For the last few days, Republicans and their media enablers have been laying the groundwork to declare any close races today as stolen by Democratic election fraud.

If you’re going to be up on Capitol Hill on Thursday, watch out! That’s when Rep. Michele Bachmann is holding her Capitol Hill Tea Party. They’ll start on the Capitol steps and then fan out into the halls of the building until they see the “whites of their eyes” and convince them not to give way to socialism.

Sounds fun.

I’ve been at this so long I remember going head to head with John Fund about his bogus charges of vote fraud against Indians during the South Dakota senate race (Thune v. Johnson) in 2002.

Good times.

Contrary to reports out this morning, Reid communications director Jim Manley tells TPMDC: “We do not yet have an understanding with Senator Lieberman.”

Just as a bit of background, it’s worth knowing that these kinds of things are seldom black and white and confidential understandings often cannot survive contact with the light of day or on the record questioning.