• NO Kay Bailey Hutchison won’t run seek re-election source

• » Why not? Basically, the Texas Senator is afraid of falling victim to a Tea Party challenge. She has good reason, too: In a September poll, only 25% of Republicans said they’d support her for renomination. Granted, she does have a not-so-bad approval rating of 58%, but, as Public Policy Polling points out, both Lisa Murkowski and Mike Castle had even higher numbers prior to their primaries, and both lost to Tea Party challengers. In an entirely unrelated development, Texas Democrats were seen licking their chops shortly after Hutchison’s announcement.

• In his first interview after announcing his concession, in the very first question, Miller dropped the kind of land mine that ensures it’ll be hard for him to be elected dog catcher in Fairbanks. Seriously? You’re not going to call because you don’t have her number? Stop being a loser and call the woman already. E-mail her if you have to. Use Skype or FaceTime or something. Oh wait … see this page right here? There’s a list of all of her offices, with their phone numbers. It’s a holiday weekend, but we bet that if you called one of those offices on Monday morning, Joe, they might get you in touch with the Senator. Just a hunch.

• The time has come to accept the practical realities of the current legal circumstances.
• Joe Miller • Admitting what’s been clear for about two months – he lost. What’s annoying about the phrasing of this statement was not that it congratulated Lisa Murkowski for her win, but suggested that he was only giving up because he didn’t stand a chance of winning an appeal. As does this phrase: “I accept that criticism knowing often doing what is right is not what is easy or popular. We were not successful in that endeavor, but it was a worthwhile one.” Get over yourself, Joe. You lost. Be a man instead of a jerk and call Lisa. It’s unbelievable that you haven’t been willing to call her to congratulate her. source

• YES we bet he shaves his beard after this whole mess source

• yeah … Miller has confirmed that he won’t contest the confirmation of Lisa Murkowski’s November election win, because she won.
• … but Because he for some reason can’t give in easily, Miller will be filing a lawsuit in federal court. Dude, just give it up already. You lost. source

• » But why? His explanation: “After careful consideration and seeking the counsel of people whose opinion I respect and trust, I have decided that the federal case must go forward,” Miller said. “The integrity of the election is vital and ultimately the rule of law must be our standard.” Dude. You need new friends. At this rate, you won’t get elected for dog catcher.

• Without criticizing Joe Miller, I would offer him advice. I think it’s the same advice that Fred Thompson and others have offered recently. It should be time to move on.
• Former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman • Offering Joe Miller the kind of advice that Coleman himself probably needed in the wake of 2008’s Minnesota Senate campaign, which he lost to Al Franken after approximately six months of fighting tooth and nail. (Though, granted, Coleman’s tally was much tighter – literally hundreds of votes) The fact that Coleman is saying that Joe Miller should call it a day in his race against Lisa Murkowski offers a lot of heft which it otherwise wouldn’t have. source

• 32 GOP Senators signed a legal brief challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform law
• nine GOP Senators refused to join in; Lisa Murkowski, Scott Brown and Judd Gregg are amongst the group source

Why didn’t they sign?

• We are not going to be able to talk about it. We just aren’t going to talk about that.
• Otto Heck, Judd Gregg’s spokesman • “Explaining” why Gregg didn’t sign the legal brief, prepared by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, that most of his Republican colleagues supported. Almost a third of McConnell’s caucus broke ranks here, a surprisingly high number given the general solidarity of GOP opposition to HCR.

• NO Murkowski won’t vote against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal source

• » It gets better for gay teens. And it may get better for openly gay soldiers after the Senate takes up Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal. Lisa Murkowski, who looks to be keeping her Senate seat out of Joe Miller’s hands, said today that she wouldn’t vote against repeal, the first Republican to openly pledge to do so. Joe “Connecticut For” Lieberman says that the Democrats have the votes needed to pass repeal, so long as Republicans get as much time to debate the bill as they want. We’ll believe this when we see it, but things are looking good for repeal advocates.

• NO she did, however, tweet a link about her new book source

• It’s never over until the count is done. I would encourage people to recognize that 255,000 votes were cast in the US Senate race and right now what we have is about a 2000 vote difference. Less than one percent.
• Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller • Holding on a little too closely to the belief that he still has a shot in the race. The AP called the race for Murkowski today, making her the first candidate since Strom Thurmond in 1954 to win a race on write-in ballots alone. Murkowski hasn’t declared victory today but she is expected to soon. Miller, however, whose campaign contested 8,153 ballots, is still behind by more than .5 percent, which means that if he wants a recount, he’s gonna have to pay for it himself. Look man, we understand you weren’t expecting Murkowski to win. But your cavalier attitude towards your opponents hurt you down the stretch. source