incidentally, this pansy-ness is the same reason why millions of schoolchildren think that it takes 60 votes for the Senate to pass a bill. (TPM Election Central)
- Did you know that Rahm Emanuel calls DC “Fucknutsville?” Or that he’s a ballerina? Or that he hates Arby’s? It’s true, as you can see from these witty t-shirts! (RahmFacts.com)
- OMG OMG OMG OMG HILLARY WILL BE SECRETARY OF STATE!!! Or at least that’s what the internets are saying. Personally, I don’t know why she would give up what is basically a Senate seat for life for a job that she can only have for a maximum of eight years. Also, when was the last time a Secretary of State was elected President (since we all know that’s what Hillary’s really after)? (Huffington Post)
- The President’s Weekly Radio Address is going 21st century! From now on, the President of the United States will address the nation each week on YouTube. Barack Obama is aware of all internet traditions. (Change.gov)
- Mark Begich now leads Ted Stevens by over 1,000 votes, but holy crap do Alaskans not know how to count or something? The election was last fricking week and not only are we still waiting for all the votes to be counted but this race could go into an automatic recount! Hopefully we’ll know who the next Senator from Alaska is by 2010. (State of Alaska)
- The only thing that stopped Vladimir Putin from marching all the way to Tbilisi and hanging Georgian President Saakashvili ”by the balls” was that he didn’t want to seem like George W. Bush. Heckuva job, Georgie! (The Times)
Republicans Abandon Ship!
- Ah, remember the good old days, when John McCain was the Republican nominee for President of the United States–you know, two weeks ago? Well, he lost the election (which means the GOP no longer has to believe in any of the same shit he does) so the RNC has filed a lawsuit claiming that McCain-Feingold is unconstitutional. Yes, you read correctly. The Republican Party wants the Republican nominee’s crowning achievement overturned. I guess they never liked that geezer after all. (Marc Ambinder)
- Well, looks like Palin for President is not off to the greatest start. Here’s five Republican governors telling the TV folks that Palin isn’t going to be ready for the top of the ticket in 2012. They were also unhappy about having to stand behind her at a press conference while she took questions about running for president in 2012. They did not like the appearance that they might be Palin supporters. Because they are not. At all. And they want that to be very clear. (YouTube/CNN)
- Palin for Senate isn’t going so well either. What, you didn’t know she was running for Senate? Yeah, she told CNN that she would be interested in running in a special election for Ted Stevens’ seat after he was reelected to and then expelled from the Senate. Only problem with that is that Mark Begich now leads Stevens by over 800 votes with many of the remaining votes expected to come from Begich friendly districts. (The Caucus/Anchorage Daily News)
Something Is Rotten In the State of Alaska
- In case you forgot, the day before the election Alaska’s Personnel Board–a group of Palin appointees–released it’s own Troopergate report clearing Palin of any wrongdoing. Except they missed a spot, since it looks like Palin may have committed perjury. Trooper Wooten’s attorney testified under oath that Palin called him in January 2007. Palin testified under oath that she didn’t. That means someone’s pants are on fire. Only replace “pants are on fire” with “a felon.” (The Daily Dish)
- And speaking of America’s Governor, Palin said in an interview with CNN that she would be willing to serve in the administration of a friend of terrorists. No, seriously. In the same interview, Palin said that it would be her “honor to assist and support our new president” and that she was “still concerned” about Obama’s ties to “an unrepentant domestic terorrist.” Um, putting aside that the presidential campaign is over, you can’t exactly say both of those things in the same breath and expect to still have any credibility. (CNN)
- Don’t worry, all hope is not lost for Seward’s Folly! As of 2:09 pm local time today, convicted felon Sen. Ted Stevens’ lead over Democrat Mark Begich is down to 971 votes. Nate Silver says that there are about 60,000 ballots left to be counted and that most are from rural districts where Begich performed well. (State of Alaska/FiveThirtyEight)
Still Counting the Ballots
In Alaska:
With tens of thousands of votes left to be counted, the Alaska Senate race is far from over. The state Division of Elections announced Friday that there are 81,224 ballots yet to be counted in Alaska, where two embattled Republican incumbents are leading their Democratic challengers for now.
What’s more, the winner of either race will not be known for almost two weeks during counting. The state is scheduled to review the final results on Dec. 1, according to Elections Division Director Gail Fenumiai, though vote tallies will be updated in the meantime starting Wednesday evening.
Convicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R) led Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) on Friday by 3,257 votes — or about 1 percent of the total ballots that had been cast, counted or uncounted.
Similarly, embattled Rep. Don Young (R) has not been declared the victor despite his 16,939-vote lead over state House Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz (D), who has yet to concede the race because of the high number of outstanding ballots.
And in Minnesota:
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie pledges to oversee a fair, accurate and open recount of the nearly 2.9 million ballots in the Senate race.
“Minnesotans have an expectation of a nonpartisan election recount,” Ritchie said late last week.
Yet a fight with partisan overtones is shaping up over the recount of the race between U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican, and Democrat Al Franken.
On Friday, the Coleman campaign questioned the integrity of the vote counting by citing “improbable shifts” in vote tallies that it said benefited Franken.
Ritchie responded by scolding the Coleman campaign for trying “to create a cloud” over the recount and “denigrating the election process.”
Picking up these two seats would put Democrats that much closer to that magical 60, but it’s going to be real tough. Keep an eye on Alaska and Minnesota (and Georgia, which has a Senate runoff election scheduled for December 2). The 2008 election isn’t over yet.
Break’s Over
- President-Elect Obama is wasting no time getting in getting to work. First up, reversing the Bush Administration’s war on science. His transition team is putting together a long list of regulations and executive orders on climate change, stem cells, reproductive health, and other issues that Obama can rescind after taking office. Thank God. It’s good ot have a pesident who believes in science again. (Washington Post)
- More than half of Americans said they closely followed Obama’s press conference yesterday, and 52% say his remarks set the right tone. Voters are fairly confident that he can handle the economic crisis. Over a quarter of the GOP can’t figure out of if they love him or hate him. (Rasmussen)
- Speaking of the GOP, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is threatening to filibuster judicial nominations that have not been named for Supreme Court seats that are not vacant. Kyl doesn’t think that judges should make the rulings based on “the factors in each case”…um, what? What the heck are they supposed to base their decisions on then? Oh, and because this is a Republican that we’re talking about, it goes without saying that three years ago when the Republicans contolled the White House and the Senate, Kyl strenuously opposed the filibuster of judicial nominees. My, how times change. (Phoenix Business Journal/PBS)
- If Kyl gets his way, though, it might get a little bit easier to overcome that filibuster. Sen. Ted Stevens leads in Alaska, but Nate Silver isn’t ready to count Democratic challenger Mark Begich out yet. According to Silver, most of the ballots remaining to be counted are early and absentee ballots in which Begich currently leads. Does anyone know what Nate Silver is going to do after this election is totally over? The man is a genius. (FiveThirtyEight)
- Also, Harry Reid is getting ready to cut up to two Republican seats in each Senate committee to reflect the increased Democratic majority. Hopefully this will prevent a lot of Obama’s intiatives from getting stuck in committee. Back to work. (The Hill)
Senate Race Wrapup
Of course, Obama’s wasn’t the only big election last night. Let’s take a look out how things are shaping up in the Senate.
- Democratic pickups by Mark Warner (VA), Kay Hagan (NC), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), and the brothers cousins Udall (CO and NM) put us at a respectable 56 seats (55 if Joe Lieberman is politely asked to get the hell out of the Democratic caucus). Is there any way to the magical 60? It’s going to be hard without Kentucky. Bruce Lunsford put up one hell of a fight, but Mitch McConnell managed to hold on to his seat by a 53%-47% margin.
- Oregon is still too close to call, although the polls had been trending towards Democrat Jeff Merkley. Incumbent Republican Gordon Smith ran a campaign of tying himself to Barack Obama, and, with a 15,000 vote lead and 75% of precincts reporting, it just may well have worked.
- In Minnesota, GOP Sen. Norm Coleman has delcared victory, but the AP is uncalling the race for him. With a roughly 1,000 vote margin, this race is going to a mandatory recount, so it will be a few days before we know whether Al Franken managed to edge Coleman out.
- Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss holds a three point lead in Georgia, but this is still one to watch. Chambliss has 50% of the vote to Democrat Jim Martin’s 47%, but if Chambliss drops below 50% this race will go into an automatic runoff.
- Convicted felon Sen. Ted Stevens looks poised to defeat Mark Begich, thus proving that Alaskans are entirely batshit crazy. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, NRSC Chairman John Ensign, and the McCain-Palin ticket all have called on Stevens to resign. Harry Reid has said that if reelcted, Stevens would almost certainly be expelled, which would allow Gov. Sarah Palin to appoint his replacement–and maybe herself!
Depends on Your Definition of “Convicted”
Shorter Actual Ted Stevens:
- Sen. Stevens: I’m innocent and not convicted
”I have not been convicted of anything.”
McCain Calls for Stevens to Resign
“Yesterday, Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty of corruption. It is a sign of the health of our democracy that the people continue to hold their representatives to account for improper or illegal conduct, but this verdict is also a sign of the corruption and insider-dealing that has become so pervasive in our nation’s capital.
“It is clear that Senator Stevens has broken his trust with the people and that he should now step down. I hope that my colleagues in the Senate will be spurred by these events to redouble their efforts to end this kind of corruption once and for all.”
Stevens, of course, has no intention of doing so:
I am innocent. This verdict is the result of the unconscionable manner in which the Justice Department lawyers conducted this trial. I ask that Alaskans and my Senate colleagues stand with me as I pursue my rights. I remain a candidate for the United States Senate.
Here’s hoping that Stevens becomes a big issue for the GOP across the board for the next week.
A Song for Ted Stevens
Long live the Tubes!
(Yeah, I know that I’ve already used this for Sarah Palin)