Open Thread

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: is disaster looming at the polls for Congressional Republicans?

The Republican defeat in Tuesday’s special election in Mississippi, in a deeply conservative district where, in an average year, Democrats cannot even compete, was a clear sign that the GOP has the political equivalent of cancer that has spread throughout the body. Many House GOP operatives are privately predicting that the party could easily lose up to 20 seats this fall. Combined with the 30 seats that the GOP lost in 2006, that would leave the party facing a 70-vote deficit against Democrats in the House — a state of powerlessness reminiscent of Republicans’ long wilderness years in the 1960s and ’70s. Things are not particularly more hopeful on the Senate side, where most analysts say Democrats have a strong chance of adding five or more seats to their current majority.

Is it as bad as Politico makes out? Do such potential losses make it even more imperative for disenchanted Conservatives to vote for McCain? Can he have any coattail at all, especially against a socialist like Obama? Is there anything Republicans can do in the next five and a half months to avoid this trainwreck, or is it too late?