SENATE RACES SHAPING UP WELL FOR DEMS-- MAYBE IN 18 MONTHS THEY'LL BE ABLE TO SMACK DOWN THE GOP MINORITY & NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT LIEBERMAN

The Senate is shaping up to be a good playing field for Democrats next year. Like 2006, 2008 looks like it will be a bad year for rubber stamp Republicans. One extremist wingnut, Wayne Allard (R-CO) has already announced he isn't running. That seat is almost certain to be picked up by Rep. Mark Udall (D), who will face off against a far right loon, Bob Schaffer, because a mainstream conservative withdrew. Recently outed Idaho homophobe Craig Allen is also likely to forego a messy re-election bid (although in circles more polite than our own, that sort of thing is only whispered about).

A Democrat will in all likelihood beat Sununu in New Hampshire, especially if that Democrat is named former Governor Jeanne Shaheen. New Hampshire has gone very blue of late-- with both the fake moderate rubber stamp congressmen defeated by anti-war progressive Democrats, with the Democratic governor being re--elected with 73% of the vote, with the Republicans losing both houses of the state legislature, and with a slew of corrupt Republican Party officials rotting in prison. Oh, and they're rotting in prison because they helped Sununu steal the last election from Shaheen, You know the expression "dead meat?"

And speaking of fake moderate rubber stamp Republicans, it looks like Maine is ready to trade in Susan Collins for Rep. Tom Allen. Just compare the two voting records; they were first elected on the same day. His record is spectacular; hers is a disgrace.

Two other states have similar situations with fake moderates scrambling to appear independent of the Bush Regime they have been consistently rubber stamping: Oregon (Gordon Smith) and Minnesota (Norm Coleman). And then there's New Mexico, where senile Pete "Sneaky Pete" Domenici is implicated in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, and Alaska, where senile Ted Stevens and his family are being investigated by the FBI for a multitude of corruption charges

Any bright spot for the Repugs? Well... kind of. The third most reactionary Democrat in the Senate-- who votes less frequently with the Republicans than only Ben Nelson and Max Baucus-- is Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. The Democratic caucus would be better off without her and there is little enthusiasm among grassroots Democrats to re-elect her. Business Democrats (and business Republicans, for that matter) like her. But none of the Republicans the GOP has tried to recruit want to run against her. So Rove snuck down to Louisiana a few weeks ago and tried to talk a reactionary Democrat, John Kennedy, into switching parties and running against her as a Republican. And that about sums up the GOP chances to increase their minority in the Senate.