The Democrats are getting desperate to retain the baboon hair thin majority they have in the Senate.

How desperate are they? They actually asked political TV shouter Ed Schultz to run for a vacant seat.

The pundit and host of MSNBC's The Ed Show got a call from Democratic Rep. Merle Boucher asking him to run for retiring North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan's vacated seat.

Schultz hasn't said whether he'll run one way or the other but when he does, expect his booming voice to knock out a few car windows and the occasional fragile wine glass. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Ted Kennedy died early this morning at age 77. Healthcare for everyone was one of Kennedy's major causes and it has been going on for quite some time. This clip is from a 1997 episode of Chicago Hope. It features Ted Kennedy and Ron Silver (he died this year too). What a great actor Silver was.

[via TheWrap.com]

On his final Air America radio show today, comedian and political pundit Al Franken announced that he is going to run for a U.S. Senate seat in his home state of Minnesota. He'll be seeking the Democratic nomination for next year's election; whoever gets that nomination will run against Republican incumbent Norm Coleman.

This isn't exactly a surprise, since all the signs were there: he moved his family back to Minnesota last year and decided to end the Air America show. Both pointed to his intention to run. But his presence is going to lend national attention to that race, meaning we'll probably be hearing much more of the humorless pundit version of Franken than the witty comedian we actually came to like over the last twenty-five years. Oh, and don't put it past Minnesotans to vote him into office; he's a much more serious a candidate than Jesse Ventura was, and you remember what happened there.

After seeing Comedy Central's as for this Daily Show/Colbert Report "Midterm Midtacular" mash-up , I expected a lot more integration. Aside from the obvious change in content, this special wasn't all that, um, special. It was just like the usual Stewart/Colbert block, but with one or two more check-ins. No breaking news. No balloon drops. No t-shirt giveaways. Ehh.

The White House staff shake-up continued when Emperor Palpatine Karl Rove was demoted. His replacement is going to be Joel Kaplan.

Chinese president Hu Jintao paid a visit to Washington... both the state and DC. Actually, he flew into Seattle first to speak to Bill Gates. Yup. Hu Jintao met Bill Gates before the president. Bill Gates had a few words to share regarding the similarities between China and Microsoft, when the little paper clip guy popped up: "You seem to be equivocating morally dubious circumstances. Would you like some help?"

One of the state legislators of Hawaii invited Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, AKA Mr. Eko on Lost, to deliver the morning prayer to the legislature. The state senator invited Adewale after seeing the episode of Lost that shows how Eko was a Nigerian drug lord who took on the persona of a Catholic priest. The morning prayer of the Hawaiian legislature is the 23rd Psalm, which just happened to be the title of Eko's episode.

Adewale himself is not Christian. He's Buddhist. But he delivered the prayer anyway, saying that his mission on earth is to promote harmony and understanding. The Associated Press quotes Adewale as saying that delivering the prayer was "the pinnacle" of his career.