International pariah

No one offers their hand. He doesn't offer his. He knows, after all, what an outcast he is.

Box Turtle's new chewtoy

Our freshly re-elected junior senator gets to be the boy that gets more Republican senators elected. In the glorious words of Bobby Knight: "He couldn't lead a hooker to bed":

In his new role, Cornyn will have to oversee a coming election cycle in which Republicans could stand to weather further losses. Among GOPers whose 2010 races are shaping up as potential nailbiters are Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky, and Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.

The GOP in fact stands to lose even more seats in 2010 than they did this year. Kagro X:

The title says "National," but the party's increasingly regional. The hard-right rump of what used to be a national base. And the GOP's cure? A hard-right Texan, who is, rather fortuitously, a bit of a rump himself.

But really, what choice have they got? You choose your leaders from the Senators you have, not the Senators you might want, or might wish to have at a later time.

Now, my humble O is that these jobs are a little overblown. After all Chuck Schumer, who does the same thing for our side at the DSCC, did nothing that I could observe to recruit Barbara Radnofsky in 2006 or Rick Noriega in 2008, and even less to help them. Recall that Mikal Watts raised over a million bucks last year for Schumer (that he must have spent somewhere else besides in Texas, obviously).

Will Corndog be the referee that separates the scrum that develops if Kay Bailey resigns her seat to run for Guvnah in 2010? She doesn't have to step aside, so it may not be necessary to even do that unless she won, and then called a special election for 2011 to replace herself.

And what does Corndog think he can do to stanch the GOP bleeding? Raise more money? Recruit better Republicans in other states to run?

Good luck with that, buddy.

Countdown to 60 in the Senate

Mark Begich makes it 58 (counting Bernie Sanders and Joe the Plumber):

Sen. Ted Stevens' election defeat marks the end of an era in which he held a commanding place in Alaska politics while wielding power on some of the most influential committees in Congress.

It also moves Senate Democrats within two seats of a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority and gives President-elect Barack Obama a stronger hand when he assumes office on Jan. 20.

On the day the longest-serving Republican in Senate history turned 85, he was ousted by Alaska voters troubled by his conviction on federal felony charges and eager for a new direction in Washington, where Stevens served since Lyndon B. Johnson was president.

Alaska voters "wanted to see change," said Democrat Mark Begich, who claimed a narrow victory Tuesday after a tally of remaining ballots showed him holding a 3,724-vote edge.

"Alaska has been in the midst of a generational shift — you could see it," said Begich, the Anchorage mayor.

Courtesy of historian Carl Whitmarsh, we have more on the Alaskan Senator-elect:

[Begich] is the son of the late US Rep. Nicholas Begich, who was killed in a plane crash while campaigning for re-election in October 1972 with then-House Whip Hale Boggs of Louisiana (father of ABC's Cokie Roberts and lobbyist Tommy Boggs), whose wife Lindy succeeded him in Congress and served New Orleans for some 26 years. The elder Begich and Boggs were presumed killed when their plane disappeared in the mountains of Alaska and they were declared dead in December after no wreckage or bodies could be found. Mark Begich was 8 years old at the time of his father's death.

So a recount in Minnesota and a runoff in Georgia are the last remaining Republican roadblocks to a super-majority. The links detail the circumstances; Al Franken needs rejected absentee ballots examined for various technicalities (including undervotes that the state's optical scanners may have missed) to overcome Norm Coleman's 200+ vote lead, while Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin call up Libertarians and call on the heavy hitters (John McCain, Bill Clinton, Al Gore) to campaign for them.

A win in either race matches my prediction *buffs manicure*, and I'll go a little farther out on the limb and say that Franken pulls off the upset but Chambliss beats back the challenge, which would perfectly align with my October 28 prognostication.

December 16 is Election Day for SD-17

QR's Daily Buzz:

Word out of the Governor's office late (yesterday) afternoon has Rick Perry setting Dec. 16 as the date for the runoff election between Democrat Chris Bell and Republican Joan Huffman to fill the unexpired term of retired Sen. Kyle Janek (R-Houston).

Early voting will run from Dec. 8 through Dec. 12 ...

That's four weeks from today, three weeks until the abbreviated early voting period. Another month-long sprint to the finish line to get one more good D into the Texas Senate.

Texas educators: teach evolution only

Yesterday's Texas Freedom Network conference call included Dr. Eve and these results of his survey, as Gary Scharrer reports ...

The verdict from Texas scientists is nearly unanimous: 98 percent favor the unadulterated teaching of evolution in public school classrooms, according to a report released Monday as the State Board of Education prepares to weigh in on the controversy.

A vast majority of the scientists say students would be harmed if the state requires the teaching of the "weaknesses" of evolution, according to the survey conducted for the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund, an organization that works on issues involving religious freedom, civil liberties and public education.

"With 94 percent of Texas faculty ... telling me it (teaching the weaknesses) shouldn't be there, I tend to believe them," said Raymond Eve, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Arlington who did the study.

More than 450 biology or biological anthropology professors at 50 Texas colleges and universities participated in a 59-question survey. Many of those faculty members help determine admission of students into Texas' colleges and universities, Eve said.

"Their responses should send parents a clear message that those who want to play politics with science education are putting our kids at risk," he said.

So if the college and university professors are all but unanimous, where is the disconnect?

Why, it's at the high school level (including the private schools and the home-schoolers IMHO, although those obviously fall outside the purview of the public education system).

The handling of evolution is the most contentious part in the state's rewrite of the science curriculum standards for public schools. The State Board will have a public hearing on Wednesday and vote on the new science standards early next year. The new guidelines are formally known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS.

Social conservatives on the 15-member State Board of Education are likely to push for those standards to include a requirement that high school science teachers teach the weaknesses of evolution.

"There's no one on this board that is trying to inject intelligent design or creationism," said board member David Bradley, R-Beaumont. "They are trying to whip up into a frenzy over something that is not going to happen. But by trying to remove strengths and weaknesses, yes, they will get a fight."

Unfortunately we failed to knock Dominionist David Bradey off the SBOE. Here's another example of what we're up against:

Public school students should be exposed to all sides of the evolution debate, said Casey Luskin, a spokesman for the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank that advocates the teaching of evidence for and against evolution in public schools.

"It's a facade to pretend that there are no scientific weaknesses of evolution, and not teaching the scientific weaknesses to students will prevent them from learning about the facts of biology, and it will harm their critical thinking skills," Luskin said.

He downplayed the survey of Texas scientists.

"This self-selecting survey shows just how ideological the Darwinists have become because they are now resorting to scientific votes to reinforce a climate of intimidation that shuts down scientific criticism of evolution," Luskin said.

Ah, science goes up against the teachings of Jesus. "Scientific criticism" of evolution such as the belief that the planet Earth is less than 10,000 years old. Because that's what the Bible says.

And Texas high school teachers can teach anything they want once the door to their classroom closes.