Jim Tedisco is starting to look desperate.

Unable to open up a lead against Democrat Scott Murphy as absentee ballots are counted in New York's 20th Congressional District race, the Republican has resorted to challenging the ballot cast by Kirsten Gillibrand, the Democratic congresswoman-turned-senator who Murphy and Tedisco are vying to succeed.

The argument being made by Tedisco's lawyers is that Gillibrand was in the district on the day of election and therefore was required to cast her ballot at her hometown polling place, rather than by mail.

Never mind the silliness of that argument - many people cast absentee ballots ahead of time, thinking they're going to be out of town on Election Day, only to wind up being home unexpectedly - it's the sheer pettiness of Tedisco's challenge that is so laughable.

Tedisco expected to win cleanly on Election Day, but he didn't. Then he expected that the thousands of absentee ballots cast would favor him by a wide margin, but they aren't going his way by even a small margin. So now he's doing what so many Republicans before him have done when they couldn't claim victory the old-fashioned way: Resorted to court battles in an effort to steal the win.

First George W. Bush. Then Norm Coleman. Now Jim Tedisco.

Birds of a feather, indeed.