When we last left the one-time Tea Party rising star Joe Miller, pundits were literally begging him to concede the Alaska senate race to his opponent, Lisa Murkowski. Miller, if you recall, ousted Murkowski in the GOP primary only to be overtaken in November by a write-in bid by the incumbent Senator. But it apparently didn't have to end so badly for him. He might've staved off a Murkowski resurrection, National Journal's Julie Sobel points out, if he had displayed a sense of good manners by giving her a phone call after the primary.

In an interview with Dan Rather, Lisa Murkowski made sure to note that if Joe Miller had just given her a ring, she might not have gone through all the trouble of launching a write-in bid to reclaim her Senate seat. "Murkowski told us she might not have challenged him at all had he been more gracious during her concession call," Rather wrote. "Another lesson for the campaign trail... that anyone's mother could have passed along for free."

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Erik Hayden