U.S. Sen. John Ensign has never gone by names such as “honest,” or “honorable,” but even we were surprised to read that he’s sending out a fundraising letter claiming “liberals are mobilizing an army of lawyers in Minnesota and Alaska to try to steal these seats they could not win outright on Election Day.”

Excuse us, senator? Steal? Don’t you mean “follow the law”?

Because that’s precisely what’s happening. In both Minnesota and Alaska, ballots are still being counted in disputed races. In Minnesota, the outcome of the race is so close — just 206 votes separate Republican incumbent (and vote leader) Norm Coleman from challenger Democrat Al Franken — that an automatic recount is required by state law. In Alaska, vote leader and Republican incumbent Ted Stevens (of felony conviction fame) leads by 3,527 votes over Democratic challenger Mark Begich, and ballots are still being tabulated. But does that really matter when Ensign himself has called for Stevens to resign?

Oh, and in Georgia, another state referred to in Ensign’s letter, because neither Republican Saxby Chambliss nor Democrat Jim Martin got more than 50 percent of the vote, both are forced into a legally required runoff.

So, where’s the “stealing,” senator? It seems to us that Democrats in all of these races are simply waiting for the process described by law to play out. That’s not stealing. That’s following the law. And you’d have to have a pretty damn twisted, dark and warped view of reality to confuse the two.

Then again, this is John Ensign we’re talking about. He was the guy in charge of electing Republicans to the Senate this time around, and he’s already lost six seats. If he loses another three, that will give Democrats a 60-vote majority in the upper house, enough to invoke cloture, end debate and stop Republican stalls of Democratic initiatives. Which means he’ll be the second-biggest loser in this election cycle, behind John McCain.

So sure, claim the Democrats are stealing. Or better yet, why not say they’re “spreading the seats around,” to themselves! You know, because they’re socialists! And they do that sort of thing! Yeah, that’s it.