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the RNC had best treat this election as if the balance of power in the Senate were still up for grabs in this one seat. Not only does Thune deserve that support, it may be that the GOP needs him seated in '04 or '06 to keep the majority. I stayed up till 8am ET on Wednesday, November 6, tracking the SD returns at the state site ... and an interesting track that was .... Thune took a good lead as they went into the state's Western counties .. then every half hour or so a new precinct or so would be posted, each new posting reducing the gap between Thune and JOhnston by approximately 200 votes. When I finally fell asleep, AFTER THE RETURNS FROM CA, AND EVEN HAWAII, had been in, there were five (5) SD counties still out. Thune was up @478 votes ... three hours later when I awoke, miracle of miracles, Johnson had overtaken Thune by 500 votes. This is the oldest trick in the book, where the Democrats will hold some of THEIR precincts until the bitter end to see how many votes are needed to put their guy over the top. If the GOP doesn't wake up, we are in serious trouble .. and we will be hard pressed to get candidates of Thune's stature to run. (Oh, and Landrieu was able to be seated last time ONLY because the GOP didn't stand with Woody Jenkins .. let's not have history repeat itself).