Really, I’m finding it difficult to decide how to feel about this.  Ted Stevens has apparently eked out a win in Alaska to return to the Senate, despite his convictions on seven counts of corruption.  As of this moment, with 99% of precincts reporting, Stevens holds a 3300-vote margin over Mark Begich, who may well wonder what it takes to get Alaskans to retire Stevens.

On the positive side, it gives Republicans their 41st confirmed Senate seat, making filibusters possible.  If the GOP catches breaks in Oregon, Minnesota, and Georgia, they would have a strong firewall of 44 seats.  That would give them the ability to keep an Obama administration in check, at least on its most radical impulses.

However, keeping a corrupt porkocrat in office hardly merits celebration.  Every day Stevens caucuses with the GOP is a day his corruption taints the Republican caucus as a whole.  The Senate Ethics Committee will almost certainly recommend expulsion if the judge in his case confirms the convictions in February, and they’ll be doing the right thing when they do, regardless of which party holds the majority.

The good news?  Once Stevens gets the boot, Sarah Palin will get to appoint his successor, and that will be a Republican.  More than likely, it will also be a reformer, which will help the GOP find its identity in the Obama administration.

Update: I’m told that the seat would get a temporary appointment from Palin, followed by a special election.  That’s the way it works in some other states as well.  Alaskans don’t seem too interested in sending Democrats to Congress, though, so it’s still almost certain to remain Republican if Stevens wins.