2008 shaping up to be a very rough year for the GOP

Republican Senate leaders were in freak out mode over the Larry Craig scandal. There are probably a lot of reasons for that, but the main was political. 2008 is already shaping up to be a brutal year for Republicans in the Senate. Remember, this is the class that got elected under George Bush's vigorous pro-war campaign back in 2002. Fortunately, the world is a very different place and Americans know what a disaster Bush's policies have been. The Republicans running in 2008 have enabled Bush for the past five years. Payback is a bitch.

The last line in today's analysis from the Washington Post is the best line in the piece:

"About the only safe Republican Senate seats in '08 are the ones that aren't on the ballot," a GOP operative with extensive experience in Senate races said. "I don't see even the rosiest scenario where we don't end up losing more seats."

And, here's some of the meat of the Post's analysis:

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report on Wednesday rated the Colorado seat being vacated by Sen. Wayne Allard (R) as a tossup, but the state has been trending Democratic. Antiwar sentiments are turning some voters away from the GOP, imperiling the reelection prospects of Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), John E. Sununu (N.H.), Norm Coleman (Minn.) and Gordon Smith (Ore.).

The Craig scandal is only the latest issue to demoralize the Republican Party, and new wild cards keep springing up, such as an FBI raid on a vacation home of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and questions about the role that Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) may have played in the firing of U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias in Albuquerque. Democratic surrogates in labor-backed groups such as Americans United for Change have even been attacking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) in Kentucky.

The Cook Report considers those three seats and the Idaho seat "likely Republican," but if the GOP is forced to spend any money defending them, it would be siphoning funds from races where the money would be badly needed. As of June 30, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had $20.4 million on hand, while the National Republican Senatorial Committee had $5.8 million in its bank account.

"If Republicans are investing significant money in Idaho, that means they are losing at least five seats in 2008," [Rothenberg Report's Nathan] Gonzales said. "If Idaho ends up the fire wall, they are in deep trouble."

At least five seats. I think it's going to be more. That list of endangered GOP seats just keeps growing.