By Steve Clemons

A 3 vote difference with 10,000 votes left to process. . .but hey, if it keeps Sarah Palin from the Senate. . .

Barack Obama should keep his smile and not adopt the scowl that Vice President Richard Cheney often deployed to tenderize his victims, but he should pay careful attention to the way that Cheney animated hundreds of followers to move the Cheney agenda across the national security bureaucracy.

This shot was sent in by frequent TWN commenter, POA. It’s a railroad trestle as seen from beneath. I think it’s quite stunning. Back from Pittsburgh yesterday. In DC. Off to Europe on Thursday.

Last night, I had a round with the smartest anchor on air, Rachel Maddow, about Joe Lieberman and what his future in the Senate could look like. I have heard Joe Lieberman state on many occasions that “our children’s education is a national security issue.

This is interesting. The Project for a New American Century — the lilly pad for the neoconservative movement — is back online. For nearly a year, perhaps more, the site has been down. No one seems to have paid the bill to the internet site host. But it’s back up.

I just received some surprising news — like, really surprising. The deal is not done — but at the moment — Hillary Rodham Clinton is in the lead to be Secretary of State. I thought she wouldn’t take it if offered.

Joe Lieberman wants to keep his status and committees and caucus with the Democrats. He has been a fear-monger and someone who has promoted a dangerous, reckless false choice between American relations with Israel and other parts of the Middle East.

I’ve been saying for some time that the day after Obama’s election, all sorts of policy and personality battles would unfold around him.