Mark Begich now leads Ted Stevens by 1022 votes. Now we're talking!

Okay so now after many days of blogging about whether this election may be in the process of being stolen, and having the national media asking the same, we have Mayor Begich enjoying a comfortable lead.

Essentially it looks like it is in the bag for Begich. You can check the numbers here.

Very good! I am almost ready to put my tinfoil hat into storage and call it a day.

Almost.

Except that the race which has confused me the most is the Don Young/Ethan Berkowitz Congressional race. Currently the vote tally shows Don Young comfortably ahead with 16,288 more votes then Ethan. WTF?

I have heard all of the arguments. "Nobody really knows Berkowitz", "What has Ethan really DONE for Alaska?", "The Republicans came out in force in response to those negative ads run by the national Democrats up here."

Yeah I have heard them all. But they simply don't make much sense to me.

You see I can understand Alaskans voting for Uncle Ted, conviction and all. Simply put, there is a lot of affection for the guy.

But NOBODY feels all soft and cuddly toward Don Young. I don't even think his own kids like him! He is a bully who constantly belittles his opponents and angers his peers.

I firmly believe that back in July, before Ted Stevens was indicted, if you had asked most Alaskans which one was more likely to get thrown in jail, Ted Stevens or Don Young, it would have gone overwhelmingly for Don Young to be the first one wearing prison stripes.

And even today if somebody were to ask most Alaskans if Ted Stevens was more of a crook then Don Young, they would say no way.

So because of this I cannot imagine why Ted Stevens is watching Mark Begich slowly moving toward victory while Don Young sits in the cat bird seat with a cushion of over 16,000 votes.

If Alaskans were going to "throw the bums out" then why keep the biggest bum of all?

And if they were going to circle the wagons and protect their own, then why kick the very popular Ted Stevens loose while hanging onto the petulant Don Young?

I have spent the better part of the day rolling this around in my head, and I just cannot get my mind wrapped around it.

So for the time being my tinfoil hat will sit firmly on my head.

Because I believe, in the words of Ray Bradbury, "Something wicked this way comes."