THE COLORADO CANARY

The meta-story regarding the mid-term elections is how the Democrats can't wait to get to the voting booth to inflict electoral doom upon their enemies, while Republicans are so depressed they will either stay home or have to be dragged to the polls.

Maybe, but there's this Colorado canary in the Democrat coal mine that's warbling a contrarian song.

In Colorado you can vote up to 30 days ahead of election day by absentee ballot.  To do so you must of course request a ballot.  The absentee ballots won't be counted until November 7^th, but what is known is the number of requests for them.

It turns out that the number of requests by registered Republicans is way up from past years while those from registered Democrats is way down.

Is this a national trend or just an aberration in the Rockies?  It could be the former, as the Hate-Bush crowd that controls the Democrat Party is a small minority of Democrat voters.  It's pocketbook issues that matter for the majority – and with $2 gas, a 12,000 Dow, and full employment, it's not economic anxiety that will make them dash for the polls.

The suspicion is growing that the Democrat vote is the one that will be unenthusiastic and suppressed – while the Republican "ground game" focused on computerized "micro-targeting" of individual voters plus a nationwide army of fired-up volunteers will get Republicans to the voting booth in vast numbers.

At any rate, that's the current Capitol Hill scuttlebutt three weeks out.  Here's more of the buzz heard in the halls of the Capitol Building:

*Harry Reid is toast.  The scandals involving his shady land deals in Vegas and using campaign funds for private purposes are only the beginning.  With lots more to come, he has no chance of becoming Majority Leader if the Dems take the Senate, and he most likely will announce his retirement before long.

*Denny Hastert is toast.  His handling of the Foley debacle is the last straw.  Whether the GOP retains the House or not, he is out as Speaker, and will be announcing his retirement.

*Foley was the Democrats' October Surprise, but at a price that severely damages their pro-homosexual agenda.  The hunt is on to "out" homo/bisexual Congressmen and Senators and expose their pederastic activities with pages and other young boys.  The Democrats will cement the public's equating of homosexuality with pedophilia and child molestation.

*Republicans have been the target of the outing campaign – the latest to suffer the accusation is Senator Larry Craig of Idaho.  But Democrats will soon be fair game.  It is commonly assumed by Senate staffers that Wisconsin Democrat Senator Herb Kohl, for example, is a pedophile.

*Still, Karl Rove's recently-publicized optimism is based on not losing badly enough to lose control, particularly in the Senate.  For him, the real campaign is now, the last three weeks.  During this time – the next 21 days – the GOP will spend 100 million dollars in targeted Senate and House races.  Meanwhile, Howard Dean has to borrow 10 million for Dem races.

*The Senate sitrep (current situation report) is, not in any order:  DeWine is screwed in Ohio but Burns isn't in Montana – Connie still has a good chance.  Corker looks good over Ford in Tennessee due to an amazingly corrupt scandal involving the Tennessee Democrat Party looting pension funds.  Allen looks good over Webb in Virginia.  Kean has a good shot over Menendez in Jersey, while Steele is gaining on Cardin in Maryland.  Talent should take McKaskill in Missouri but Santorum seems a goner in Pennsylvania.  Chafee in Rhode Island is toast.

*While the odds are now that the GOP will keep the Senate by 2 or 3 seats, their odds in the House are far more dicey.  Predictions of a Dem blowout, however, with a gain of 20 to 40 seats, are just attempts to depress Republicans.  Nonetheless, Dave Winston, the GOP's internal pollster is currently assuming a 12 seat loss.

*A wafer-thin 2 or 3 seat majority in the House and Senate for either the GOP or Dems will result in an orgy of promises by both parties to get folks to switch.  November may be a very long month, and may also be full of Algore-type election fraud claims and challenges.

So be prepared for a real mess that will turn off voters and turn them against politicians in general even more than they are now.  The best outcome we can hope for is that the GOP dodges the bullet, barely, which then demoralizes the Dems so much they turn their anger against each other in recriminations.

Yet that Colorado canary is telling us something:  that the coming GOP disaster is a Democrat/Liberal Media propaganda con.  We'll know three weeks from today.