The SD56 site prior to the video's removal Tuesday afternoon

While the GOP in Senate District 56 recently removed from its website a video I highlighted earlier — which compared the relative attractiveness of women in the GOP and Democratic Party — reactions are still coming in, including, most notably, from district Republican House candidate Kathy Lohmer, who’s calling for the resignation of the SD56 webmaster.

District 56 Sen. Kathy Saltzman (DFL-Woodbury) says she was sent the video by an angry constituent who decried the “offensive ‘beauty contest’” characterization of women in politics. The video showed elegantly clad Republican women, serenaded by audio of Tom Jones, followed by an unflattering series of images of Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Janet Reno, set to the song, “Who Let the Dogs Out?”

Saltzman dismissed the video as a distraction during rough economic times.

“As a state, we are facing a number of serious and difficult issues, not the least of which is a $5 billion deficit,” she said in a statement to the Minnesota Independent. “I don’t see how this is beneficial or helpful in anyway.”

But Lohmer had harsher words about the video.

“I just heard about this within the last 1/2 hour — and immediately called for the resignation of our web site manager for the BPOU [Basic Party Operating Unit],” she wrote in an email. Lohmer, who is running against DFL Rep. Julie Bunn and independent Jim Martin in 56A, acknowledges she hasn’t — and likely won’t — watch the video. But she says she took swift action.

“I also asked my website manager to take the SD56 webpage link OFF of my site,” she continued. “I don’t want to be connected in any way to that type of behavior.  I detest the dirty campaigning, the sign stealing, etc. All of these tactics do nothing to show the clear differences between my opponent and myself. My campaign is about integrity, common sense, fiscal responsibility, personal responsibility, respect for life and respect for the Constitution.”

Earlier today, Andrea Kieffer, the other female GOP-endorsed candidate in the district (for the 56B House seat), called the video “juvenile” and said she didn’t support it. She told the Minnesota Independent she’d request the removal of the embedded video from the SD56 site. She’s running against incumbent DFLer Rep. Marsha Swails.

Lohmer said she briefly considered whether the video had been posted by a hacker. Webmaster Randy Brown told the Minnesota Independent this afternoon that he did post the video and that he found it funny.

“[I]ts only intention was to bring a smile to a few peoples faces, and possibly irritate a few others,” he said. “Is it fair? Does that matter? It wasn’t intended to be fair. It was intended to be funny.”

Lohmer concluded her email, “If there is someone in our BPOU that did this, he or she should apologize immediately.”

Saxby Chambliss Photo: WDCpix

Republican Saxby Chambliss defeated Democrat Jim Martin in Georgia’s runoff election Tuesday, preventing Democrats from gaining a filibuster-proof “super majority” in the Senate. With 71 percent of precincts reporting, the race was called, The Hill reports, as Martin trailed 61 to 39 percent. Now it’s all eyes on Minnesota — although with a tad less intensity, now that the veto-proof majority is thwarted — as the race between incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken is the lone remaining seat from Election ’08 to be decided.

In fact, had Democrats found better candidates in both races, Democrats might not be in this current situation. Minnesota would already be in the bag, and Georgia might have been won on Election Day.

Given that Franken ran 12 points behind Barack Obama (albeit in a contest with a strong third-party candidate), and given that Minnesota had never before elected a Republican senator while voting for a Democratic presidential candidate by a double-digit margin, this conclusions seems fairly unassailable.

Challenging Math: The Strib reports that a win by Al Franken will be something of a long shot: He’ll have to win “6 percent of his challenges of Coleman votes even if Coleman fails to succeed on any of his challenges.” Ramsey County election manager Joe Mansky says historical trends show that’d be difficult. “Franken’s best [and perhaps his only] chance will be in court, not with the recount,” he added.

While Norm Coleman’s campaign puts the gap between the candidates at 282 votes, Team Franken sticks with a lower figure: just 73 votes.

Ballot Challenge: We’ve said it before, the best way to grasp what election officials are up against is to look at the disputed ballots themselves. The Strib kindly offers 599 for your consideration. (h/t Braublog)

Sen. Franken (or Coleman), you’re late for work: Sharon Schmickle writes an important piece at MinnPost today about the possibility of Minnesota’s Senate race not being decided by the time Barack Obama is sworn in as president. Obama is predicted to make his first executive act the signing of economic-recovery legislation, and to make that happen Democrats are already negotiating with colleagues and drafting legislation (Schmickle says Wisconsin Rep. Dave Obey is working on the jobs-creation component now). So even if a victor is declared by Dec. 19, which is hugely unlikely, the winner will already be late for work. Schmickle says some Republicans, alarmed by the financial crisis, will likely cross the aisle to support the Democrats’ package (not without a fight, though), but a Sen. Franken or a Sen. Coleman in Minnesota could make a huge difference.

Palin and Ludicris campaigning: OK, it has little do to with the Minnesota recount — except that it involves another yet-to-be-resolved Senate race that could help give Democrats a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate: Ahead tomorrow’s run-off, Sarah Palin is heading to Georgia today to campaign on behalf of incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss.  The big gun Democrat Jim Martin is calling in? Rapper Ludicris.

With Democrats now controlling 57 Senate seats — just shy of the veto-proof majority they’d gain with 60 — all eyes are on Minnesota’s race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken… as Huffington Post’s All-Al-All-the-Time dedicated page (see logo above) suggests. The margin has narrowed considerably between the two, but has held firm most of today at 239.

NBC’s Doug Adams takes a look at the Dems’ journey to 60. If Franken can squeak out a victory, the party will have 58 seats. And a D-column win in Alaska’s race between convicted felon Ted Stevens and Mark Begich would bump it to 59. (Begich trails Stevens by a 3,400 votes, but some 55,000 absentee ballots haven’t been tallied yet.) That leaves the 60th seat up in the air: in George, where neither Republican Saxby Chambliss nor Democrat Jim Martin won a majority vote on Tuesday, a December 2 runoff has been scheduled. John McCain — and possibly even Sarah Palin — will be heading there to campaign on Chambliss’ behalf. A request for a Georgia visit by President-Elect Barack Obama has already been requested by Martin’s campaign.