Making Her Blanche

I wrote over the weekend about how the road to tying down Chuck Grassley and Max Baucus ran through their individual states. Another "Democrat" who has been out front in slow-walking anything that deviates from the status quo, who is also up for re-election next year, is Blanche Lincoln. They have a racket in Arkansas where the two parties almost never challenge each other in general elections - and considering that both party stalwarts do the bidding of their corporate contributors, why should they? In addition to her changing statements on the public option, which drew a round of ads from Blue America, Lincoln thinks the climate change bill should be dumped.

The U.S. Senate should abandon efforts to pass legislation curbing greenhouse-gas emissions this year and concentrate on a narrower bill to require use of renewable energy, four Democratic lawmakers say.

“The problem of doing both of them together is that it becomes too big of a lift,” Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas said in an interview last week. “I see the cap-and-trade being a real problem.”

I remarked to Digby last week that maybe we should rerun the Harry and Louise-type ads against Lincoln, only with two polar bears at the kitchen table instead of the couple.

Maybe that's something that Arkansas State Senate President Bob Johnson can use when he challenges Lincoln in a primary.

Arkansas Senate President Bob Johnson said Friday that he's considering challenging incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln in next year's primary.

Johnson told The Associated Press that's he's been encouraged to challenge Lincoln, who is seeking a third Senate term next year. Johnson said he doesn't have a timeline for deciding whether to challenge Lincoln.

"I'd be less than honest if I told you it hasn't surfaced in a number of circles," Johnson said. "I am weighing it very carefully."

Let's not harbor any illusions. Johnson is "running as a conservative Democrat" against Lincoln. He actually sounds like a scoundrel. But in a primary, someone will have to play to the base, where primary voters live. And that could help Lincoln get over her reticence on health care and climate change legislation.

In even better news, Howie Klein says that Jim Cooper's going to get a primary challenge, on the heels of his pathetic approval ratings on the health care issue.

There's enough anti-Washington sentiment in the country that a lot of lawmakers ought to be looking over their shoulders.

Mark Begich (D-AK)

Mark Begich is pulling away in the latest counts in the Alaska Senate race. His vote lead over ConvicTed Stevens has grown to 2,374, and there are only 14,000 or so left to count. 538 has called it:

Stevens would have to win by a margin of over 25% of the outstanding ballots to tie Begich.

That would require something of a Gravelanche.

Currently, Begich leads by 0.77%, which is outside the free 0.5% recount zone. The recount fee is a paltry $15,000, not a sum Stevens has ever had trouble acquiring via one means or another. Given his likely expulsion by either the Republican caucus or the U.S. Senate as a whole (though we are in "reconciliation" mode, so who knows?), it seems unlikely anyone besides Stevens himself would have the desire to pursue such action. Still, the Anchorage Daily News calls such a recount "likely."

Congratulations, Senator Begich.

I think the Alaska Republicans would step in to stop a recount that would most likely be unsuccessful. No reason to stick with a felon any longer than you have to.

No wonder the Senate Republicans deferred the question of expelling Stevens from the caucus today. The writing was on the wall.

UPDATE: NBC and the AP have both called it for Begich. That's 57 Democrats in the Senate. (58 if you want to count Lieberman)

AK-Sen: Every Vote Counts

We've been following the Ted Stevens/Mark Begich race in Alaska, which initially seemed to be more than a little strange, what with its low turnout despite the first Alaskan on a major-party Presidential ticket in history. Well, they kept finding extra votes, not a few at a time but thousands and thousands of them, so that the turnout is relatively in line with expectations, though still low (of course, the Presidential race was essentially called at 4pm local time, so some drop-off can be expected). And they've started to count those votes. And based on the latest tally, Begich leads by three.

Not three points. Three votes.

I don't know if that includes Track, Bristol, Willow, Trig, Twig, Salad Spinner, Lipitor or Stag Tunnel Palin, who is the crucial swing vote.

There are still about 40,000 votes left to count, and they apparently favor Begich.

Anything that keeps Sarah Palin out of the US Senate and all over cable news where she apparently belongs is a good thing.

365, +21, +8?

Obama did indeed grab that extra electoral vote from Nebraska-02. So make it 365 EVs, with great moves into previously red territory in Indiana, North Carolina, and Nebraska.

As Jon Stewart said on his show this week, "So he won the election by 6 percentage points, but 2-1 in the electoral college. Yes, the Electoral College makes perfect sense!" Which is true, and we need the National Popular Vote, but just like in the primary, Obama's campaign worked with the playing field that they had. They knew how to microtarget at the state and even district level to maximize the votes they needed. And it was incredibly successful.

Meanwhile, we have two more calls for Democrats in the House: Frank Kratovil in MD-01, and Tom Perriello in VA-05. Kratovil's going to be a Blue Dog, but it's notable that he won the seat occupied by Wayne Gilchrest, an antiwar Republican who was primaried out by the Club for Growth. Gilchrest then supported and campaigned for the Democrat and helped him win the seat. As for Perriello, this is a glorious upset. Virgil Goode was a grade-A wingnut, and Perriello is a smart progressive who helped found Avaaz.org, the global MoveOn. He was a Responsible Plan endorser, too. He ran a come-from-behind race that made up maybe 30 points in the final months.

And in the Senate, Al Franken keeps closing the gap on Norm Coleman - it's down to 221 votes. That's going to hit a recount. Plus, Nate Silver has done an analysis of the uncounted votes in the Alaska Senate race, and he thinks Mark Begich could still pull it out. Don't underestimate the Silver.

Like I said, it's hard to evaluate Election Day until all these races are called. It's rounding into a very good night.

If You Don't Know, Alaska Where Your Ballot Is

I concur with Nate Silver that something is definitely fishy about the Alaska numbers. Nowhere else in the country did the pre-election polls so wildly differ from the post-election reality. Don Young and Ted Stevens, one unspeakably corrupt and the other a convicted felon, both won their elections, apparently, despite being down by double digits in the pre-election polls. I thought there might be a backlash against the "Washington elite libruls" who punished Stevens with a conviction, but that doesn't explain Young. And it certainly doesn't explain this:

Indeed, it seems possible that the number of "questionable" ballots could be quite high. So far, about 220 thousand votes have been processed in Alaska. This compares with 313 thousand votes cast in 2004. After adding back in the roughly 50,000 absentee and early ballots that Roll Call accounts for, that would get us to 270 thousand ballots, or about a 14 percent drop from 2004. It seems unlikely that turnout would drop by 14 percent in Alaska given the presence of both a high-profile senate race and Sarah Palin at the top of the ticket.

More than unlikely. Now, I know the outcome of the Presidential race was apparent by about 4pm local time there, but you would think having a native son (well, daughter) on the ballot would seek to counteract any depressed turnout.

Shannyn Moore has a great write-up on this. And Digby says what we're all thinking:

If this were coming from anywhere but the state that had legislators who proudly belong to something they called the "Corrupt Bastards Club" (with hats!) I would adopt a wait and see attitude. As it is, I have no problem saying that this stinks to high heaven and is probably exactly what it looks like.

Something's very, very wrong.

Focus On The Senate

I came into the night thinking that we could get eight seats. Right now we have five, and four are still outstanding.

First, the winners. Welcome to new Democratic Senators Mark Warner, Tom Udall, Mark Udall, Jeanne Shaheen and Kay Hagan. Of these, Tom Udall is a good, solid progressive, and so that represents the biggest ideological shift. He will be a good addition to the Senate. The others will go along with modest agenda items like SCHIP and stem cell research (both of which will likely pass quickly in an Obama Administration), but will be tough to get for other directives.

Now, the four races still out there.

• Jeff Merkley is currently down by about 9,000 votes under 7,000 votes in the Oregon Senate race against Gordon Smith. However, only 73% of the vote has been counted, and only half of Multnomah County (Portland) is in. Merkley has already gotten 67,000-plus votes out of that county, so I think he's going to win once they all come in. A local pollster there sees it going for Merkley. As a progressive Dem, he would be a major asset in the Senate.

• The Al Franken/Norm Coleman race is going to a recount. Right now, the margin is around 1,000 votes with 2.9 million cast. Franken is not conceding, and the recount is set to begin. We're weeks away from knowing who won this one... But not if Norm Coleman has something to say about it



Apparently, not objecting to an automatic recount mandated by law is a betrayal of the process.

• Alaska is, well, Alaska. Ted Stevens is holding a lead despite being convicted in a court of law. The evidence there, combined with Don Young clinging to a small lead over Ethan Berkowitz, shows me that Sarah Palin had the biggest coattails of the night, at least in her home state. There are still about 40,000 absentee ballots to be counted and Stevens leads by 4,000 votes, so it's not quite over.

• The Georgia Senate race is going to a runoff. This could be an early test for the Obama campaign, to see if they can muscle through a victory in a low-turnout race to be decided by base votes. Saxby Chambliss couldn't manage 50% in the general election, but he would be favored to win a runoff. We'll have to see.

Vote Begich!

The polls I've seen show that Mark Begich is poised to defeat Ted Stevens tomorrow, but if he doesn't it's important to recognize what scenario would result. Stevens would be expelled from the Senate. There's no doubt about it.

Roll Call reports today that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has no intention of letting Stevens' career go forward, even if he manages to win on Election Day: "In a bluntly worded release from his office, Reid warned that Stevens would not only face an ethics investigation but also expulsion proceedings regardless of his efforts to appeal the convictions."

The release from Reid's office doesn't leave much in the way of ambiguity.

While I understand that Senator Stevens is fighting for his political career, you don't have to go any further than the comments of:

* Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell who said there would be zero tolerance for a convicted felon in the United States Senate

* NRSC Chairman Senator John Ensign who said Senator Stevens'career has ended in disgrace;

* Or Republican Presidential candidate Senator John McCain who said it is clear that Senator Stevens has broken his trust with the people and should now step down.

And so his victory and subsequent expulsion would give Sarah Palin the ability to select a member of the United States Senate. And even if she managed to not choose herself, do you trust her to do the right thing?

Vote Begich.

AK-Sen: I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

To Ted Stevens, being convicted on seven counts of making false statements means that you haven't been convicted of anything.

"I've not been convicted yet," Stevens said Thursday in a meeting with the editorial board of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "There's not a black mark by my name yet, until the appeal is over and I am finally convicted, if that happens. If that happens, of course I'll do what's right for Alaska and for the Senate. ... I don't anticipate it happening, and until it happens I do not have a black mark."

Stevens reiterated that position during a televised debate late Thursday night, declaring early in the give-and-take with Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, "I have not been convicted of anything."

Here's the deal. You can appeal, but as of right now, you actually have been convicted. The part where the jury came into the courtroom and found you guilty? That was part of the whole conviction thing.

In other news, apparently Saddam caused 9/11. But it's a secret!

MODERATOR: Knowing what you know now, do you think that the country of Iraq and Saddam Hussein played a role in the 9/11 attack on the United States?

STEVENS: I know more than you think I know, and I believe they did.

BEGICH: I don’t believe they did.

At least he's not only deeply in denial about his own conviction.

Support Mark Begich.

...The Anchorage Daily News, which has been a great paper on the Palin/Troopergate affair, endorsed Begich today.

AK-Sen: Toobz Banking On The Backlash

Others can speak to their more personal experiences with Alaska, but I'll tell you, this is exactly what I expected to happen upon his (triumphant?) return.

But the crowd at his Anchorage rally seemed to harbor little doubt that Stevens, who showed flashes of both humility and defiance, would beat his challengers. They include Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, a Democrat, who was holding a dueling rally at a union hall at the same time as Stevens' event.

There was undisguised hostility toward the federal government and the FBI at the Stevens event, with people wearing T-shirts that said "F*#@ the feds, vote for Ted."

"Anyone who thinks you can get a fair trial in the heart of liberalism, Washington, D.C., is smoking dope. He was railroaded," said Mark Kelliher, a retired engineer.

Talk radio host Rick Rydell told the crowd he knows Stevens, a D.C. jury doesn't.

"I don't particularly like it when outsiders tell me what to do," Rydell said, before Stevens took the stage. "You can kiss my Alaska moose-hunting behind."

This is just backlash politics played perfectly. The fact that Stevens has spent the bulk of the past FORTY years in Washington as a US Senator is apparently besides the point.

Obviously being convicted of a felony is a strike against your record, but it would probably be more damaging to an unknown back-bencher instead of the guy who the Anchorage airport is named after. Stevens still has a really good chance to win, even though his Republican colleagues are publicly telling him to resign. And we know that there's a credible scenario of electoral victory followed by resignation that could lead us to Senator Sarah Palin.

So help out Mark Begich if you can. He's at the Blue America page.

Later Ted

Mitch McConnell says bye-bye.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is calling on Ted Stevens to resign from the Senate – and warning that the longest-serving Republican senator in history will face certain expulsion if he doesn’t leave on his own first.

McConnell, locked in a tough reelection fight in Kentucky, did not call for Stevens’ resignation in his initial statement on the Alaskan’s conviction on seven federal felonies Monday.

But Republican Sens. John McCain, Norm Coleman, Jim DeMint, John Sununu and Gordon Smith and Democrat Barack Obama all called on Stevens to resign Tuesday.

And by the time a reporter from the Lexington Herald-Leader put the question to him at a campaign stop Elizabethtown, Ky., Tuesday night, McConnell was ready to say that Stevens must go, too.

"I think he should resign immediately," McConnell said. "If he did not do that ... there is a 100 percent certainty that he would be expelled from the Senate."

I think McConnell's re-election race has a lot to do with this, and after the election quite a few Republicans are sure to go back on their word, but let's say it doesn't look good for Hulk.

At this point, how do you remain on the campaign trail? Isn't that just a total insult to your supporters? I guess it's just garden-variety obstinacy.

Series Of Tubes Fallout

Obviously when you have a convicted felon in the United States Senate, there is a tendency for those colleagues in his party to run screaming in the other direction. RedState did so today by endorsing Ted Stevens' opponent, Mark Begich, in the Senate race in Alaska.

Stevens cannot be taken off the ballot - that deadline has passed. There's no doubt that he'll keep running; at the trial today he was seen to mutter "it's not over" as he walked out of the courtroom. He thinks he's larger than life and the world owes him. This is his race to lose. And I think he will, but there's a chance that enough Alaskans say "why that big-city jury up there in DC did our Uncle Ted wrong, let's show 'em!" At which point he would almost certainly be expelled from the Senate once sentenced, or forced to resign himself, and probably the latter.

Which could lead us, as I said, to Senator Sarah Palin, who did the full dodge today about the issue:

"This is a sad day for Alaska and a sad day for Senator Stevens and his family," she said on the tarmac at Richmond International Airport. "The verdict shines a light on the corrupting influence of the big oil service company up there in Alaska that was allowed to control too much of our state. And that control was part of the culture of corruption that I was elected to fight, and that fight must always move forward regardless of party affiliation or seniority or even past service.

"As Governor of the State of Alaska, I will carefully now monitor the situation and I'll take any appropriate action as needed. In the meantime, I ask the people of Alaska to join me in respecting the workings of our judicial system and I'm confident that Senator Stevens from this point on will do the right thing for the people of Alaska," she also said.

Palin did not respond when asked if she will vote for Sen. Stevens and promptly boarded the campaign plane.

Obviously, this has swamped the news cycle and again frustrated any attempt for McCain to recalibrate the race.

Another amusement - Stevens, as a convicted felon, cannot vote for himself.

UPDATE: Looks like Stevens is being cut loose:

National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman John Ensign (Nev.) offered a strong condemnation of Stevens and seemed to hint that this conviction would lead to his defeat.

"This is a sad day for the United States Senate," said Ensign. "Ted Stevens served his constituents for over 40 years and I am disappointed to see his career end in disgrace."

Bye Ted.

Go To Jail

Go directly to jail.

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has been convicted of lying about free home renovations and other gifts he received from a wealthy oil contractor.

The Senate's longest-serving Republican, Stevens was found guilty on all seven counts of making false statements on Senate financial documents.

The verdict throws the upcoming election into disarray. Stevens is fighting off a challenge from Democrat Mark Begich and must now either drop out or continue campaigning as a convicted felon.

"Campaigning as a convicted felon." Or, if you like, as a Republican.

This seat needs to go firmly in the hands of the Democrats now. It's either Senator Begich or Senator Palin. She would absolutely replace Stevens with herself.

... You can support Mark Begich at Blue America.

I Loaned My Landlord The Rent Money

Ted Stevens' testimony ended yesterday, and I think he basically admitted guilt on at least one count.

The senator, who testified earlier that he never received free home renovations, told jurors in his federal corruption trial that he wished he had called police when a business executive replaced furniture in his Alaska home with bulky items damaged by cigarette burns.

Stevens, 84, one of the most powerful Republicans in the Senate, added that he tried to refuse the $2,700 massage chair as a gift from another friend in 2001. The Brookstone chair remains in the basement of his Washington home -- on loan, Stevens said.

"We have lots of things in our house that don't belong to us," said Stevens, who is seeking reelection to a seventh full term. "I let him put it in our basement at his request."

I can't tell you how many times business executives insist that they leave expensive gifts in my home. They're not "mine," of course, and I feel sheepish about using them, but as long as the Jacuzzi is on loan, everything's above board.

Closing arguments will be presented today, and we may have a verdict by the end of the week. This has kept Stevens from campaigning in Alaska, but if he ends up being found innocent, I think he sweeps to victory. If he's guilty, he loses. It's the October Surprise we know. Mark Begich doesn't have a lot of control over the matter.

The House And Senate Picture

Just wanted to update the look of things in the Congress (outside of California this time):

• MN-Sen: Al Franken has surged ahead of Norm Coleman and looks like he's going to take this one in Minnesota. The Coleman campaign tried to drive up Franken's negatives over the summer by scrutinizing some ticky-tack tax statements, all of which had very simple explanations. This turned out to be a fatal mistake considering all of the skeletons in Coleman's financial closet, especially all the gifts he receives from lobbyists and contributors - his rent, his utility bills, and even his CLOTHING. This led to an excruciating press conference where his spokesman was resigned to repeating "The Senator has reported ever gift he's ever received" over and over. Wow, what a flameout.

• AK-Sen: In Alaska, however, I'm not nearly as sure of this one as I was. The prosecution has been so incompetent in the Ted Stevens corruption case that the judge tossed out key evidence and the defense will again call for a mistrial. If Stevens is exonerated, whether through mistrial or acquittal, there will be a significant rebound in his poll numbers, and he's already nearly even right now. This ad from the DSCC is good, but I'm not sure it'll be good enough. I think Mark Begich is in some trouble.

• NC-Sen: VoteVets is back. They've revived their wildly successful body armor ad and set their sights on Elizabeth Dole. It's just as powerful as it was in 2006.



Liddy Dole is toast.

• ME-Sen: Interesting happenings in Maine. Susan Collins was popular enough for national Democrats to kind of leave the Tom Allen challenge for dead, but the twists and turns in the economic picture makes any Republican toxic. Sensing the changing winds, Planned Parenthood, which has endorsed Collins in the past as a bone to throw to a Republican for a couple good votes, turned around and endorsed Allen. Recent polls are tightening and there really could be a late rush.

• GA-Sen: I knew the polls were very close in Georgia, and nobody deserves to lose more than Saxby Chambliss, who unleashed that shameful ad in 2002 relating Max Cleland to Saxby Chambliss, but I didn't know a lot about Jim Martin the person. Turns out he's a progressive in Georgia:

With little money, but with a lot of gumption, energy, and a truly progressive message, Jim Martin has closed to a dead-heat in this race. He is pro-choice, pro-gay rights (supports ENDA and LLEA), a consumer advocate, committed civil libertarian (with ACLU awards for his efforts), opposes FISA telecom immunity, opposes the war in Iraq, is a strong environmentalist, a strong labor guy, a strong supporter of affirmative action, and so on. He is also a Vietnam vet, so perhaps he's destined for a Chambliss Special, but we can get his back. This is the kind of Democrat we can't even get in some Blue states, yet running on an explicitly progressive agenda, has a chance to represent the great state of Georgia while ousting the odious Chambliss at the same time.

If he can pull it off, it would be a clarion call that progressives can win anywhere and Democrats shouldn't be afraid of standing up for their policies.

• House of Reps.: I can't keep up with all the developments in the House - that's what Howie Klein is for. But what is clear is that the Republicans have a ton of seats to defend, more every day, and not a lot of cash to do it. That's why their campaign arm, the NRCC, is taking out an $8 million dollar loan to compete. Wait, House Republicans can GET A LOAN? In this credit market?

Series Of Tubes In A Series Of Trouble

I don't think you can sound more guilty than this if you tried.

Sen. Ted Stevens told wealthy businessman Bill Allen they needed to stick together and "really lay low" to beat an FBI investigation into their cozy relationship, according to audiotapes played Monday at the senator's corruption trial.

"Screw them, if they prove we did something wrong," the senator says in one of a series of secretly recorded telephone calls in the fall of 2006. "In my heart, I don't think we did. ... I say, screw it."

Stevens, unaware Allen already was cooperating with investigators, advises him, "We ought to really lay low right now." He also tells him to cut down on drinking, watch his health and await the outcome of the probe into more than $250,000 in renovations on the senator's cabin and other gifts provided by Allen's oil pipeline company, VECO Corp.

"Let's stick this thing out together, OK?" Stevens says.

Accused of lying on Senate finance disclosure forms to conceal the gifts, Stevens repeatedly — and sometimes profanely — asserts his innocence on tape. But he also tells his old friend he's worried about the appearance of wrongdoing and even warns that they might be under surveillance.

"I think they're probably listening to this conversation right now," Stevens says in the recording.

"We might have to pay a fine and spend a little time in jail," he continues. "I hope it doesn't come to that."

Is it worse that Stevens, a lawmaker, considers justice to be determined entirely in his head, or that he suspects that he's under surveillance yet CONTINUES to incriminate himself?

Either way, this looks horrendous for Stevens. Go Mark Begich. You can actually listen to the tapes, which is good for at least an hour of amusement, at this link (scroll to the bottom).

AK-Sen: Toobz Trial Day 1

Day 1 of the Ted Stevens trial, the first with a sitting member of the US Senate in a long time, yielded some surprises. First we learned that Stevens used his corporate benefactor as a "handyman" service:

WASHINGTON - Sen. Ted Stevens used one of Alaska's biggest employers as his "own personal handyman service" and never paid Veco Corp. for hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of renovations to his home, a federal prosecutor charged Thursday as she outlined the government's case for finding the Alaska Republican guilty of lying on financial disclosure forms.

"You'll learn that the defendant never paid Veco a dime for the work on the chalet. Not a penny," the Justice Department's lead prosecutor, Brenda Morris, told jurors in the opening minutes of Stevens' trial [...]

But prosecutors said the jury will also hear from many of the people who did the work on Stevens' Girdwood home, Morris said, referring to the A-frame cabin as the "chalet," as the senator did. Morris said they will describe how even though Stevens paid subcontractors with whom he didn't have a personal relationship, he never paid Veco for its work, thanks to his close connections to the company's founder.

"If the defendant needed an electrician, he contacted Veco. If the defendant needed a plumber, he contacted Veco," she said. "We reach for the Yellow Pages, he reached for Veco."

Well, we all have a large energy company we use to do odd jobs around the house.

Here's the alibi:

Stevens' lawyers countered that he was not guilty and blamed Veco and its chief executive officer, Bill Allen, for allowing costs to escalate without telling Stevens what the expenses would be or even showing him all the bills. Allen also installed fancy add-ons - like a Viking gas grill and gaudy but pricey Christmas lights - that were unnecessary and unwanted, Stevens lawyer Brendan Sullivan said.

"When you see the evidence ... you'll see he had no intent to violate the law, no intent to conceal anything," his lawyer said. "He didn't want these things, he didn't ask for these things. He told some of them to take them back. He never once hid anything."

Hm. So Ted Stevens can't take the grill back himself? Veco just dropped these gifts on him and he had nothing he could do but say "take them back?" Doesn't pass the laugh test.

Neither does this:

(The Politico) Brendan Sullivan, defense attorney for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), made an admission today that probably isn't going to help his client's re-election changes - Ted Stevens doesn't really live in Alaska, the state he has represented in the Senate for the last 40 years.

Sullivan was discussing the role that Stevens and his wife, Catherine, took during the renovation of their home. That renovation lies at the heart of the criminal case against Stevens, who is charged with filing false financial disclosure reports from 1999 to 2006 in order to hide hundreds of thousands of improper gifts. Justice Department prosecutors allege that Stevens only paid a fraction of the true cost of the renovation, with the rest being picked up by Bill Allen, former CEO of oil services company VECO Corp.

"This is a renovation by a married couple that lives 3,300 from the renovation," Sullivan said. "They live here with us in the District of Columbia because he works up here on Capitol Hill."

Yeah, you know, maybe if he doesn't live in Alaska, he could go ahead and stop representing it.

Mark Begich, the ad is already written and awaiting your "I approve this message."

The LA Times has more.

Senate Campaign Report

Just a few items of interest:

• MS-Sen: What do you do when your handpicked GOP Senator is about to go down to defeat to a Democrat? You try to hide the race on the ballot, that's what!

A judge has temporarily blocked a state ballot that places the U.S. Senate race between Ronnie Musgrove and Roger Wicker near the bottom of the ballot.

Earlier today, the state Election Commission approved placing the Musgrove-Wicker race in the special election section that comes after regular election contests on Nov. 4.

But Pike County Election Commissioner Trudy Berger filed a lawsuit in Hinds County Circuit Court only hours after the commission meeting.

“My client's responsibilities are to the voters and the law is clear. Elections for federal office should be at the top of the ballot. The proposed ballot buries the most prominent election in the state and will cause confusion on Election Day,” said Jackson Attorney Sam Begley, who is representing Berger.

There's just no precedent for this. There's a clear dropoff of votes as you go down the ballot, and any coattails that the top of the ticket would have are nullified by placing the Senate race so far away. This is a novel way to suppress the vote by Mississippi Republicans. I'm almost in awe.

• NC-Sen: Elizabeth Dole is from Kansas. Her husband represented Kansas in the US Senate for decades. She ran for President as a citizen of Kansas. She moved to North Carolina when a seat opened up. That's not unprecedented (Hillary Clinton), but Dole tries to cover for this by saying that her family had a business in North Carolina for many years. Kay Hagan has been tweaking her Kansas roots, leading Dole to respond. But she couldn't actually name the family business that she uses to cement those ties to the state:

Dole (while laughing): I think (Hagan) has indicated many times that I’m from Kansas. But my roots are very deep in North Carolina. Very deep. Here, I grew up in Salisbury, went to the public schools, spent 11 years on the Duke board after I graduated from Duke, own a home there. I own a business in North Carolina, for goodness sake. My family roots go way, way back.

Reporters: What business do you own?

Dole: We had a family farm, which was turned into a real estate development. And it’s just outside of Salisbury. It’s just a beautiful development.

Reporters: What’s the name of the development?

Dole: [10-second Pause followed by nervous laughter] Well…

[Another pause]

Reporters: It’s fine if you …

Dole: I have to stop and think for a moment.

She eventually came up with the name (Forest Glen). Good for her.

• GA-Sen: Jim Martin has been impressively polling close to Saxby Chambliss in this race, which is kind of off the radar screen. And now he's brought in Max Cleland, the former Senator who Chambliss smeared horribly in the 2002 matchup (comparing him to bin Laden), to cut an ad. Keep an eye on this one.

• AK-Sen: The thought was that Ted Stevens wanted a speedy trial to prove his innocence before his Senate election. I guess he's less secure in the court case now, because he's clearly trying to drag it out. His lawyers are asking for reams of documents and plan to present a long, aggressive case. That may be good courtroom strategy, but it's terrible for Stevens' re-election hopes.

• MN-Sen: This is hilarious. No comment necessary.

Interviewer: I just want to know how you feel about the last eight years of George Bush.

Norm Coleman: Well, uh, belehduh belehdudeduh.

That's a verbatim quote.

Things Not Happening In Denver

• Ted Stevens won his primary. That's excellent news. Mark Begich is going to slaughter him in November. Meanwhile Don Young and Sean Parnell are separated by 150 votes with 98% cast. We won't know the outcome of that for a while.

• John McCain has a private lake that he stocks with fish. And he has a tax plan that would save hundreds of thousands of dollars for the kind of people who stock their own private lakes. This isn't rocket science, people. Republicans have been a party of, by, and for the rich for many many years.

• Steny Hoyer shows some rare fire in the drilling debate. Using George Bush to shut down arguments should be as elementary as McCain using his POW status.

Demonstrators in background:Drill now, Drill now...
Hoyer: You know, some people don't listen as you noticed. Some people are so convinced of the righteousness of their position, they don't think that they need to listen to others. That's been the history of this administration for the last eight years, why it's been an abysmal administration.

It is a hear no evil, see no evil, but speak a lot of evil administration that is reflected here.

Demonstrators in background: Complete silence

• Bush apparently is kicking himself that he didn't get to lock in 12 years of war and will have to settle for just 8.

• McCain has a new ad up about Obama minimizing the threat of Iran. But wait, he's being completely dishonest about it in addition to the fearmongering! It's truly amazing to see these big tough guy neocons wet their pants over a country like Iran when we have an incalculable military superiority. What a bunch of wimps. Meanwhile, Steve Benen explains the McCain campaign's "video press release" strategy, making a new ad every day that they never air anywhere to troll for media coverage.

• The Census Bureau released new data showing a slight drop in the number of uninsured Americans, but most of the drop is due to a rise in public insurance programs.

In other words, if not for more robust public insurance, it's likely far more people would be without medical coverage. And that's true of the long-term, as well. Employer-sponsored insurance has declined over the last 30 years or so, as rising costs have made it harder for employers and employees to pay for it. If not for the expansions of eligibility for Medicaid and establishment of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, many more people would be without insurance and, as a result, struggling to pay their medical bills.

So the case for expanding public insurance -- ideally, to help cover everybody -- isn't weaker because of the new numbers. If anything, it's stronger.

And of course, the list of uninsured does not count the underinsured.

AK-Sen: The Alaskan Wolverine

This is Ted Stevens' idea of reaching out to the voters - challenging them to a fight:

As more and more people called in to the show asking questions about his upcoming trial and indictment, Stevens' patience seemed to wane. At about forty minutes into the show, host Steve Heimel stepped in to break up a shouting match between Stevens and a caller.

"Excuse me, Steve," the caller said, "but the senator is a big boy and can take care of himself. He's been in the game a long time."

"You're damned right I can take care of myself," Stevens responded. "Any time you want to come, friend."

Vote Stevens - Or So Help Me, I'll...

This compilation of some of the calls is hilarious.



And after a haranguing like this, he actually had the cluelessness to tell a primary opponent in a debate that the people of Alaska don't care about his corruption charges.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ledger, this is a good interview with Mark Begich. This is particularly good about Russia and Georgia:

"But Russia saw they could go into Georgia and we would have no real response except saying 'please get out.' ... I think we have to re-engage with Russia, and not just have George Bush watching the volleyball tournament in the Olympics while Georgia's getting invaded. That perception is very important, and I think he needs to take it a little more seriously," he added.

Given that Russia has started running bomber patrols off of Alaska in the aftermath of the Georgia crisis, Begich has cause for some local concern over Bush's stewardship of global affairs. While rattling off an itemization of the state's military capabilities, including C-17 cargo planes and F-22 stealth fighters, Begich noted that the "strong military" state is one of America's most strategic ports. Still, he doesn't see force as the only component necessary to improve America's leverage in global affairs.

"One thing the [Sen. Barack] Obama campaign will reestablish is our rapport with countries all over this globe, so that we have the capacity to negotiate with Russia when they are pushing the envelope like they did in Georgia," Begich said, adding: "He'll provide the oomph we need to do that."

Because neither Presidential candidate will be up in Alaska this year, and the state is close at that level, Begich is as much a surrogate as anybody, and he's doing a great job helping both Obama and himself.

House And Senate Report

Just a few things I've seen around.

• NC-Sen: Elizabeth Dole is the subject of the worst profile I've seen of a candidate in a while. It starts with her saying that she's been in her home state a lot lately. Um, it's kind of your job to be connected with your constituents all the time. Then there's this amazing statement:

Dole said she also supports drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve, where drilling would have a small footprint that wouldn’t harm much wildlife.

“Even the caribou like to snuggle up to the pipeline,” she said.

This flavor of crazy leaped from right-wing Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota over to Dole. The idea that Liddy Dole can read the minds of caribou - and that PLAYS INTO HER POLICY THINKING - is just incredible. If I'm Kay Hagan I play that for the next 11 weeks.

• AK-Sen: Ted Stevens is going to be standing trial in Washington, losing his battle for a change of venue in his corruption case to Alaska, where he has been providing everyone with their own personal bridge for 40 years. Sound judicial decision. So he'll be spending September and October in DC while fighting for his political life back at home, returning on weekends to campaign after a 8-hour flight. And he's in his 80s. Those will be some energetic rallies.

• CO-Sen: VoteVets has gone up with a very good ad basically calling Bob Schaffer a war profiteer for negotiating oil contracts in Kurdistan in the middle of the Iraq war. It's gotten some local coverage, where you can see Schaffer's campaign manager blowing a gasket.

Schaffer's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, demanded the group apologize to the candidate.

"That is the most reprehensible and disgusting attack that could be leveled," Wadhams said, adding that three of Schaffer's five children are officers in training in college and will be deployed within a few years [...]

Wadhams challenged VoteVets.org to release its list of donors to prove it is not funded by "labor unions and leftist organizations."

Touchy, touchy!

• MS-Sen: This race between Roger Wicker and Ronnie Musgrove is far closer than you would expect for a race in Mississippi. So it's time for the Bush Administration to step in and sabotage the election.

When the Democrats and their attorneys began claiming last year that the Bush administration was using its prosecutorial might to target opposition candidates and their major financial supporters, I greeted the allegation with a skeptical eye.

I’m not so sure anymore.

This past week’s developments in the four-year-old investigation into the failed Mississippi Beef Processors plant seem timed to help derail Democrat Ronnie Musgrove’s bid to snatch one of the state’s two U.S. Senate seats from Republican hands.

Read the whole thing.

• FL-13: CREW has filed an FEC complaint against Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan, and there are a couple interesting signatories to the complaint - Buchanan's own employees.

Today, CREW and Florida citizens Carlo Bell and D.J. Padilla (both of whom worked for Buchanan's car dealerships) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) against Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) alleging serious violations of campaign finance law. The complaint and affidavits of Bell and Padilla can be found here.

Rep. Buchanan owns several car dealerships in Florida. In September 2005, dealership employees were pressured into contributing to Rep. Buchanan’s congressional campaign and some were reimbursed for making contributions. Former employee Carlo Bell was called into a manager’s office and told that if he was part of the “team” he would make a contribution. Fearing for his job, Bell agreed to make the donation and was handed $1,000 in cash. Bell also saw two other employees, Jack Prater and Jason Martin take cash in return for promising to write checks and FEC reports confirm that both men made $1,000 contributions to the Buchanan campaign.

• MN-03: It's Blog Day for Ashwin Madia, a former Marine corpsman and solid progressive. He also ended up writing a great piece about Sen. Lieberman and Iraq today.

Today, the Republican Party announced that the loudest defender of status quo policies on Iraq, Senator Joe Lieberman, will be a prominent speaker at the Republican National Convention in my home state of Minnesota. Senator Lieberman and I do have one thing in common. We’ve both changed political parties. I left the Republican Party in 2002 after it replaced “balance our budget” with “borrow and spend” and after we started a war without a plan for success; a war we did not need.

With all respect to Senator Lieberman, talking tough about Iraq is not brave. Bravery is not demonstrated through words but instead through action.