As I was wading through the latest anti-Hillary diary, I came across the following comment from AnnArborBlue: "but at this point we're averaging about 3 "Hillary sucks" diaries a day, which appears to outnumber the number of "GOP Senator X sucks, and we can defeat him/her in 2006" diaries. That seems wrong to me."
I couldn't agree more, so I wanted to provide such a forum.
There are 15 GOP Senators up for reelection in 2006:
Snowe (Maine)
Chafee (Rhode Island)
Santorum (Pennsylvania)
Allen (Virginia)
Lott (Mississippi)
Frist, who is not running (Tennessee)
Hutchison (Texas)
DeWine (Ohio)
Lugar (Indiana)
Talent (Missouri)
Burns (Montana)
Thomas (Wyoming)
Hatch (Utah)
Ensign (Nevada)
Kyl (Arizona)
In my opinion, Santorum is toast unless Bob Casey really f's up the race;
Burns is a loudmouth idiot who can't get through a reelection campaign without sticking both feet in his mouth and has two top tier Dems battling it out to take him on--state Senate Pres. Jon Tester and state Auditor John Morrison;
Chafee is a vote for a continuation of the rubberstamp Senate in the most Democratic state in the union. He talks a good game--good enough for the much-debated NARAL endorsement, but should be hard pressed to win reelection against either former AG Sheldon Whitehouse or Sec. State Matt Brown;
The Tennessee open seat is definitely winnable. I'm less than enthused about our presumptive nominee, Harold Ford, because of his Memphis base and membership in a generally corrupt political family BUT the GOP will have a messy primary with several second tier contenders;
DeWine has lots of problems in Ohio, and any of the three Dems "considering" the race, Reps. Sherrod Brown and Tim Ryan, and Paul Hackett would give him fits. I'm not sure who Plan D would be if they all pass, though.
The oxymoronically named Sen. Talent will have a fight-to-the-finish nailbiter on his hands if '04 Gov nominee Claire McCaskill jumps in as expected. Even if she doesn't, Talent can be beaten;
Kyl is a GOP bobble head doll with no opinions not programmed by Bushco. He's never been strongly challenged before, but Dem state party chairman (and deep pockets) Jim Pedersen is running. Kyl's exactly the kind of guy we can and will take down in a good year nationally;
Allen can also be beaten if the Dems can get a good candidate. Mark Warner would be the dream candidate, but former Lt. Gov. and 1997 Gov. nominee Don Beyer would be a pretty good candidate, too.
That's all I got. Thoughts?