Why do we even bother holding elections anymore?

The Alaska Republican Party is calling on Democratic Sen. Mark Begich to resign his first-term post as senator, one day after Attorney General Eric Holder cleared former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens of felony charges Wednesday. "The Alaska Republican Party...believes that current Senator Mark Begich should resign his position to allow for a new, special election, so Alaskans may have the chance to vote for a senator without the improper influence of the corrupt Department of Justice," the Alaska Republican Party's Web site states.

We had an election. There were no irregularities with the election. Mark Begich won.

Nobody disputes any of this.

The entire investigation into Ted Stevens' lawbreaking was conducted by a Republican Justice Department. And naturally enough, the Bush DOJ managed to screw up the investigation. Given that virtually everything the Bushies touched turned to suck, this is no surprise to anyone.

Yet somehow, this is all grounds for overturning a perfectly legitimate election. Because the Republican lost, ya see! And that's no fair!

After all, Republicans should be rewarded for Republican screwups!

Heck, why stop here? Why not ask President Obama to resign? We all know he would have been slaughtered if Stevens hadn't been under indictment! It's a center-right country, after all!

You know, Kay Hagan should resign too! If this BS investigation into Stevens hadn't sullied the good name of senile Republicans everywhere, Elizabeth Dole would have thrashed her!

You know, what would really be fair to Stevens is to give him his seat back, and have Mark Begich do time in prison on Stevens' behalf.

Needless to say, the pretty Alaskan face of Republican suckitude thinks this is a swell idea, also:

WASHINGTON — Gov. Sarah Palin and the head of the Alaska Republican Party said Thursday that Sen. Mark Begich should give his Senate seat up to a special election now that prosecutors have abandoned their case against Ted Stevens. "Alaskans deserve to have a fair election not tainted by some announcement that one of the candidates was convicted fairly of seven felonies, when in fact it wasn't a fair conviction," Palin said in a Thursday interview with the Daily News. The governor said she does not want to "split hairs" on whether Begich should resign or not but agrees with the Republican Party's call for a special election.

It's not surprising that Palin thinks that this particular Republican screwup should be rewarded; she's a pretty egregious Republican screwup herself.

It is a bit, how you say, hypocritical, given that homegirl herself was one of the Republican wolves calling for Stevens' head back when it was fashionable to do so.

"After being found guilty on seven felony counts, I had hoped Senator Stevens would take the opportunity to do the statesman-like thing and erase the cloud that is covering his Senate seat," Palin said in a written statement. "He has not done so. Alaskans are grateful for his decades of public service but the time has come for him to step aside."

But gosh darn it, you can't expect poor naive Sarah to have any consistency in her positions, also!

She and the rest of the clowns in that disgraced political party can keep on howling at the moon all they like, though. Mark Begich isn't going anywhere. And Republican attempts to overturn a perfectly fair and legitimate election only illustrates once again their utter contempt for the democratic process and the American citizenry.

And as long as they feel like whining, John Cole has a pretty good response: