In Colorado, Republican Sen. Wayne Allard’s decision not to seek reelection set the stage for one of the nation’s most competitive 2008 races. But the top choice of party leaders, former Rep. Scott McInnis, has taken a pass, citing family reasons. McInnis had nearly $1 million stockpiled for the race. ~The Los Angeles Times

The rest of the article details GOP weakness in candidate recruiting and fundraising for next year, as many of the more promising potential candidates have been discovering “family reasons” and the like with greater frequency.  Give Mr. Bush credit for this–he is encouraging more Republican politicians to put their families first!  The reason?  Well, the political environment for Republican candidates is a little difficult right now (the words “poisonous” and “toxic” litter the article). 

Then there was this item:

Broader signs of Republican distress also are turning up across the country.

When voters five years ago were asked which party they identified with, neither Democrats nor Republicans held an advantage. Now 50% of voters say they are aligned with the Democrats, and 35% with Republicans, according to a survey released last month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Those are the sorts of party identification numbers you see in New Mexico, where the state GOP hasn’t held power in over seven decades.  The so-called 50-50 nation is very, very dead.  Mr. Bush and Iraq killed it.

Meanwhile, the GOP leadership continues to whistle past the graveyeard:

“No question, the president’s gone through a rough patch. But the central figure for the Republicans next year is not going to be George Bush,” said Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

A rough patch?  Bill Clinton went through a “rough patch” when he got impeached.  Politically speaking, the last two years for Bush have been like someone driving off a cliff, hitting a power line and then falling into a burning building.  It’s true that Bush will not be the “central figure” next year.  He’ll just be the President whose terrible decisions haunt the next GOP nominee wherever he goes like some dread wraith.  But he won’t be the central figure–they could have someone like Giuliani to rally around!  No wonder Republicans are depressed.