Well, it’s a done deal. The Republican establishment has proven themselves to be every bit as low-down, dirty-rotten as any leftist Dem.

The McDaniel campaign has now found 1,500 invalid votes.

Volunteers working for tea party challenger Chris McDaniel in Mississippi say they have already found 20 percent of the invalid double-votes they need to cancel Sen. Thad Cochran’s business-funded runoff victory.

“We’re finished with Hinds County, and we’re up to 1,500” invalid votes, said Noel Fritsch, Daniel’s press aide.

And that’s just the beginning. It seems — at this rate — chances are good that McDaniel will succeed at forcing another run-off election:

That’s critical because McDaniel can force another runoff if he can find more invalid votes than Cochran’s roughly 7,000-vote margin-of-victory on June 24. Votes are invalidated if voters cast ballots in both the Democrats’ June 3 primary and the GOP’s run-off on June 24.

However, McDaniel can also force another election even if he can’t find 7,000 invalid ballots, said Fritsch.

“We don’t have to prove that we have 7,000 [invalid] votes…. all there needs to be is enough doubt about the election, and we’re confident about that,” he said.

Go, McDaniels.

The Watercooler is always an open thread.