The problem is that Republicans have a mixed message. John McCain is the rat-lite part of the party. His message is not much different than the rats on energy and immigration. He would be an improvment but perhaps not a great improvement in those areas. It will be up to individual candidates and the conservative wing of the party to fire back against the rats.
The rats are reasonably united. They have blocked a good deal of Bush's initiatives on energy, litigation reform, and entitlement reform. They will probably come apart after taking complete control.
I agree with this. Lacking an FDR and his staff, who were ruthless about keeping power, regardless of ideology (as was Clinton), I think a Dem party driven by leftist ideology, as it is now, will come apart at the seams.
But it's gonna be really painful for the rest of us while this happens.
BTW, where do you teach?