Ted Stevens, Walking the Bridge to Nowhere

From Reason.com:

All week, pundits have been assuming that Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens miraculously survived his re-election bid.

No one knew how he did it.

We're starting to get an answer: He actually didn't survive the race.

Alaska is big and weird and it takes ages to count early ballots from close races, and the state counted 53,000 ballots yesterday that put Democrat Mark Begich in the lead.

Mark Begich (D) - 132,196
Ted Stevens (R) - 131,382

If Begich even builds a 0.51 percent lead over Stevens (he's at a 0.29 percent lead now), he escapes a recount and takes over the seat.

This would, among other things, close Sarah Palin's escape hatch out of Alaskan politics.

It would also lock down 58 Democratic Senate seats (counting Joe Lieberman), with the Minnesota Senate race looking better for them every day.

In Minnesota, Democrat Al Franken has gained hundreds of votes as the state recounts ballots, and the Republicans have shown their panic with lawsuits and op-eds trying to cast doubt on the count.