How bad is it for the GOP this cycle? Consider this, the issue being pushed by the extreme Right Wing blog Red State is that Democratic candidate for Congress in the 9th district of Indiana, Baron Hill, was not the official 100 yard dash record holder in high school as he claims, because he did not run his record dash in the state finals. I kid you not:

Hill’s campaign biography said he set the dash record while at Seymour High School and continued to hold it. But the Indiana High School Athletic Association lists someone else as the record holder for running a time of 9.5 seconds during the state finals of the 1965-66 school year. According to Seymour High School, Hill ran a 100-yard dash in 9.5 seconds at a 1970 track meet. But because it was not part of the state finals, the IHSAA does not count it as tying the record.

Lies about war? Who cares? But whether the man was the OFFICIAL recordholder (there is no dispute he ran a record tying time) is a disqualifying issue. The Republicans are beyond pathetic this cycle.

Republicans say they have the better program for getting out the vote, one devised by Karl Rove.

party strategists crow that they have the ultimate advantage, which will hold down their congressional losses and enable them to maintain their majorities in the House and the Senate: a massive voter turnout machine that even some Democratic Party officials admit exceeds their own.

They are gearing up for the latest iteration of the 72-Hour Plan — a brainchild of top Bush White House aide Karl Rove and his protégé, Republican National Committee Chairman (RNC) Ken Mehlman — in which GOP operatives and volunteers flood into states and districts with competitive races to generate turnout.

Democrats say they have been catching up. But several experts believe they are not quite there. What can you do to help?

3 days to go. It's been at least 20 years since an election had the possibility of a big Democratic Congressional victory like that possible this year. Key word - POSSIBLE. GOTV and pushing to the end is required from Democrats everywhere now.

But the fact is, the Republicans remain the Democrats' most potent political topic:

This may be the closing weekend from hell for the White House. First, the mainstream media is savoring the Ted Haggard controversy; it led network newscasts last night. Then, those brave neo-cons who pined for a war with Saddam Hussein essentially regurgitate all over the entire Bush national security team in Vanity Fair. Vice President Cheney, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos yesterday, looked shell-shocked.

Then the Los Alamos security breach.

Then, of course, the news that the four independent and influential newspapers that serve the branches of the military will jointly call on Monday for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld in an editorial entitled "Time For Rumsfeld To Go."

Cheney, on ABC, said it was "full speed ahead" with the admin's Iraq policy.

"It may not be popular with the public — it doesn't matter in the sense that we have to continue the mission and do what we think is right. And that's exactly what we're doing," Cheney said. "We're not running for office. We're doing what we think is right."

The contrast between Dems and the GOP could not be sharper - thanks to the GOP. I am an eternal pessimist, but rationally speaking, I think it is going to be hard to pick against Dems taking control of both House and Senate.

A new Newsweek poll finds that Republicans are not gaining momentum in the final days before the election, despite the stumping by Bush and Cheney. Rather, they are falling farther behind.

53 percent of Americans want the Democrats to win enough seats to take control of one or both houses of Congress in the midterm elections on Tuesday. Those results are close to early October levels, while less than a third of Americans (32 percent) want Republicans to retain control. If the elections were held today, 54 percent of likely voters say they would support the Democratic candidate in their district versus 38 percent who would vote for the Republican-a 16-point edge for the Democrats.

The war in Iraq is the most critical issue to voters.

....nearly a third of registered voters (32 percent) now say Iraq is the most important issue in deciding their vote. The economy comes in second at 19 percent. And just 12 percent say terrorism, the Republican trump card in the last three elections, is their most important issue. In fact, as millions of Americans fill in their employers’ health-care selection forms for next year, terrorism is statistically tied with health care at 11 percent.

More pressure for Rumsfeld to resign, this time from an unexpected source -- the Military Times newspapers.

An editorial scheduled to appear on Monday in Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times and Marine Corps Times, calls for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The papers are sold to American servicemen and women. They are published by the Military Times Media Group, which is a subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc.

You can read the editorial here.

The case of Majid Khan is proceeding through the courts. The Judge, Reggie Walton, is the same judge presiding over the Scooter Libby trial.

What will he do with the Government's latest request -- to prevent detainees in CIA secret prisons from talking to their lawyers about their conditions of confinement?

The government, in trying to block lawyers' access to the 14 detainees, effectively asserts that the detainees' experiences are a secret that should never be shared with the public.

... Joseph Margulies, a Northwestern University law professor who has represented several detainees at Guantanamo, said the prisoners "can't even say what our government did to these guys to elicit the statements that are the basis for them being held. Kafka-esque doesn't do it justice. This is 'Alice in Wonderland.' "

The Democrats need to win six Republican seats to control the Senate. I'm no numbers cruncher, but most seem to agree Missouri, Virginia and Tennessee are the hot states to watch.

With polls showing that the war may strongly influence many voters' decisions, analysts in both parties agreed that Missouri, Virginia and Tennessee are the keys to controlling the 100-member Senate, where Democrats need to gain six seats to claim the majority

I'm wondering whether Harold Ford can carry Tennessee. He would be the first African-American elected to the Senate from the South in more than a century. Republicans have funded tons of last minute advertising dollars into his opponent Bob Corker's camaign.

Here comes the dump on Pastor Ted Haggard:

Pat Robertson:

"We're sad to see any evangelical leader fall," the Rev. Pat Robertson said on his television show, "The 700 Club." But, he added, it "just isn't true" that the NAE represents 30 million churchgoers, as the association claims.

"We can't get their financial data. I think it's because they have very little money and very little influence," Robertson said.

Jerry Falwell:

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, speaking Thursday night on CNN, said Haggard "doesn't really lead the movement. He's president of an association that's very loose-knit . . . and no one has looked to them for leadership."

Jealousy and running for cover. I suspect Falwell and Robertson never liked Haggard to begin with. He was far too moderate for their brand of evangelicalism. He was the up and comer and they are the old guard whose dynasties are fading.

Primative beyond belief: A Saudi court has sentenced the victim of a gang rape to 90 lashes because she was alone in a car with a man not her spouse.

The man she was with was not one of the rapists. She and her friend were proceeding to their car when they were kidnapped by the rapists and driven to a farm where they raped her. The court also ordered her male friend to get 90 lashes.

What happened to the rapists:

The four, all married, were sentenced respectively to five years and 1,000 lashes, four years and 800 lashes, four years and 350 lashes, and one year and 80 lashes.

A fifth, married, man who was stated to have filmed the rape on his mobile phone still faces investigation. Two others alleged to have taken part in the rape evaded capture.

Even President Bush's neo-con advisors now say the mess in Iraq is all his fault.

As Iraq slips further into chaos, the war's neoconservative boosters have turned sharply on the Bush administration, charging that their grand designs have been undermined by White House incompetence. In a series of exclusive interviews, Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, David Frum, and others play the blame game with shocking frankness. Target No. 1: the president himself.

President Bush is spending the night in Colorado. Veep Dick Cheney rallied the troops here this afternoon and campaigned for Republican Doug Lamborn, who even the Republicans don't like and who is running neck and neck with Democrat Jay Fawcett in the heavily Republican district that includes Colorado Springs, home to the evangelical right.

Bush is headed to Greeley to campaign for the mother of the anti-gay marriage amendment, Marilyn Musgrave.

He may be too late. The latest poll shows Musgrave and her Democratic opponent, Angie Paccione, in a dead heat.

For Pastor Haggard:

Son of a Preacher Man (Dusty Springfield, 1999)

For Mike Jones:

Can I get a Witness? (Dusty Springfield, 1964)