We were not looking forward to the gruesome spectacle: 18 months of Republicans giddily attacking Minnesota's lucidity-challenged, terrorist-fearing senior senator. Seldom, if ever, in our memory has an incumbent politician (with no recent history of pedophilia or crack usage) looked so vulnerable. Pitiful might be a more appropriate word. The candidate's prospects seemed so grim that we were briefly excited by the possibility that a retread loser like former Congressman Bill Luther might challenge Dayton in the Democratic primary. His announcement in February that he would not run for a second term was roughly akin to the Vikings declaring at the start of the football season that they've decided not to contest this year's Super Bowl. Now if only Norm Coleman would follow suit.