Below The Beltway

Not surprisingly, the earlier reports of a Clinton succeeding Clinton in the Senate have been shot down:
WASHINGTON (CNN — Former President Bill Clinton has no interest in replacing his wife in the U.S. Senate, his spokesman said, adding any speculation that he would be interested is “completely false.”
(…)ome were suggesting that the former president replace [...]

It’s becoming apparent that Al Franken isn’t going to pull ahead of Norm Coleman in the still-ongoing Minnesota Senate race:
While a tiny margin separates the candidates in the Minnesota U.S. Senate race, it is wide enough that Democrat Al Franken faces a daunting task in challenging votes to erase Sen. Norm Coleman’s lead.
The two sides [...]

The Washington Post reports today that the incoming Senate is likely to be much easier on Barack Obama than Republicans would like:
Democrats said much of their disappointment about falling short of 60 Senate seats dissipated when Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) was declared the winner of the Senate race in Alaska, giving Democrats 56 seats, [...]

Delaware’s Governor has appointed a long-time aide to Joe Biden to fill his Senate seat, but it looks like it’s just a temp job:
Ted Kaufman, a longtime aide to Joe Biden, will be appointed by Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to fill the vacancy created by the vice president-elect once he resigns from the Senate.
Kaufman [...]

It took nearly three weeks, but the Virginia Board of Elections has declared Tom Perreillo the winner over Virgil Goode:
The State Board of Elections has certified challenger Tom Perriello as the winner over Republican Congressman Virgil Goode.
The board today certified Perriello as the winner by 745 votes in the 5th District congressional race. Goode is [...]

At least not when it comes to running a political campaign in the 21st Century:
Just how far has the GOP fallen behind the Democrats in terms of technology? Well, they sent a telegram.
There are many ways to measure how screwed Republicans are after the last election.
You can look at the avalanche of swing states that [...]

The Democrats picked up a seventh Senate seat last night when final results from Alaska showed Mark Begich defeating long-time Senator Ted Stevens:
Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens lost his job to Mark Begich on Tuesday, putting an end to the era of “Uncle Ted” as the dominant force in Alaska politics.
Begich, the Democratic mayor of Anchorage, [...]

By a fairly decisive margin, the Senate Democrats have decided to make nice with Joe Lieberman:
WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Lieberman will keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee despite hard feelings over his support for GOP nominee John McCain during the presidential campaign.
The Connecticut independent will lose a minor panel post as punishment [...]

It looks like Joe Lieberman will not lose his committee chairmanship after all:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Senate Democrats appear willing to let Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, keep his powerful Homeland Security Committee chairmanship, even though he campaigned vigorously for Sen. John McCain’s White House bid, two sources told CNN Monday.
But the veteran lawmaker will, according to [...]

It’s not looking good for Sen. Ted Stevens (R., Federal Prison):
Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is in grave danger of losing re-election after Mark Begich widened his lead to 1,022 votes Friday.
More than 90 percent of the votes are now counted, and Friday’s count of absentee and questioned ballots could have been Stevens’ best chance to [...]