Ted Stevens Loses Senate Bid in Alaska

Photo from source, MSNBC

The Democratic Senator number now stands at 58 (if you count Joe Liberman of the Connecticut for Lieberman Party and Bernie Sanders, Independent). That still leaves the unresolved Minnesota battle between Norm Coleman and Al Franken, and a runoff between Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin in Georgia. It is possible that the number will total 60--a filibuster-proof majority--if both of those stragglers also go to the Democrats.

I doubt it will happen. Such an outcome is going to be demonized (as I'm sure it has been already) in Georgia, possibly enough to get Chambliss elected. I'm still holding out for Franken though.

But, poor Sen. Ted Stevens! It's his 85th birthday, for goodness' sake! Maybe he'll get a shiny new Presidential Pardon for his birthday? And now, we'll be deprived of the tantalizing possibility of a Sarah Palin ascension into the Senate. For now, anyway. . .

[Excerpt]

Stevens loses Alaska Senate seat to Democrat

Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in Senate history, narrowly lost his re-election bid Tuesday, marking the downfall of a pillar of the U.S. Senate and Alaska icon who apparently couldn't survive his conviction on federal corruption charges. His defeat to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich moves Senate Democrats closer to a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority. . .

Read more (with video) at: MSNBC