Here's the headline on this story in the Washington Post in light of the retirement of Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) and the resignation of Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho): GOP Faces Growing Peril in 2008 Races.

I was all prepared to blast the headline, because while Virginia will be a challenge, Idaho is a red-red state and any Republican chosen to replace Craig will be heavily favored next November. So it's not good news, sure, but "growing peril"?

Then I read further into the article and find this nugget at paragraph six:

To be sure, last week's events will not necessarily change the terrain that much, if the Republicans get a little lucky.

And then goes on to note that Idaho won't be a problem at all, despite the headline and the lead paragraph. Nice. Virginia is indeed going to be a headache. Virginia Democrats not only have a popular former who could be persuaded to run, his name is also Warner, giving him a leg up in name recognition, while the Republicans are looking a thin. I wonder if they might consider turning back to George Allen and asking the voters to reconsider throwing out their Republican senator over a made up word. That will be interesting to watch.

Looks like the GOP will have two more holes to plug in its leaky ship in '08. Larry Craig's resignation seems imminent, as pressure mounts from within his party. And now longtime Virgina senator John Warner has announced he won't be seeking reelection next year.

``I'm quietly going to step aside and clear the way for others,'' Warner, 80, said at a press conference in Charlottesville. ``I've done my best.'' ...

Replacing Warner next year will set off a heated battle as Republicans seek to overcome the Democrats' 51-49 majority control of the Senate.

Among the names already being bandied about to run for Warner's seat are former governor James Gilmore and Representative Tom Davis on the Republican side. The Dems may run former governor Mark Warner.

Virginia was a battleground in '06, with underdog Dem. Jim Webb coming from behind to beat the increasingly clueless George Allen, and now it's shaping up to be just as crucial next November.

For all of us who haven't had much sleep over the last 36 hours, AP has done us the courtesy of making a call.

And that call would be? That Jim Webb is the projected winner in Virginia. And consequently, that the Dems will control both chambers of Congress, come this January.

The current vote tally has just over 7,200 votes separating Webb from George Allen. And Allen has recount options that he is mulling. So, it's not necessarily over.

But for the moment, we'll say thanks AP and congrats Dems. And we'll see what happens next.

Now that we're seeing how close the Virginia Senate race is, it makes the allegations of dirty tricks that much more of an important issue. To recap, voters in eight Virginia counties received phone calls informing them that either their polling places had been changed, or that they were no longer eligible to vote, and would be arrested if they attempted to do so. It remains unknown just how many people were deceived by this stunt, but given the tiny margin of victory that either Jim Webb or George Allen will claim, each potential vote is sorely needed. How sickening it would be if this contest were decided by such a stunt. Let us all hope that the FBI locates the source of the calls.

As expected, AP is advising that no final calls will be made in either the Montana or Virginia races until this morning (at the earliest).

Voting machine problems in Montana have delayed final reporting. And in Virginia the winner will not be determined until absentee ballots are counted.

So, if you're waiting around, it's time to hit the hay.

And there's a little more time to make final predictions: will the Dems manage to take control on both chambers? Leave your guesses in the comments below.

Incumbent Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) stated during a 1995 interview that "if Virginia Military Institute admitted women, it wouldn't be the VMI that we've known for 154 years. You just don't treat women the way you treat fellow cadets. If you did, it would be ungentlemanly, it'd be improper."

As late as November 2000, Allen repeated his opposition to women serving in combat. The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reported that "Allen is insistent that women should not be involved in direct combat."

In an October 9, 2000 Washington Post article, Allen said women "should not be in foxholes," adding that the "purpose of the armed services is not to be a social experiment.".

The battle for the female vote between Allen and Jim Webb, as chronicled in the New York Times Friday, began in earnest earlier this fall.

Just a quick comment on the takedown of a heckler that was approaching George Allen at a campaign appearance while ranting something about George Allen spitting on his ex-wife. Considering the nuts that are out there today, if I was a staffer for any political candidate and someone was approaching him or her screaming stuff, I'd take him out, too.

I'd rather be safe than have some horrible tragedy occur while I was there. As to the takedown itself -- anyone been to a nightclub and seen a bouncer take down an unruly patron? You need to subdue with overwhelming force as quickly as you can because chances are (unfortunately) that such an idiot would have a knife or worse.

Now this is just typical. Mike Stark, who has spent this campaign season stalking and accosting George Allen on the campaign trail, is now playing the victim card because Allen staffers tackled him as he made another attempt to confront Allen.

How sad. But, Stark's behavior is typical of the Democratic Party's strategy this year. Instead of a campaign on issues, Stark has been trying to provoke Allen into doing or saying things that can make him look bad.

Stark's behavior has been offensive and combative. Instead of making a mockery of himself and the political process, he ought to stick to talking about the issues, and not this pathetic game of "Gotcha!".

Yesterday's altercation between left-wing blogger and former marine Mike Stark and supporters of Virginia Senator George Allen shows just how frothed-up partisan anger will make some people. Stark, a law student at the University of Virginia, set out that day with an agenda; to corner Allen and demand to have him explain two court summonses issued in 1974 that related to troubles with Allen's former wife, Anne Waddell.

Allen's supporters, upon seeing Mr. Stark approaching fast and loud, resorted to physical violence, throwing Stark to the ground. In a letter to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Stark declared his plans to press charges against the men, but he also thinks that Allen had the obligation to stop them.

Some in the liberal blogosphere are seeking to use this event as further reason to unseat Allen. Certainly Allen's response to the fracas in the coming days will prove telling as to his ability to deal with crisis. The event itself, however, strikes me as sad, both in terms of Mr. Stark's provocative behavior, and in the inappropriate physical reaction it met. There are plenty of issues on which to make one's choice in Virginia, this latest incident, however, isn't one of them.

In the latest Rasmussen poll released on 10/30, Jim Webb has pulled into a 5% point lead. The poll showed that Webb received 51% of the votes and Allen received 46%. CNN had Webb ahead by 4%. Their poll took place during the same time frame. This seems to be the first major breakout for Jim Webb.

A couple of days ago, Senator Allen brought to the attention of the Virginia voter some of the writings of Jim Webb. I thought that was pretty nice of him. The way I looked at it, even if Webb lost the election, the sales of his books would take off and he would be a bit richer. What surprised me was that the voters may have reacted in a negative way to Allen's attempt to throw mud. If Allen loses this race, he can blame himself.

I've given up on the accuracy of polls after the kerfuffles of 2000 and 2004. I think the advent of caller ID, cell phones and the new media have rendered accurate polling obsolete.

That said, some polls seem to have been more accurate than others such as Quinnipiac and Rasmussen. Zogby is wrong so often that his polling doesn't figure in anymore.

Based on the latest polling data and from what I've read of the elections, I see the five most competitve Senate races playing out this way (incumbent listed first):

Santorum-Casey

Santorum is down in just about every poll. The RCP composite has him 13% down to Casey in a state where Democrats have a strong advantage in the two big cities. Santorum has been a lightning rod for liberals and it ust may have worked. I have Casey winning this by 4% unless Santorum can get the suburban Philly in Montgomery and Bucks Counties to turn out in large numbers.

With the George Allen campaign headlining the graphic sexual content of some of contender Jim Webb's fiction, it's insightful to read this morning's Counterpunch.com piece.

As Counterpunch points out this morning, the Bush-Cheney-GOP Axis of perversion is as bizarre as their denial. To paraphrase their report:

A peculiar sexual perversion marks George Bush's presidency. The Bush administration began auspiciously when Attorney General John Ashcroft draped two semi-nude statues, "Spirit of Justice" (female) and "Majesty of Law" (male), in the Justice Department auditorium. Then there was Janet Jackson's now-infamous nipple, forcing a reluctant FCC to stand up for moral rectitude and slap a stiff fine on a contrite (if dumbfounded) CBS. Then the scandal involving Jeff Gannon, the Republican White House blogger who, after hours, turned out to be James Dale Guckert (aka "Bulldog"), operator of a gay website with U.S. Marine Corp. themes for the solicitation of male prostitutes.

According to Jim Webb's official web site, he became the first Naval Academy graduate in history to serve in the military and later be appointed Secretary to the Navy (in 1987). He resigned as Naval Secretary in 1988 after refusing to agree to a reduction of the Navy's force structure during congressionally-mandated budget cutting.

Personally, I think we have more than enough politicians who are willing to ignore their professed values and beliefs in order to get into and hold office. I've always wondered how someone who says they are adamantly pro-life under any and all circumstances could want a job in which they would have to enforce pro-choice laws -- and they say, "No problem." It seems to me that it would have to be a significant problem if one truly held that belief/value to heart. Therefore, either it isn't that strong of a value or they wouldn't work to uphold the law. How could they if they had integrity.

If Mr. Webb resigned because he refused to enforce a congressionally-mandated reduction in force, I call that integrity.

Ultimately, it is the people of Virginia who must decide who would best represent them and who best represents what they stand for. Mr. Allen, however, has aspirations of ascending to the presidency, so a closer look at his character and background is worth reviewing. This is not a novel, this is the real thing.

Mr. Allen is not originally a cowboy, good ol' boy from the south. In fact, he was raised in Palos Verdes, a very rich suburb of Los Angeles, where he went to high school while his father coached the Los Angeles Rams. In high school, according to former classmates, he was a lone tobacco-chewing teenage cowboy who was disliked, even feared. He was not considered mainstream and according to a football teammate, he used anti-black epithets and ran with a group of guys off the football field who used the same language.

The recent "macaca" controversy has been well-publicized. Does anyone really believe that he just made up the word -- a word that is a racial slur in the area of the world where his mother grew up? Quite a coincidence.

Politics is a tough business and when you run for a high office, you should make sure that your closet is clean. Yesterday, Senator George Allen provided some bedtime reading for the voters of Virginia. The author of the stories? Opponent Jim Webb, who is within three points of Allen in the polls.

Several of Webb's novels include sexual activity between men and a young boys -- according to the information released by the Allen campaign, that is. The writings also put women in a bad light.

Webb's successful first novel, included in Senator's Allen's release, was 'Fields of Fire.' The story line was taken from his personal experiences to tell the story of a platoon of U.S. Marines in Vietnam in the late 1960s. Reviewers hailed its pull-no-punches descriptions of infantry life and combat. Webb received the Navy Cross for his heroic actions in Vietnam. Let's see how the voters of Virginia hail it.

This should be just enough information to keep Allen in his seat for six more years.