2000 – Bush v Gore.  After numerous recounts, Supreme Court finally steps in to end the madness.

1980 – Ted Kennedy challenges Jimmy Carter for Democratic nomination, but Kennedy can’t explain why he wants to run for President.

1970 – Indiana Senate race between Richard Roudebush (R) and R. Vance Hartke (D).  Hartke seated by US Surpreme Court, recount took 2 years.

1960 – JFK v Nixon Presidential election.  Did the dead vote in Chicago and help carry the day?  Did LBJ help cook the vote in Texas as well?  I’ll leave this one to the conspiracy theorists.

1950 – Maryland Senate race between Millard Tydings (D) and John Butler (R).  Butler wins because of Sen. McCarthy’s help, Tydings protests.

1940 – FDR runs for unprecedented 3rd term while promising strict neutrality regarding the war in Europe.

1800 – I don’t think I need to rehash what happened in this one.

There’s more between 1800 and 1940, but I think you get the point.  Now we come full circle to 2010.

Yesterday, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that there will be a list of write-in candidates available at polling locations.  This certainly helps Murkowski, but the real dispute happens after the polls close.

This whole Murkowski-Miller debacle reminds me a bit of my childhood and my love for Looney Tunes growing up.  One of my favorite Looney Tunes was the one where Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck found Ali Babba’s treasure.  I just remember Daffy going crazy and saying all the gold was “Mine! Mine! Mine! All Mine!“.  Which brings me back to Murkowski.  Daffy Murkowski is doing the same thing our beloved Daffy Duck did but in this case, it’s the Alaska Senate seat.  Her daddy gave her the Senate seat, which she lost, fair and square, the chance to defend her seat to Joe Miller.  Did she bow out gracefully and congratulate Miller on his win and help guide voters his way for this Tuesday?  No.  Instead, Daffy Murkowski decided that the Alaska Senate seat was “Mine! Mine! Mine! All Mine!”.

A recount is all but guaranteed.  In fact, this Alaska Senate race has many of the aspects of the races I listed above.  There will be court battles over “voter intent” with a possibility of a Supreme Court final decision.    There is intraparty fighting.  It’ll be a long recount.  Will there be votes that somehow, someway but mysteriously appear?  There are already allegations of outsider influence as Daffy Murkowski has told Sen. Jim DeMint to “stay out of Alaska“.  On top of all that jazz, we get to add in all the drama of a 3rd party/Independent run screwing up another election.

Here, in a nutshell, we have the battle between the insurgent conservative Republicans against the Beltway insider Republicans.  Old Guard versus New Guard.  Business as usual, or actual change to the DC S.O.P.  The media has already been reporting here and there about the current GOP leadership trying to undermine the incoming infusion of conservatives in the Senate and House.  To this casual observer, the Alaska Senate race is every bit a microcosm of the upcoming dispute in DC.

BTW, it’s not too late to support Joe Miller in taking back the Alaska Senate seat from Daffy Murkowski.