A REPUBLICAN-LED SENATE STILL WITHIN GRASP

[Geee]

Human Events:

Amid recent reports in the New York Times and other liberal publications that Republican efforts to regain the Senate in November are diminishing, the GOP is still on track to gain the four necessary seats to have control of the upper chamber beginning in January. The GOP could wind up with 52 seats.

The New York Times cited contests in Arizona and Florida as getting out of reach for Republicans. But few in the punditocracy expect that former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona will be the first Democrat to win a Senate seat from Arizona since 1988, and even fewer completely write off the chances of Rep. Connie Mack, namesake-son of a revered former senator in the Sunshine State

Other races once written off as likely Democratic wins are shaping up differently. In Connecticut, despite a so-so performance in their first televised debate, businesswoman and 2010 GOP nominee Linda McMahon is still in a tight contest with liberal Rep. Chris Murphy for the seat of Democrat-turned-independent Joe Lieberman. McMahon is the first defeated Republican Senate nominee from the Nutmeg State to be given a second nomination since Prescott Bush, father and grandfather of two U.S. presidents, who lost a Senate race in 1950 and came back to win in 1952.