I understand your point .. but the questions is .. are those names that have been mentioned willing to take that gamble??
The voters put control of the houses in Republican hands in 2000 .. the dems stole it with Jumping Jeffords .. AGAIN the voters put control back in the hands of the Republicans in 2002
Jeffords poltical career is OVER .. are those Rino's willing to kiss their political careers good bye??
My guess is NOPE
If I'm not mistaken, TomPaine is trying to "persuade" Chaffee, Snowe and Specter to switch either to independent or democrat. I'm not too worried and if it happens, it may very well turn out to be the democrat's curse as they can be blamed for obstructionism as they were after Jefford's jump. Chaffee reportedly is not going to switch (but who knows with that wishy-washy RINO, he might change his mind) cause he's happy he's been treated well by his frightened gop colleagues. Like you said, two or more have to switch and they wouldn't get the full spotlight like Jeffords, they'd have to share it, boo hoo. Anyhow, I think they might be afraid to switch cause 2 years from now the senate could go back to gop and they'd be back in the minority like poor Jim. And another thing, since they're promoting it, I guess TomPaine wouldn't have a problem then with the gop trying to poach some democrat senators.