GOP Senator: Republicans are Running Scared

Bad news for the GOP:

clipped from www.latimes.com The outlook for the GOP is so grim that party leaders have readily conceded there is no chance they can regain control of the Senate in 2008, even though Democrats' current majority is slim, 51-49. "If you have an R in front of your name, you better run scared," said Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who says the party will do well if it holds its losses to three or four seats. Barack Obama's presidential campaign has generated a big boost in Democratic voter registration, especially among African Americans, who make up more than a third of Mississippi's population. Other quirks, such as ethics scandals, are putting more Republican Senate seats at risk than seemed likely a year ago. In June 2007, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report identified only one race for a Republican Senate seat as a real tossup. Now it identifies seven Republican seats as at risk.

The question here is what lesson do Republicans think they've learned -- will they conclude that they're unpopular because their ideology has been pretty thoroughly been disproved or will they just assume they've got some sort of marketing problem with "messaging" and "branding?"

That's the question to ask if you want to know when they're getting out of this hole. If they assume the latter, they'll remain sunk.