The Alaska Supreme Court ruled against Miller’s bid yesterday to challenge the Senate election, where Murkowski won as a write-in candidate. Miller has until Monday to decide whether to take his case to federal district court, and Judge Ralph Beistline, who is holding up certification of the election until Miller exhausts his options.

The votes for cloture exist. It’s just a matter of finding the time on the Senate calendar, where DADT repeal competes with the START treaty and a host of other bills. The wrangling over the omnibus or some other government funding measure will loom large as well.

DADT has one last chance and suddenly it is looking up…you know what that usually means.

Nancy Pelosi released a statement last night on the failure of the defense authorization bill, which included a legislative repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” She also said that she would work to pass a standalone legislative repeal by the end of the legislative session. The President endorsed the move as well, urging the Senate to revisit repeal in the lame duck session.

Senate leadership has planned a vote on a free-standing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell legislative repeal, unencumbered by the defense authorization bill, to come to the floor sometime in the lame duck session, perhaps next week. Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins are co-sponsoring the bill, which will have the same language as what was in the defense authorization bill. Harry Reid will co-sponsor as well, and they will use Rule 14 to bypass the Senate Armed Services Committee and bring it directly to the floor.

Bob Gates successfully convinced Brown on the implementation process, which should concern people a bit, especially as Gates might not be around to do the implementation. Gates did say that he would not “slow-walk” things, but what about his successor? What if a President Palin reaches office without implementation in place, and she just never certifies it? I don’t know if that’s likely, but it’s something to watch.

Joe Miller looks destined to lose the Alaska Senate election if all the votes are counted. Naturally, he subsequently wants to make sure all the votes aren’t counted. Miller wants to force a change to the stated intention of the Alaska Elections Board on how they will count write-in ballots.

If the DISCLOSE Act passes in the lame duck session, I’m a spotted egret.

The last week of the Senate race in Alaska has been pretty chaotic. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is reportedly going up with last-minute ads, sensing an opportunity. It’s going to be a wild finish.

Joe Miller reversed himself and discussed his background yesterday, acknowledging that he committed ethics violations while working at the Fairbanks North Star Borough in 2008. He used company time and resources to help depose the head of the Alaska GOP.