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A half-dozen senators fighting for their political lives and their partys hold on the majority in tough races while trying to avoid being dragged down by an unpopular president and the stark reality that second-term midterm elections almost never work out for the side controlling the White House.

2014? Yes but also 2006, an election cycle that Republicans are increasingly beginning to see as a parallel to this one as the fight for control of the Senate enters its final four weeks.

During that cycle, our guys in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Rhode Island, Missouri, Montana and Ohio could never move their numbers, and in the last couple of weeks the races blew open, said Billy Piper, who was chief of staff to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) at the time. The macro environment was too much to overcome in states that were not reliably red.

At the start of the 2006 election, Republicans controlled 55 seats, buoyed by two consecutive elections 2002 and 2004 that had moved seats their way. But their vulnerabilities were significant. Despite defending only 15seats (to the Democrats 17), the GOP had incumbents in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island two states that President George W. Bush had lost convincingly two years earlier as well as sitting senators in places such as Missouri and Montana who, through a combination of the competitiveness of their states and their own foibles, were in deep trouble. As the cycle wore on, Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) turned his race ultra-competitive by referring to a Democratic tracker as a macaca.

By this time in the 2006 election, it had long been clear that Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) wasnt going to make a miraculous comeback against Bob Casey Jr. (D), who had led the incumbent by double digits throughout the campaign.

But the other five incumbent races, in which GOP senators such as Jim Talent (Mo.) and Lincoln Chafee (R.I.) had managed to stay in the hunt started to turn south for Republicans.

The main factor was the deep unpopularity of Bush, who sat at 37percent nationally. That distaste for the head of the Republican Party made Democratic messaging easy: Dont like President Bush? Send him a message by voting against the person who has voted with him [fill-in-the-blank-but-its-a-lot percentage] of the time. Bush stayed largely hidden on the campaign trail, but it didnt matter.

Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) collapsed, losing to Sherrod Brown by 15 points. (Side note: When you lose by that much, its hard to blame Bush or the national environment totally for the loss.) Chafees race also turned permanently against him Bush had won only 39percent of the vote in Rhode Island and Sheldon Whitehouse won by seven points.

Then there were the trio of Republican incumbents who lost by two points or less: Allen (a 0.3 percentage point loss), Talent (2.1 points) and Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana (0.7points). In all three cases, the incumbents remained stuck in the mid to upper 40s, the spot where they had been for much of the election and lost as undecided voters flocked to their opponents.

It all added up to a six-seat loss for Republicans and the minority status in the Senate, defeats that came just two years after a Republican president was reelected for the first time in about two decades. And it meant that Republicans spent the next eight years all the way through today in the minority.

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In 2014 midterms, Republicans increasingly see parallels to 2006 election

Updated at 5:31 p.m.

Leading Republicans are racing to propose strict new limits on air travel to safeguard Americans against Ebola, the deadly virus that has reached the United States and left a Liberian man battling for his life in a Dallas hospital.

The latest to adopt that public position is Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), a potential 2016 presidential candidate who is back in the national spotlight after doctors made the first Ebola diagnosis in the United States in his home state.

Unveiling a new state task force to combat infectious diseases on Monday morning, Perry called for federal officials to implement "enhancedscreening procedures" at "all points of entry" to the United States and create"fully staffed quarantine stations" wherever people are entering the country.

"Washington needs to take immediate steps to minimize the dangers of Ebola and other infectious diseases," said the governor.

A pair of other Republicans called Monday for Obama to appoint a single adviser to coordinate the government's response to Obama.Others have gone even further, calling for flight bans from West African countries and raising concerns about catastrophic scenarios. Republican strategists say it is all part of an effort to flex leadership credentials and tap into concerns Americans have with President Obama's readiness to handle crises after a series of missteps in his second term.

"Republicans are emphasizing the mishandling of the Ebola crisis by the Obama administration and tying it to the theme of government incompetence," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. "After a string of failures by the White House, the latest crisis over Ebola containment further underscores the need for new leadership."

Greg Mueller, a veteran of three GOP presidential campaigns, said he thinks recent lapses in security and safety have spurred Republicans to speak out about Ebola.

"We've got people walking though the front door of the White House, we've got child trafficking on the border, we've got [the Islamic State] beheading people and now you've got Ebola," he said.

After meeting with top advisers about Ebola at the White House Monday afternoon, President Obama said his administration willbe "working on protocols to do additional passenger screening both at the source and here in the United States." The White House said it was not considering a travel ban.

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Leading Republicans press for limits on travel to prevent spread of Ebola

One month before U.S. congressional midterm elections, Republicans believe control of both chambers of Congress is now within their reach.

The outcome of a handful of key Senate races around the country will determine which party controls the Senate next year, and that in turn could have a significant impact on President Barack Obamas final two years in office.

Low public approval ratings for Obama, plus lingering voter concerns about the economy, are setting the stage for a strong Republican showing in the congressional elections on November 4.

Political analyst Charlie Cook said that several Senate Democrats have put distance between themselves and the president in hopes of prevailing in tough races in November.

What are midterm elections about, particularly second term midterm elections? he asked. It is a referendum on the incumbent president. You know, I am going to use a technical political science term here. This is a bummer (bad) environment for Democrats.

Analysts agree Republicans have the political advantage this year just two years after Obama won re-election.

Most experts predict Republicans will either hold or expand their majority in the House of Representatives. The question is will there be enough of a Republican surge in November to gain the six seats they would need to gain a majority in the Senate.

Public opinion analyst Karlyn Bowman of the American Enterprise Institute said there are too many close Senate races around the country to safely predict if Republicans will win a majority.

Im not sure we are going to see a wave, a big wave that would benefit the Republicans, Bowman said. Clearly they will pick up a few seats in the House. They will pick up seats in the Senate, but whether it will be enough to get control, I think, is premature.

Key Senate seats

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Republicans Confident as Midterm Elections Near

All three major election models give Republicans a six-in-ten (or better) chance of picking up the six seats the party needs to reclaim the Senate majority, with just 29 days left before voters head to the polls on Nov. 4.

The Washington Post's Election Lab is the most bullish on Republicans' chances, pegging it as a 78 percent probability they win control of the chamber. LEO, the New York Times' Upshot model, has the chances at 60 percent -- roughly the same as Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight at 59.4 percent. The overall predictions of Election Lab and FiveThirtyEight are virtually unchanged from a week ago (click here to see how things looked then) while the LEO model is less optimistic about a Republican-controlled Senate this week than it was last week (67 percent probability on Sept. 29.)

Of the 11 marginally competitive contests -- we do not include Republican open seat takeover opportunities (more like virtual certainties) in Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia in that category -- all three models agree on nine of the races including four seats that would be additional GOP pickups, bringing their total to seven pickups. Those seats are:

* Alaska: All three forecasts show former state Attorney General Dan Sullivan (R) with between a 68 percent and 77 percent chance of beating Sen. Mark Begich (D).

* Arkansas: The models suggest that Rep. Tom Cotton (R) is increasingly likely to beat Sen. Mark Pryor (D). Both LEO and Election Lab put Cotton's chances over 80 percent.

* Iowa: The models all show state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) as a slight favorite to claim Sen. Tom Harkin's (D) open seat. Both FiveThirtyEight (59 percent Ernst win) and LEO (55 percent) are somewhat guarded in their optimism for the Republican's chance; Election Lab is far more bullish, pegging Ernst with a 76 percent probability of victory.

* Louisiana: Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D) odds of winning reelection continue to get worse. No model has the probability of a Republican takeover lower than 74 percent.

The three models disagree in two states: Kansas and Colorado.

In Kansas, where an NBC/Marist poll released Sunday showed independent candidate Greg Orman with a 10-point edge over Sen. Pat Roberts (R), LEO (64 percent independent) and FiveThirtyEight (65 percent independent) lean toward an Orman victory. Election Lab still gives Roberts a 76 percent chance of winning. (Worth noting: Orman has not said which party he would caucus with if he does win. But he is quite clearly Democrats' best chance of a pickup; none of the models paint an optimistic picture for Democratic hopes in Kentucky or Georgia.)

In Colorado, Election Lab (70 percent Republican) and, more narrowly, FiveThirtyEight (53 percent) see Rep. Cory Gardner (R) as the favorite. LEO basically rates the race a pure toss-up, but gives the slightest of edges -- 51 percent chance of victory -- to Sen. Mark Udall (D).

Read more:
The Fix: Republicans hold small but steady edge in battle for Senate majority

Let #39;s Ask America - Republicans #39; Worst Fear
Host Bill Bellamy jokes that one of the show #39;s contestants might be the Republican Party #39;s worst fear. Where to Watch: http://bit.ly/WatchLAA There #39;s still t...

By: letsaskamerica

Excerpt from:
Let's Ask America - Republicans' Worst Fear - Video