GOP Thinks It Can Get Back Some Seats...or Maybe the Majority

I would think it's a longshot at best, but some in the GOP are thinking the Dems have so badly squandered their chance to lead that the voters might be willing to change back to a GOP majority:

WASHINGTON — Democrats running the House of Representatives had their chance to lead and squandered it, say Republicans determined to put a bright face on seemingly dim hopes for a return to a GOP majority in 2008.

But while some Republicans want to call the '08 election forecast "a mixed bag," others said the GOP's disadvantages are high. Not only is public opinion still cool towards Republicans, but the terrain favors Democrats too. So far, 17 House Republicans have announced their retirements at the end of this term compared to five Democrats who are stepping down or running for higher office next year.

"There really isn't much of an advantage for Republicans there," said Steve Farnsworth, assistant professor of political science at Mary Washington University in Virginia.

Republican supporters looking for a comeback said a number of districts lost in the 2006 midterm election can be retaken with the right focus and resources. Many of the Democrats targeted are key freshmen who Republicans said won their seats in a "perfect storm" of conditions that won't hold the same relevance in the next election.

In a related story, some of those Dems who won in 2006 in formerly GOP districts are worried about having Hillary Clinton at the top of the ticket:

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Nancy Boyda, a Democrat who ran for Congress in this district last year, owed her upset victory partly to the popularity of the Democratic woman at the top of the ticket: Kathleen Sebelius, who won the governor’s seat. Now, with a tough re-election race at hand in 2008, Ms. Boyda faces the prospect that her electoral fate could be tied to another woman: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Mrs. Clinton is a long way from winning the Democratic presidential nomination, and over the last few weeks has struggled to hang on to the air of inevitability that she has been cultivating all year. But the possibility that she will be the nominee is already generating concern among some Democrats in Republican-leaning states and Congressional districts, who fear that sharing the ticket with her could subject them to attack as too liberal and out of step with the values of their constituents.

And few incumbent Democrats face a greater challenge next year than Ms. Boyda, whose district delivered almost 60 percent of its votes to President Bush in 2004.

I'm guessing that a new GOP majority is a longshot at best, and it's looking more and more like Hillary Clinton at the top of the ticket may start looking like a longshot as well.