Contests for Senate Signal Big Trouble for GOP

[Ian David]

Sat Jun 21, 8:22 AM ET

The Nation -- Even the most determined Republican strategists -- including those at the Republican Senate Campaign Committee -- acknowledge that the Grand Old Party is unlikely to have a grand year when it comes to U.S. Senate races.

Party insiders say that if the Republicans only lose three seats, they will be doing well. And with Republican incumbent John Sununu in trailing badly in New Hampshire, while seats where Republican incumbents are stepping down in Colorado and New Mexico are looking like increasingly easy pick-ups for Democrats Mark Udall and Tom Udall respectively, it is very easy to find the three they are talking about. (And, yes, we'll address Virginia, an even bigger mess for the GOP in a moment.)

As it turns out, a review of polling data from around the country makes it obvious that a lot more than three seats could fall to the Democrats. While no Democratic incumbent -- with the possible exception of Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, who could (but probably will not) become a victim of Hurrican Katrina-related voter dislocation -- as many as a dozen Republican seats could reasonably be said to be competitive.

<snip>

Similarly hopeful are the results of a new Rasmussen poll from Minnesota. Republican incumbent Norm Coleman is at 48 percent, while Democratic challenger Al Franken is at 45 percent. Franken has had a horrible two months on the campaign trail, during which much of the discussion has been about racy writing he did in his days as a working comedian. That he is running even with Coleman as the campaign finally gets going -- now that the Democratic Farmer Labor party endorsement has been secured -- is staggeringly good news for Franken.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20080621/cm_thenation/45331699

[Hawkeye-X]

1. I'd love to see every single Rethuglicans defeated and we have a filibuster-proof majority

and it will actually help America be better for the future, and the conservatives and Rethuglicans can whine itself to extinction.

No more RIGHT WING fuckwits - if they want to live in a conservative world, move to fucking Iran.

Hawkeye-X

[pacalo]

2. More from Act Blue (the Big 60 is absolutely possible)...

From Act Blue:

Another Mark – Mark Udall is polling ahead by 5% in Colorado (Udall on Pollster).

(...)

Next there are three Senate candidates in races where the Republican incumbant is polling below 50%. This is early in the race and we will have a strong presidential candidate. With your help Democrats can win these seats. Kay Hagen (North Carolina), Jeff Merkley (Oregon) and Rick Noriega (Texas). Each is down today by less than six percent in the polls. These races are key to the 60-vote Senate majority for President Obama.


There are three races (as of late May) where Democrats are polling (again, see pollster.com) ahead by double digits. These are Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire, Tom Udall, New Mexico and Mark Warner, in Virginia.



So with the Senate the way it is today, and with Mary Landrieu holding her seat in Louisiana, that would give us the 60 seats. But one of those is worrisome (to say the least), Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. We have to allow for the possibility that he will go all the way to the other and darker side. What better insurance candidate than Al Frankin, Minnesota – the seat formerly held by our dear friend and champion, Paul Wellstone.

http://www.actblue.com/page/jimthatcher

[cascadiance]

3. Any chance we can get a constitutional ammendment majority (67 votes)?

If we can get that, there's some SERIOUS changes we could make. Codifying Roe v. Wade into law so that we don't have to worry about the Supreme Court's decisions there any more. Getting rid of corporate "personhood" and "free speech" (though that might be problematic still when we still have many "corporate" democrats, but there's a lot of good changes that could be made.

At least if we have Obama in office, we shouldn't have to worry about overriding vetoes!

[WilliamPitt]

5. 2010, 2012, 2014

Bit by bit.

And having a Senate with veto powers when the Executive claims the power to spy on everyone is always a good thing.

[unblock]

10. very much an uphill battle, with history strongly against it:

2010 is a definite possibility for a few more pickups, though huge movements tend not to happen in non-presidential election years.
2012 does give the possibility of massive obama re-election coattails, but we'll be defending 24 of the 33 seats up that year. very tough to score touchdowns on defense.
2014 would be an off-year in a two-term presidency (assuming obama's still da man, of course) and the out party typically does well then.

67 seats is ginormous and i dare not get ahead of ourselves. personally, i'd be quite content with a reliable 60+, a tall enough order as it is.

[WilliamPitt]

4. Two (2, II, TWO!!!) Democratic Senators from Virginia. VIRGINIA.

*knocks wood*

[cali]

6. and quite possibly two dem senators from CO and

NM. Equally amazing.

and yes

*knocks wood*

[WilliamPitt]

7. Whenever I think to myself, "Nah, no way, we won't pull this off," I remember this one fact...

We.

Beat.

Conrad.

Fucking.

Burns.

In MONTANA.

There are 15 people in Montana. We convinced eight of them to vote D.

Anything is possible.

(apologies to Montana DUers...that's my funny Conrad Burns joke, no offense intended)

(Conrad Burns)

(In Montana)

(holy shit)

[cascadiance]

8. AND Oregon!

[cali]

9. That would be wonderful too, though quite frankly

I expect Oregon to get it done!

[11 Bravo]

11. The stench that you detect stems from the fact that Joe Lieberman just shit his pants!

[opihimoimoi]

12. LOL....Is there such a thing as group shit? Like in MASS GOP GROUP SHIT?