It looks likely that Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) will have to face the music this Tuesday. That's when there will be a secret vote amongst Republican senators, led by Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), to decide if Stevens should be kicked out of the Republican caucus, effectively making him a man without a party while stripping him of all committee assignments and party votes.

Such a vote would also signal party willingness to eject Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in history and patriarch of Alaska politics who was convicted last month on seven felony charges for making false statements, from the Senate altogether.

Stevens' only salvation from this humiliation would be to lose the race to his Democratic opponent, which would make those votes moot and thus less likely to happen. Stevens is currently losing by 1,022 votes but more remain to be counted.

We should know by the end of Tuesday. It looks increasingly likely that Stevens is done, one way or the other. If so, Begich would bring the number of Democratic senators to 58, very close to the magic number of 60 required to overturn Republican filibusters.