Mississippi -- Another reason to repeal

This is starting to cycle out of the news, but I wanted to spill a few pixels over Mississippi's election.

Dirty secrets are still surfacing, but it looks like the Republican establishment really outdid itself this time.  I try to avoid cliches, but "with friends like this, you don't need enemies."

I might be naive, but it seems like politics has been getting dirtier the past few years.  This seems especially apparent at the state and local level, where the margins are usually smaller and just a few votes can tip the balance.  Al Franken's election comes to mind.  How to avoid some of this behavoir?

Repeal the 17th!

We've discussed this earlier, but the 17th Amendment allowed for the direct election of senators.  This gave greater control to the state government and served as a moderating force to the whims of the people.
It also helped avoid voter fraud.  It is much easier to re-count the votes of 100 or so state legislators than thousands of private citizens, some of whom may not even have identification cards.  The reality of voter fraud was all the more apparent in the Mississippi election, where Democrats were openly voting in the Republican primary, and little effort was made to check their eligibility.

It was likely not a determining factor, but the avoidance of voter fraud is one of the best consequences of an indirect election process.  We should go back to this system instead of facing another questionable election such as in Mississippi.