When we began the TedFest! poetry contest at firedoglake last week, Alaska's very senior Senator Ted Stevens was ahead of his most likely November challenger, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, by one point. Now, as we let you choose the final winners, Mark Begich is up by nine points. Way to go, gang! That's Mark in his newest TV ad at the top of the post.

It is your turn to finish judging the poems. Over 150 poems were created here about Ted Stevens. 121 of them fit the original TedFest criteria - more or less. I got three distinguished Alaskans who have been watching our Senator closely over the years, to narrow the finalists down to three in each of four categories. The categories emerged as I combed through the 121 poems. They are haiku, limerick, short verse & ephemera, and verse. No YouTubes were entered, so that category was easy to judge.

Our judges were Mike Chmielewski, former Matanuska-Susitna School Board Chairman, current Palmer City Council member and President of the activist organization, Friends of Mat-Su; Steve Aufrecht, retired University of Alaska Anchorage professor and my favorite Alaska blogger; and Shannyn Moore, Alaska's most progressive voice on the AM and FM airwaves.

Here are the rules for the finals - pick one winner in any, or in each category, and comment about it here over the next 24 hours. That's it. Prizes? Christy Hardin Smith had a suggestion last week - toobz! Maybe first prize can be lunch with Ted Stevens' staff, second prize two lunches with Ted Stevens' staff, eh? Any other ideas? I'll reveal the authors of these gems after the contest is over.

Haikus:

Seven stars shining
On a new house in Girdwood
Oil money bought it

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Ted Stevens glows at midnight.
Son already sunk.
Glaciers calving justice

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Midnight sun, with many tubes.
Wisdom comes to Ted
Slowly, if at all

Limericks:

Of all the congressional critters
Ted sure knows his Toobz and transmitters
His scandals are breakin
His booze, getting taken
And now there’s no wine-ing and bitters.
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Senator Ted’s been around a long time
Leaving a long and storied trail of slime
Now the Feds are taking a look
As they think Ted’s really a crook
So we ask, where ya been all this time?

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Upper House Stevens? Need proof
He let all our freedoms go poof
Our dollar is sinking
The glaciers are shrinking
Now voters are raising the roof

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Short Verses and ephemera:

Just
Go,
Ted

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Veni, vidi, Veco.

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Seward’s Folly, good golly
Stevens’ Fall, jolly good.

Verse:

if ever we looked far and wide
for someone whom we could describe
as a privilege taker
an opportunity maker
for his greedy band of squires;
to the edges of earth we’d ride
far up north to aurora’s skies
ted stevens would fix it
this time he can’t fix it
he’ll be going to jail for his lies.

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Tubes and trucks litter the Tundra
Left alone, a man bleeds on the snow
Gasping, ranting; yellowed teeth chattering,
Weary bones aching
As Valkyrie taunt and mock - Toobz!
A cry mocked by its echo - VECO!
Burns the lips with litigious icicles
That melt as blisters rise
VECO! Ice and wood and shame
No! NO! Rasp and rage
Give way to dull fingers and tongue
Sun sets, knowing
Tundra and Raven will take their own
Once again - once again

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There are odd things done in the midnight sun
By the men whom Oil has sold
Their fishy tales meet with hearty gales
from wise heads when they are told
The FBI’s knights have recited some rights
but the queerest they ever had read
was that night by the mouse of a Girdwood house
that belonged to Senator Ted.

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There you have it, firedog critters. I'll be helping with the contest, if you have any questions. I'd like to once again thank Alaska's Democratic Party National Convention blogger, Celtic Diva, for her help on this over the past week.

There is so much going on in Alaska politics today, even without Ted's awesome help. The special session of the State Legislature is voting on Governor Sarah Palin's preferred proposal for building our long overdue natural gas pipeline from Alaska's north slope to markets (they have been either burning off or re-injecting the gas since Prudhoe Bay opened).

But our popular governor's honeymoon with Alaskans ended last week, when her administration and family became embroiled in the emerging scandal over her abrupt firing of the popular head of the Department of Public Safety. Now it turns out that the man she has nominated to replace the former top cop, has some serious questions emerging about a sexual harassment charge brought against him by a female police officer serving under him while he was Chief of Police in the town of Kenai. Never a dull moment in the most rapidly changing political climate in the United States - Alaska.