http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/us/politics/05elect.html?hp&ex=1162702800&en=2053acbcb6f551e1&ei=5094&partner=homepageThe battle for Congress rolled into a climactic final weekend with Republican Party leaders saying the best outcome they could foresee was losing 12 seats in the House. But they were increasingly steeling themselves to the loss of at least 15 and therefore control of the House for the first time in 12 years.
Democrats and Republicans said the battle over the Senate had grown fluid going into the final hours before the elections Tuesday. Democrats said they thought they were almost certain to gain four or five seats and still had a shot at the six they need to take control. Republicans were pouring money into Senate races in Michigan and Maryland this weekend to take advantage of what they described as last-minute opportunities, however slight, in states currently held by Democrats.
Party strategists on both sides, speaking in interviews after they had finished conducting their last polls and making their final purchases of television time, said they were running advertisements in more than 50 Congressional districts this weekend, far more than anyone thought would be in play at this stage.
Nearly all of those seats are held by Republicans, underscoring the degree to which President Bush and his party have been forced onto the defensive two years after he claimed that his re-election had given him the political capital to carry out an ambitious domestic and foreign agenda.
As the final weekend began, the parties made their final tactical moves as candidates sparred over the war, the economy, corruption and competence and as elaborate get-out-the-vote campaigns were rolled out. At stake was not just control of the House and the Senate, but also potentially the course of the Bush presidency in its last two years and the debate over how to proceed in Iraq.
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