Will New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton be the next secretary of State? (Photo by Melina Mara of the Washington Post)

Although plenty of other political stories are sure to come and go over the next few days, there is only one MAJOR story out there: Will New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton be secretary of State in President-elect Barack Obama's Administration?

Ever since it was revealed late last week that the one-time rivals had huddled in Chicago to discuss the possibility of Clinton heading up the State Department, cable news, radio shows, newspapers, and online news sources have been dominated by speculation about whether she will take the job or not and why. (Set aside for the moment the potential complications presented by former President Bill Clinton's work in foreign countries and the financial disclosure issues regarding his presidential library fundraising that might arise during the vetting process.)

There is a growing sentiment that Clinton should just make up her mind already -- either say "yes" or "no" to avoid dragging the process out any longer. (Politico's Glenn Thrush, a veteran of the New York political scene, wrote a piece last night suggesting that Clinton remains undecided about what to do.)

While that sentiment is not unexpected, it is unrealistic based on what we know of Clinton and her thoughts on her own political future.

Talk to anyone who was a member of the Clinton campaign -- inner or outer circle -- and they will tell you that the New York senator was single-mindedly committed to winning the Democratic nomination and the White House until the day she decided to end her campaign.

Time and time again during the campaign when it looked like she simply could not overcome Obama's pledged delegate edge, we would ask Clinton aides whether she ever talked privately about the prospect of not winning. To a person, they insisted she never spoke about the possibility.

So, when she ultimately did concede, Clinton had only just begun to grapple with the idea that she would not now -- and might not ever -- be the president of the United States.

And, don't forget, that Clinton's six years in the Senate before she began running for president were generally regarded -- even by her critics -- as surprisingly productive and bipartisan. She clearly relished her role in the chamber and was, by almost all accounts, enjoying herself.

UPDATE, 9:00 pm: Democrat Mark Begich has defeated Sen. Ted Stevens (R) in the Alaska Senate race, according to the Associated Press. With roughly 2,500 overseas ballots still to count, Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, leads by 3,724 votes.

"Mark Begich will be an outstanding Senator for Alaska and the country, and with seven seats and counting now added to the Democratic ranks in the Senate, we have an even stronger majority that will bring real change to America," said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) in a statement released moments ago.

Stevens has yet to concede the contest and could request a recount.

ORIGINAL POST

Democrat Mark Begich has nearly doubled his lead over Republican Sen. Ted Stevens with just 8,000 votes remaining to be counted in the Alaska Senate race, according to tabulations provided by the state's Division of Elections.

With 16,000 of the 24,000 remaining ballots counted, according to the Anchorage Daily News, Begich now has 146,286 votes (47.56 percent) while Stevens has 143,912 votes (46.79 percent).

Under Alaska law, a recount would be mandated only if the final margin is less than .5 percent ; Begich's lead is currently .77 percent. (Hat tip: Fellow numbers geek and Post congressional reporter Paul Kane). If the margin remains over .5 percent, Stevens could still ask for a recount but would have to pay for the costly procedure from his own campaign cash.

Begich trailed Stevens by nearly 3,200 votes on election night but roughly 90,000 votes -- a combination of absentee, early and questioned ballots -- remained uncounted and, as the counting began last week, Begich quickly closed the gap and jumped into the lead.

Should Begich win, it would bring Democratic gains to seven seats in the 2008 election, putting them at 58 seats with two races -- in Minnesota and Georgia -- still up for grabs.

A manual statewide recount began in the race between Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman (R) and comedian Al Franken (D) today and the Georgia runoff between Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) and former state Rep. Jim Martin (D) will conclude on Dec. 2.

Largely overlooked in the Senate Democratic caucus' decision today to allow Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman to remain as chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and, therefore, to keep him caucusing with Democrats, is the prospect that the party could wind up with control of 60 Senate seats when all is said and done in this election.

Democrats are privately optimistic about their chances of overcoming Coleman's 206 vote edge heading the official recount (and some academic studies seem to support that optimism) and believe that the race between Chambliss and Martin is close and could well stay that way all the way through the runoff.

To be clear: A 60 seat, filibuster proof majority for Senate Democrats remains a decided longshot. But, Begich's seeming come-from-behind win brings the party ever closer and there are enough races still undecided to get them to their goal. Likely? No. But still a real possibility.

Eric Holder, the man charged with vetting Barack Obama's vice presidential picks, is almost certain to be the attorney general in the Obama Administration, according to knowledgeable Democratic sources.

Newsweek's Michael Isikoff first reported the news of Holder's likely selection. The Obama transition team, however, is not confirming the report.

It's worth noting that in his item, Isikoff writes that Holder has yet to go through the formal vetting process that would be expected before the decision is finalized and announced publicly.

Holder did not return a series of emails seeking confirmation of the Newsweek report. If he is named to the post, he would be the first African American to head the Justice Department.

Holder, like many of Obama's early appointments, has long ties to former President Bill Clinton. Clinton named Holder U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in 1993 and four years later the former president appointed Holder deputy attorney general -- the second-ranking position in the Justice Department. Holder also found himself in the middle of the controversial pardon of financier Marc Rich issued just before Clinton left office.

Holder is currently a "litigation partner" with the firm Covington & Burling and, over the summer, served as the semi-public face of Obama's vetting process.

Initially Holder was part of a three-person vetting team but Jim Johnson was forced to step aside due to his ties to Countrywide -- the mortgage lending giant. And, Caroline Kennedy, the other member of the trio, played an almost entirely behind the scenes role -- leaving Holder to deal (albeit it rarely) with the press on the vice presidential issue.

The Obama campaign has been extremely tight-lipped about the individuals the president-elect is considering for the top Cabinet slots in his White House. The most far-advanced selection process appears to be for secretary of State where Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) is considered the frontrunner for the job.

Vice-president elect Joe Biden and his son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, embrace at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden will not accept an appointment to the Senate to replace his father, according to knowledgeable state sources, a decision that scrambles the race to to replace the vice president-elect in the Senate next year.

Beau Biden, the eldest son of Joe Biden, removed himself from consideration even as he prepares to deploy for a year-long tour of duty in Iraq. (Biden is a member of the Delaware National Guard and is currently training in Texas before being deployed to the Middle East.)

What Beau Biden's decision means for the Delaware political landscape is still anyone's guess. Given his military commitment, there seemed to be no way that he could be appointed to the seat in early 2009 anyway, and his decision to pro-actively remove himself from consideration simply affirms that reality.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, who faces a secret ballot vote from the Democratic caucus today, may get to keep his chairmanship -- a prospect many thought impossible just a week ago. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

UPDATE, 12:30 pm: As expected, Senate Democrats voted today to allow Joe Lieberman to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee while stripping him of a more minor subcommittee chairmanship on the Environment and Public Works Committee. According to a Democratic source with knowledge of how the meeting transpired, Lieberman appeared remorseful but did not ever say he was sorry for his actions; he claimed that several of his comments on the campaign trail had been misinterpreted by the media. Sens. Chris Dodd (Conn.) and Ken Salazar (Colo.) led the "keep Lieberman" faction while Sens. Pat Leahy (Vt.) and Bernie Sanders (Vt.) were the most forceful voices in opposition.

ORIGINAL POST

This morning the Senate Democratic caucus will gather to decide the fate of renegade Sen. Joe Lieberman -- a decision freighted with symbolism for the party as it prepares to assume full control of the levers of power in Washington.

Lieberman, as anyone who paid even passing attention to the presidential race knows, was an ardent supporter of John McCain and, according to many Democrats, crossed a line with his speech at the Republican National Convention in September.

And yet, as the hour (9:30 a.m. ET) approaches for Senate Democrats to vote on whether or not Lieberman can retain the chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, knowledgeable party insiders suggested the Connecticut Independent is more likely than not to hold on.

How can that be?

The answer is simple -- and yet complicated. The Senate is a legislative body that was built on and even today relies heavily upon personal loyalties. It's why West Virginia Sen. Bob Byrd (D) and Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens (R) are close friends although they agree on almost nothing from a policy perspective; they have spent decades together on the Appropriations committee and, in the Senate, that connection runs far deeper than party identification.

Lieberman seems to be benefiting from his relationships in a body where he has served since 1988. The "old guard" (in the words of one senior Senate Democratic aide) has aligned behind him -- willing to forgive and forget. The newer members -- at least 12 Democratic Senators have been elected in 2006 and 2008 alone -- as well as the liberal wing of the party are much more upset about Lieberman's apostasy and want to see him punished.

"Members are eager to hear his remarks tomorrow," said one senior Democratic aide. "While some want his chairmanship gone, [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid [Nev.] wants him in the tent, the moderates are pushing hard and the bulk of the caucus is playing ball, particularly if they can strip Lieberman of at least one key committee."

The Minnesota Senate recount could be the story of the election season -- and each candidate has his own way of telling it.

The rest of the country may have moved on from the 2008 election but in Minnesota, things are just getting (re)started with a statewide hand recount of the more than 2.9 million votes cast in the Senate race between Sen. Norm Coleman (R) and entertainer Al Franken (D) set to begin Wednesday.

Since the balloting ended roughly two weeks ago, both sides have done everything in their power to "work the refs" (the media) to tell the story from their point of view.

For Coleman, the narrative is that his campaign won fair and square on election day but has now watched in horror (mock or real is anybody's guess) as a re-canvassing of the vote has narrowed his lead over Franken to just 206 votes. Coleman and his team have repeatedly sought to raise questions about the impartiality of Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie -- one of the five members of the canvassing board and a Democrat -- as well as Franken's tactics in the aftermath of Nov. 4.

"Before this recount begins, Minnesotans must have confidence that the Franken campaign's Florida style tactics will be rejected with vigor by the courts and by the Secretary of State's Office," said Fritz Knaack, senior counsel to the Coleman campaign. "There is no need for any of this to be going on in our state."

From the Franken perspective, the candidate and the campaign are simply seeking to ensure that everyone who cast a ballot -- for either candidate -- has his/her vote counted.

"It is clear that the Coleman campaign's strategy, executed with the help of its surrogates and allies, is to undermine the process and disenfranchise just enough voters that they can win," Franken deputy campaign manager Eric Schultz wrote in a memo sent to reporters late last week. "Minnesota law, unfortunately, doesn't allow them to do that. And, for our part, we're going to see to it that those laws are applied to protect Minnesotans' right to choose their Senator."

What does all of this sturm und drang add up to? That depends.

Once competitors, President-elect Barack Obama and Arizona Sen. John McCain met today in Chicago. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The meeting today between President-elect Barack Obama and his vanquished Republican rival John McCain is more about symbolism than substance, but it raises an intriguing question about what the future holds for the Arizona senator.

Prior to running for president this year, McCain was generally regarded as one of a handful of senators -- of either partisan stripe -- willing to work across the aisle to broker compromises on major issues of the day. Campaign finance reform is the most lasting example, but others -- including his leadership role in the "Gang of 14" -- also cropped up regularly over McCain's past decade of work in the Senate.

(Following their meeting today, the the two men released a joint statement that asserted their "hope to work together in the days and months ahead on critical challenges like solving our financial crisis, creating a new energy economy, and protecting our nation's security.")

During his bid for the presidency, however, McCain became much more willing to echo party orthodoxy -- an absolute necessity for him if he wanted to win over the skeptical conservative voters who make up the party's base and carry an outsized role in picking the Republican presidential nominee.

With the presidential race behind him, it remains to be seen how -- and how long -- McCain will serve in the Senate.

He seems to have three options: return to his deal-brokering ways with the added stature of having been his party's most recent presidential nominee, serve the role of the loyal opposition to the Obama presidency or simply play out the string for the next two years and retire in 2010.

Which path will McCain take? Those who know him best believe the first road laid out above is the most likely one for McCain to head down.

The Fix had quite the weekend.

Here's the rundown:

1 -- Broken-down Fixmobile along I-95 South at 11 pm Sunday night. (Good times!)

1 -- Cold caught while standing in torrential rain storm in northern New Jersey Saturday.

2 -- Overtime games for the Catholic field hockey program over the weekend. (One win; one loss)

This is a long-winded (is there such a thing as "short-winded"?) way of saying that The Fix is taking it very slow today.

Thanks in advance for your understanding.

UPDATED 12:29 p.m. ET: The Post's Mike Shear and Anne Kornblut are reporting on 44 that Greg Craig will be Obama's White House counsel, according to an individual involved with the transition.

ORIGINAL POST

It may be Sunday morning but with only 65 days left before Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president, his transition team continues to move with all "deliberate haste" to fill key senior jobs in the White House.

To wit:

• The transition announced this morning that Pete Rouse, Obama's Senate chief of staff, will become a senior adviser to the president. Rouse is a longtime senior to former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) for whom he worked on Capitol Hill for nearly two decades.

• Jim Messina, another Hill veteran, will serve as a deputy chief of staff in the Obama Administration. Prior to joining the Obama campaign in mid-June, Messina served as chief of staff to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.); Messina also has run a number of campaigns including Baucus reelection bids in 1996 and 2002. Messina is currently the director of personnel for the transition.

• Mona Sutphen was also named a deputy chief of staff this morning -- bringing a long and deep foreign policy r&eaccutte;sum&eaccutte; to the new administration. Sutphen was a foreign service officer during the 1990s and served on the White House Security Council from 1998 to 2000.

• Rumors swirled Saturday night that Greg Craig, a longtime Washington lawyer, has been chosen as White House counsel. Mike Allen of Politico had the news first; the Obama transition team was not commenting on or confirming the report as of late last night.

In a piece for tomorrow's "Outlook" section, The Fix explores -- and explodes the five biggest myths of the 2008 campaign.

We don't want to ruin the surprise but here's a sampling:

Myth #2: A wave of black voters and young people was the key to [Barack] Obama's victory.

Or not. Exit polling suggests that there was no statistically significant increase in voting among either group. Black voters made up 11 percent of the electorate in 2004 and 13 percent in 2008, while young voters comprised 17 percent of all voters in 2004 and 18 percent four years later.

The full piece is already on line and reaction is flowing fast into the Fix inbox. Keep it coming in the comments section below.

Democrat Mark Begich now leads Sen. Ted Stevens (R) by just over 1,000 votes with more than 90 percent of the total ballots counted in the high-profile Alaska Senate race.

The Alaska Division of Elections counted another 14,500 votes on Friday and Begich's lead increased from 841 before the day started to 1,022 when the counting ended.

That means that Begich has gained more than 4,200 votes on Stevens since the 90,000 early, absentee and questioned ballots began to be counted on Wednesday. There are roughly 24,000 votes left to be counted, and the counting will resume, and presumably conclude, early next week, according to the Begich campaign.

Of the remaining votes, roughly 15,000 are in the Anchorage area (a swing area in the race) and another 8,000 are in the Juneau area, which should be Begich territory.

"The news continues to be positive," Begich said in a statement released by the campaign tonight. "With the gap widening slightly in our favor today, I feel even more optimistic that when all the ballots are counted next week, we'll see Alaskans came out to vote for new leadership in Washington, D.C."

If Begich winds up winning, Democrats will have gained seven seats in the Senate with two results -- in Minnesota and Georgia -- still undecided. In Minnesota, Sen. Norm Coleman (R) has a 206-vote lead over comedian Al Franken (D) and a manual statewide recount is almost certain. In Georgia, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) and former state Rep. Jim Martin (D) will face off in a Dec. 2 runoff.

Should Democrats sweep all three contests, they will control 60 seats (including Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut) in the Senate -- a margin that, if it held, would allow them to break Republican-led filibusters.

President-elect Barack Obama and his future Secretary of State? Photo by Emmanuel Dunand of AFP/Getty Images

The news that Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama huddled yesterday at the president-elect's transition headquarters in Chicago has set off another round of speculation that the New York senator may well be in line to be Secretary of State in an Obama administration.

While neither side is offering any official comment, one source close to Hillary Clinton told The Fix today that it is a "very good possibility" that the New York senator would end up as the Secretary of State.

Given all of the speculation, we thought it made sense to lay out the arguments for and against Clinton as Secretary of State.

Our pros and cons are below. Have some of your own? Offer them in the comments section below.

PROS

* Gravitas: Clinton is well-known and well respected in the international community. Is there any question that she could hold her own in delicate negotiations with our international friends or foes? The one thing that became indisputably clear during the Democratic primary race is that voters view Clinton as eminently qualified on nearly every issue. Putting her out as the administration's top diplomat would likely be received, nationally and internationally, as a solid choice.

* Two for the Price of One?: The Clintons are -- and always have been -- a package deal and, if Hillary Clinton becomes Secretary of State, this phenomenon could work to Obama's advantage. Former President Bill Clinton has spent much of his time since leaving office focused on international issues and is clearly a serious player on the world stage. Whether he would have a formal advisory role (not likely) or an informal role, Bill Clinton's knowledge and expertise would almost certainly aid his wife and -- consequently -- Obama.

* The Olive Branch: It's no secret that relations between the Obamas and the Clintons were not warm and fuzzy during or after the Democratic primaries. (This is probably more true with regard to Bill Clinton than Hillary Clinton, it's worth noting.) And, following the vice presidential sweepstakes -- in which the New York Senator was never seriously vetted for the job -- things may have gotten even more testy. Obama, at heart, is a pragmatist, and knows that it does him much more good to have Hillary and Bill Clinton on board rather than free-lancing. Making Clinton the Secretary of State would ensure buy-in from the former first couple.

CONS

* A Third Clinton Term?: The first two major hires of the Obama White House -- Rep. Rahm Emanuel as the presidential chief of staff and Ron Klain as the vice presidential chief of staff -- have long ties to Bill Clinton and his presidency. If Hillary Clinton is the Secretary of State, there will be some (many?) in the party who will complain that Obama promised something new but is in fact delivering just more of the same. One of the unique aspects of Obama's ascent to the presidency is that he, unlike almost other Democratic candidates, owes little to the Clintons. Obama had no ties to the duo before running for national office and made clear during the primary season, in fact, that he was running against the Clinton years in some ways. Naming Clinton to such a high-profile post would be taken by some as a rejection of the "new politics" Obama pledged during the campaign.

* A Free Lancer: As we noted above, the danger for Obama with regards to both Hillary and Bill Clinton is that they will pursue their own agenda -- political and policy-wise -- rather than advocate for the president-elect's preferred issues. While the chances of Clinton free-lancing are far less if she is a member of the Obama cabinet, there is absolutely no way of ensuring that her own views on matters of foreign policy would be subsumed in favor of those of the administration. Having Clinton on the world stage pursuing her own agenda would be potentially very problematic for Obama and, at that point, it would be impossible to put the toothpaste back into the tube.

The day after the 2008 election ended, the 2010 cycle began for political junkies.

For both parties and their political operatives this is a time filled with possibility and hope. Maybe, just maybe, that governor who has held out on a Senate race for so long will finally make the leap. Maybe, just maybe, a wealthy candidate willing to write his or her own check, will emerge to take on that surprisingly vulnerable incumbent.

In other words: at this point in the cycle, hope springs eternal.

A quick glance at the playing field, however, suggests that Republicans could -- yet again -- be in for a difficult time in 2010.

Republicans must defend 19 seats including six (North Carolina, Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio) in states won by President-elect Barack Obama earlier this month.

Democrats have far less vulnerability; only one incumbent up for re-election (Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar) won with less than 55 percent of the vote in 2004 and several potential races are entirely contingent on one Republican candidate deciding to run.

Below are what we believe to be the top 10 Senate races of the 2010 cycle. We've arranged them alphabetically since it's too early -- even for the Fix -- to order the likelihood of their takeover.

Agree or disagree? The red neon "OPEN" sign is flashing in the comment section.

To the Line!

* California (D): While Republicans acknowledge beating Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) is something close to an impossibility, they have long believed that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) is far more vulnerable. In her first re-election race in 1998, Boxer took 53 percent but improved on that margin six years later when she took 58 percent against former Secretary of State Bill Jones. The hottest name among Republicans to take on Boxer is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger although the Governator has offered no public comment on the contest. The only announced Republican to date is state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.

* Florida (R): This Sunshine State seat -- currently held by Sen. Mel Martinez (R) -- is at the top of nearly every Democratic strategist's list of potential pickups. Why? Obama's win in the state has bolstered Democrats' confidence and the $14,000 Martinez raised between July and September has Republicans worried. Rep. Ron Klein (D) is giving every indication that he will run; as of Oct. 15 he had $1.8 million in his House bank account. A number of other Democrats -- including Florida's Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and state House Minority Leader Dan Gelber -- are mulling the race. For Democrats to win, they must try to avoid the nasty primary fights that have foreclosed their chances in other recent statewide races.

* Kansas (R): Sen. Sam Brownback (R) is planning to leave the Senate after two terms to make a run for the open governor's office in 2010. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), who will be term limited out of office in 2010, is seen as a leading candidate to run for Brownback's seat and may well be the only Democrat who can make it a legitimate takeover possibility. (If Sebelius -- a close ally of Obama -- takes a job in the new Administration, Democrats have next-to-no chance of winning this seat.) On the Republican side, Rep. Jerry Moran has already announced he is running to replace Brownback and Rep. Todd Tiahrt -- among others -- is considering the contest.

* Kentucky (R): For those Republican strategists hoping that Sen. Jim Bunning (R) would retire rather than seek a third term, think again. Sources close to Bunning insist the Kentucky Senator has made up his mind to run and is beginning to put the pieces into place to do just that. Bunning is absolutely certain to be one of Democrats' highest priorities in 2010 since he has never won with more than 51 percent of the vote. Democrats' strongest candidate would be Rep. Ben Chandler but the smart money seems to believe he will stay in the House. If Chandler does stay out, Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo, who lost to Bunning by 23,000 votes in 2004, probably has the right of first refusal. State Auditor Crit Luallen and state Attorney General Jack Conway are also mentioned and would be serious and credible candidates.

Michael Steele, former Lt. Gov of Maryland, speaks to the delegates during the Republican National Convention at the Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday, September 3, 2008. Photo by Bonnie Jo Mount, Washington Post

Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele has decided to run for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, a move sure to shake up the evolving race for control of a party demoralized by broad losses at the ballot box earlier this month.

Steele confirmed his candidacy in an interview today with The Fix and announced it formally during an interview on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" show this evening.

"After two devastating election cycles, the party has reached a crossroads," said Steele comparing the Republican party to someone who has "hunkered down" in a corner with no idea what to do next. "I think I may have some keys to open the door, some juice to turn on the lights," Steele explained.

Steele is the second candidate to formally enter the race; Michigan Republican Party Chair Saul Anuzis launched his own bid with a You Tube video and a new website earlier this week.

A number of other candidates are mulling the race including: current RNC Chairman Mike Duncan, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), former Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Chip Saltsman, former Iowa Rep. Jim Nussle, South Carolina Party Chair Katon Dawson and Florida Republican Party Chair Jim Greer.

The next chairman will be selected by 168 RNC committeemen and women during the organization's winter meeting in January.

Steele seems virtually certain to be one of the frontrunners for the post no matter who else joins the race given his resume and his profile. Following a stint as chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, Steele was elected lieutenant governor of Maryland in 2002. In 2006, he embarked on a Senate bid for the seat vacated by Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D). Despite massive spending on his behalf by the national party, Steele came up short to now Sen. Ben Cardin.

Since that loss, Steele has remained in the party mix as chairman of GOPAC, a national conservative organization designed to elect Republicans at the state and local level. He is also a frequent television presence as a contributor on Fox News Channel and the author of the now famous (infamous?) "Drill Baby Drill" line at the Republican National Convention.

The election may be over but the Political Take continues!

In today's edition, The Fix and Newsweek managing editor Dan Klaidman discuss the hiring of two longtime Clinton Administration operatives -- Rahm Emanuel and Ron Klain -- to senior positions in the still-forming White House of President-elect Barack Obama and what it means for the transition process.

And, while many people have moved on from election 2008, there remain three Senate contests -- Alaska, Minnesota and Georgia -- still without a winner. We examine the state of play in each of the races and what it all means for Democrats' continued quest for a 60-seat, filibuster-proof majority.

All that plus the fate of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.) in this week's Political Take!