One theme that seems to pop up in a surprisingly large number of Senate races this year is the tension in the GOP between the slightly more moderate establishment choices for the Senate nominations and the more right-wing insurgent choices. In Oklahoma, we have every pol in the state backing OKC Mayor Kirk Humphreys, but popular former Rep. Coburn is making a run at him from the right. The same goes in Colorado for Coors and Schaffer, in Pennsylvania for Specter and Toomey, in Florida for Martinez and McCollum, in Georgia with Isakson and Cain/Collins, and possibly soon in Alaska with a challenger to Murkowski in the primary.
Democrats have no notable divisions like this in the Senate races this year. We have no bloody challenges to the will of the DSCC ahead of us, and we haven't really had any up to this point either (unless you count Obama's unseating Hull, but that was hardly bloody).
What does this forebode for the Republican party? Will the fractures in it for once be greater than those in the Democratic party? Think about all the constituencies you always hear are getting ready to bail on Bush. The gun-lovers (see politicalwire today), the far-out Christians, the budget-balancers and fiscal conservatives, the pro-choice suburban Republicans. Will these races exacerbate these tensions and destroy Bush?