[Pubbie]

Breaux, Graham, Edwards, Hollings, and Miller are out - Thune is (Probably) in, Jack Ryan is running in Illinois, Russ Darrow running against Feingold, Nethercutt is running against Usama Bin Murray, AND Ex Gov David Beasley is likely to run for Hollings' seat in SC - it's starting to look good!!!

[mwl1]

Win or lose, RATS may go broke in SD just saving Daschle, thus bankrupting their efforts everywhere else... plus Daschle is gonna face an avalance of negative coattails with Bush on the ballot at the top of the ticket.

Ironic that Daschle saved Tim Johnson by conniving voters in SD that they'd get to retain the majority leader as their senior senator, and now they are stuck with a permanent minority leader.

Just a pity that Daschle will have out-smarted himself and sealed his political death warrant.

A terrible pity. I may stay up crying about this tonight.

[mwl1]

Here is what I see: we pick up NC, SC, and GA; and either FL or LA (good shot at both); and one of NV, CA or WA on the west coast; and one of SD, AR, and WI. We lose Illinois. Net = +5 minimum, could easily go higher if Dean is at the top of the ticket and economy continues to strengthen.

Bottom line is the RATS will be under assault from coast to coast and they simply do not have the resources, as the minority, to defend this many liberal incumbents and open seats.

I'd gladly settle for a Senate that is 56-43-1 or 57-42-1 or 58-41-1... will transform the federal judiciary in the 2nd Bush term.