I’m searching for a silver lining here and coming up empty. The best I can do: If a careerist RINO simply had to win a Senate race this year, better her than Crist, right?

Now I’m depressed.

Gov. Sean Parnell and Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, who oversees elections, signed the paperwork certifying her victory in the hotly contested race. “It’s done,” Treadwell said after penning his last signature in front of cameras in Parnell’s office.

The paperwork was expected to be hand-delivered to Washington, D.C., by state Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai to guard against delays that could keep Murkowski from being sworn in with her colleagues on Wednesday.

With certification, Murkowski becomes the first U.S. Senate candidate since Strom Thurmond in 1954 to win a write-in campaign…

Murkowski campaign manager Kevin Sweeney called certification “anticlimatic.”

Joe Miller had already scheduled a presser for Friday, so expect to ring in the New Year tomorrow night with a bitter, bitter concession. As for Murky, two things. One: Her status as the frontrunner to keynote RINOcon is now assured, especially given the promise of Palin-bashing in her speech. And two: Is there a chance that she’ll eventually go independent? The fact that Alaska’s a red state means she’ll probably stick with the GOP, but I’m not yet ready to abandon my scenario for a new indie caucus in the Senate as centrists from both parties face primary doom in 2012. If anyone can get away with bolting the party and winning reelection anyway, it’s a candidate who managed to beat a tea-party favorite this year with a write-in campaign, no?

Now I’m depressed again. To lighten the mood, here’s Murky showing off her mad write-in educational skillz.