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Begich claims victory over Stevens for Alaska Senate seat (CNN) -- Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the Republican lawmaker convicted on felony corruption charges in October, appears to have lost his bid for re-election to Democrat Mark Begich, according to a release from Begich's campaign and unofficial results from state officials. The statement and results Tuesday come two weeks after the election, after absentee ballots were counted. With 100 percent of Alaska's precincts reporting, Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, had roughly 47.7 percent of the vote, compared with about 46.6 percent for Stevens, according to unofficial results posted on the Alaska Secretary of State's Web site. He appears to have bested Stevens by 3,724 votes, according to the posted results. Alaska elections Director Gail Fenumiai said 2,500 overseas ballots remain to be counted. She said officials hope to make an official announcement during the week of December 1 -- and that Stevens would then have five days to request a recount. Stevens, who turned 85 on Tuesday, was convicted in October of filing false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms. Prosecutors said Stevens hid hundreds of thousands of dollars in "freebies" from an oil-field services company in his home state. On Tuesday, his fellow Senate Republicans postponed a vote they had planned on whether to kick Stevens out of their caucus pending the final vote results. Stevens maintained his innocence even after the conviction. At a debate days before the election, he said he had "not been convicted of anything." In his statement claiming victory, Begich said he was "humbled and honored" by the apparent results. "It's been an incredible journey getting to this point, and I appreciate the support and commitment of the thousands of Alaskans who have brought us to this day," he said in the written statement. "I can't wait to get to work fighting for Alaskan families." Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11...race/index.html

Ooo this keeps getting better. Minnesota & Georgia remain. Just think of all the wonderful ways Democrats could screw this up! It'll be the largest fall from power since, well, the republicans last election!

If you wanna help Georgia win, tell me when the run off election is gonna be

December 2 and you can vote early now

60 back in play

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Gregg Under Consideration for Commerce Updated 12:56 p.m. By Philip Rucker and Dan Eggen Republican Sen. Judd Gregg said today he is under consideration by the White House to become commerce secretary, the last remaining post in President Obama's Cabinet. The New Hampshire senator is among several leading contenders, including Symantec Corporation chief executive John Thompson, for the job that became open earlier this month after New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew as Obama's nominee. "I am aware that my name is one of those being considered by the White House for secretary of Commerce, and am honored to be considered, along with others, for the position," Gregg said in a statement released by his office today. "Beyond that there is nothing more I can say at this time." If he picks Gregg, Obama would add another Republican to his administration as well as create a vacancy in the Senate that would be filled by New Hampshire's Democratic governor, John Lynch. If Lynch named a fellow Democrat to the seat -- and if Democrat Al Franken is declared the winner in the closely contested Minnesota race -- Democrats would have a 60-person, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. A respected fiscal guru in Congress, Gregg was one of the GOP's lead negotiators of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. Gregg, 61, is heir to a prominent New Hampshire political family and was a businessman and attorney before entering politics. He was elected to Congress in 1980 and later served as the state's governor from 1989 until entering the Senate in 1993. Gregg is a former chairman of the Budget Committee, and in 2005 won $853,492 with a winning Powerball lottery ticket. But his selection might also lead to tough questioning before the Senate. Gregg's name came up in connection with the uproar over improper hiring practices at the Justice Department during the Bush administration, including the selection of immigration judges. The department's inspector general found in a report issued last year that senior Justice officials used political and ideological affiliations in deciding whom to appoint as immigration judges, which are nonpartisan civil-service positions. Gregg helped to secure one of those judgeships for a former campaign treasurer, Francis L. Cramer, who had less than six months of experience with immigration law and had previously been rejected as a tax court judge because of a lack of qualifications, according to the inspector general's report and other records. In a March 2004 e-mail, one Justice official asked a colleague to notify Gregg about Cramer's appointment because "this is the issue he'd been pushing with us," the report said. The Government Accountability Office, a legislative watchdog, also criticized Cramer's appointment, saying that "converting a Schedule C [political] appointee with less than 6 months of immigration law experience to an immigration judge position raises questions about the fairness of the conversion." http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44...ml?hpid=topnews

Even if it doesn't end up being Gregg, I'd take this as a response from the White House to the Republican's move on the stimulus bill. A nice smack to the back of the head reminding who's in charge.

Awesome

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Originally posted by ******** Seplling don't demonstrate intelligence and educatoin - knowing does.

This is such a calculated chess move by BO. Appoint the republican senator to be the Sec. of Commerce in a move to appear bi-partisan, but in reality set the stage for a super majority. Very crafty.

Well, crafty or not, Gregg does make sense as a pick. And some would say that he's been positioning himself for such an appointment, voting with Obama on 6 of the first 7 votes in the Senate since Inauguration.

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Originally posted by Shakka This is such a calculated chess move by BO. Appoint the republican senator to be the Sec. of Commerce in a move to appear bi-partisan, but in reality set the stage for a super majority. Very crafty.

So it's Gregg and the replacement will be a Republican.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18325.html

Hows that for bipartisanship? Of course we won't know for sure until the NH Gov makes the appointment but now too many people have enough to loose for it to not be a Republican.

quote:

Gregg withdraws nomination to become commerce secy By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent David Espo, Ap Special Correspondent 10 mins ago WASHINGTON – Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire abruptly withdrew his nomination as commerce secretary Thursday, citing "irresolvable conflicts" with President Barack Obama's handling of the economic stimulus and 2010 census. "We are functioning from a different set of views on many critical items of policy," Gregg said in a statement released by his Senate office. Gregg, 61, is a former New Hampshire governor who previously served in the House. He has been in the Senate since 1993 and currently serves as the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, where he is known as a crusader against big spending. He was Obama's second choice to fill the Commerce portfolio. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew several weeks ago in the wake of a grand jury investigation into alleged wrongdoing involving state contracts. He has not been implicated personally. In his statement, Gregg thanked Obama for the nomination, and said, "I especially admire his willingness to reach across the aisle." In citing the stimulus and census, he said, "Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns. We are functioning from a different set of views on many critical items of policy." The unexpected withdrawal marked the latest setback for Obama in his attempt to build a Cabinet. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was confirmed despite revelations that he had not paid some of his taxes on time, and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle withdrew as nominee as health and human services secretary in a tax controversy. In his statement, Gregg said his withdrawal had nothing to do with the vetting into his past that Cabinet officials routinely undergo. Gregg's reference to the stimulus underscored the partisan divide over the centerpiece of Obama's economic recovery plan. Conservatives in both houses have been relentless critics of the plan, arguing it is filled with wasteful spending and won't create enough jobs. Gregg has refrained from voting on the bill — and on all other matters — while his nomination was pending. The Commerce Department has jurisdiction over the Census Bureau, and the administration recently took steps to assert greater control. Republicans have harshly criticized the decision, saying it was an attempt to politicize the once-in-a-decade event. The outcome of the census has deep political implications, since congressional districts are drawn based on population. Many federal funds are distributed on the basis of population, as well. Both of those factors mean there is a premium on counting as many residents as possible. Historically, the groups believed to be most undercounted are inner-city minorities, who tend to vote Democratic. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ gregg_w...mVha2luZ25ld3M-

This is getting retarded. Cry babies throwing temper tantrums because they can't have their way.

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The Democratic Party won for a reason: the Republicans failed and have taken us all down with them! You're doing your presidency and America no favor by extending an open hand to the perpetually knotted fist of what has become the embittered lunatic fringe of our country. They would rather go down in flames than "compromise" their ideology. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank...e_b_165359.html

Screw em.

The timing of this today shortly after Reuters reported that the Government was going to start subsidizing mortgage payments is the most curious thing to me here. If that was a final straw for Gregg, then good for him. The government has crossed way too many lines already with the neverending bailouts, but this one took the cake.

I dunno, it at least sounds legitimate as not due to any specific thing. Gregg sat back and realized he would take issue with the general policy of the administration and didn't want to spend all that time being frustrated. Not when he has a cushy seat in the Senate.

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Originally posted by josh4 This is getting retarded. Cry babies throwing temper tantrums because they can't have their way.

Hey, finally you're recognizing the behavior of Democrats for the last 8 years. But give me a break. The Democrats completely shut the Republicans out of meetings in the last couple of days; THEY WOULD NOT ALLOW THEM IN THE ROOM. Pelosi even said there was no reason for them to see what was in the bill since they didn't vote from it. It's doubled in length to like 1300 pages, way too much to be able to read in the short amount of time available as they try to ram it down the throats of the AMerican people. But that's the point... it's so lengthy, they can squeeze in all their little pet project language to get everything the want. This congress is so pathetic and lacks the transparency they promised they'd have. All of the wasteful things that the House managed to get cut out are right back in there too, some at even higher amounts than before. Bipartisanship to this new administration equals "We won, we do whatever we want, and you have to agree to it or you're a partisan hack." What a goddamn joke. They are going to overreach badly, and already are... they can't stop themselves with their greed.

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This makes the third Cabinet appointment from Barack Obama to fail, and the second one at Commerce. This is an embarrassment for Obama, and might imperil the stimulus package, if Gregg has any influence over the waverers. The decision to strip him of authority over the census looks like the last straw, however — as it should have been. Barack Obama will take another big hit to his transition, but the man who really deserves the obloquy this time is Rahm Emanuel. The census ploy was a transparent attempt to hijack the data for political purposes, and pulling that stunt after Gregg's appointment made Gregg look like a political eunuch. It was classic overreach, and it's classic Emanuel. Now he's embarrassed himself, made his boss look impotent, and managed at the same time to damage Obama's most critical piece of domestic policy legislation. If Gregg hits the media circuit to criticize Porkulus, his credibility as an Obama appointee will create a lot of heat on other Republicans and even a few Democrats to stop the runaway train of this bill and force it back into debate.