I have been raising hell for almost a year now that we didn't have a candidate in the pipeline to go up agaist the Great Nothingness, Lamar Alexander. It won't be quite as satisfying as putting a "D" on the seat formerly occupied by Bill "KatKillah!" Frist, (grrr, Harold Ford) but I'll take Lamar!'s as a consolation prize:

My Fellow Democrats,

After several months of talking to fellow Tennesseans about the presidential race, I know this will be a democratic year. I was reminded several times about the U.S. Senate race after several colleagues asked if I would consider running. After deep consideration and talking with my family, my political mentor Bob Clement, as well as his long time friend and chief of staff Larry Woods; I have decided to enter the race. These friends are confident that I should run, and believe we have the ability to win this race.

Don't know how many people have been following this case; I thought I posted on it last week but apparently left it in a comment. My bad. Anyway, I'd rather frontpage good news than bad, even if this good is just a correction of a previous bad. From the AL news roundup:

Openly gay Patricia Todd was reinstated Saturday as the Democratic Party's nominee for a seat in the Alabama Legislature.

It must be admitted, sigh, that the problem was apparently a racial one (Todd is white) rather than sexual orientation. In a relentless mood of optimism I choose to look at even this as a good thing. Can you imagine a Republican state party having so many black members that a fight like this could break out?