Suppose Congress is at 219 to 216 in the House and 52-48 in the Senate.  It appears that unlike the Republicans in 1994 we are unwilling to nationalize this election  (Think showing the Jack Abramoff indictment and the fact that he was trawling for contracting work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Tom DeLay investiagtion, spying on Americans, no end in sight in Irag with a tagline "Enough is enough")  What will we do?

I liked John Kerry as a person and as a candidate  --- but the biggest failure of 2004 is that the media and the various political machines focused too much energy on the top slot.  In PA, a large number of voters knew nothing about the candidates for Senate because nothing got covered.  Ditto for several suburban Philly house races (in the blogosphere it was a different matter, of course).  In 2008, the GOP field will probably wittle itself down to 6 candidates and on the Dem's side probably 4-6 as well.  If a GOP governor gets the nod --- he'll win as a reformer and we'll be back to where we were in 2002, behind the political 8 ball for redistricting in 2010.

We need to focus not on Congress in 2006 but on the Statehouses and State legislatures.  Our mantra should be to have leverage in every state (the governorship or control of state senate or state house)  Further, the political heavyweight ought to be told that if the GOP pulls the Texas redistricting stunt we'll gerrymander very state in which we have the trifecta (NY, IL and OH look prime for this) plus there are a dozen medium to small states where we could erase GOP seats or severely weaken them.  

The biggest political "talking heads" comment in January 2007 is going to be how well positioned the Dem's are to reversing the 2000 redistricting nightmare.  Nationalizing 2006 and pressing for all the 7000+ state rep/state senate seats to be challenged may be a better way to go.  

Can we nationalize state house seats?  I don't know but Russell Nigro (A Democratic PA Supreme Court Jutice) got toosed in a judicial retention election in 2005 beacuse people were mad at the GOP controlled PA legislature over a pay raise.  Its not about connecting the dots; its about giving voters options for change.  Democratic candiadtes for every statehouse seat in every state puts options in place.  People are angry, they'll probably get angrier by November (gas prices are climbing again, our trade deficit with China just tripled, corruption pervades the GOP controlled city of Washington, Irag is a mess, Iran wants nukes, we've been executing people with such rhytmic ease that it is possible a few innocents have been killed, etc.)  Its time to run races if we want to win