By Brendan O’Reilly

I am really looking forward to November, and not because I want to watch the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 compete for market share. I am expecting Nov. 7, Election Day, will restore my faith in the democratic process.The coming mid-term election has been portrayed as a referendum on George Bush. That is an inaccurate description. The Republicans are not telling voters, “If you agree with George Bush, vote for me.” They are pretending they never heard of the man. This election has less to do with what voter’s think of the direction the president is taking the country, and more to do with a Congress that is going in no direction. After all the time on Capitol Hill discussing immigration, same-sex marriage and social security reform, nothing has been done. The Republicans have controlled both houses for almost four years now, but they have spent most of that time just talking.Now all their infighting is catching up with them. Democrats could very well take the 15 seats they need for control of the House. And if the GOP fails to watch its back it could lose the Senate as well.Here’s how you can tell the Republicans are dreading the upcoming midterm election: the Republican National Committee, White House and National Republican Senatorial Committee backed left-leaning moderate Lincoln Chaffee over a conservative candidate in the primary for the senate race in Rhode Island. Chaffee would seem like the least likely incumbent to have support from the White House in the primary. Chafee and Bush have little in common, besides both serving in the office their fathers once held. Chafee was the only Republican senator to oppose the congressional resolution authorizing the use of military force in Iraq. He is for legalized abortion and stem cell research, and he has shown support for same sex marriage.The national GOP chose electability over their principles.This upset conservative Republicans who lit up the blogosphere. They know a moderate incumbent has a better chance of keeping the seat in Republican hands, but in their opinion keeping Chafee in office is no better than losing the seat to a Democrat.”[T]he NRSC has dumped $1 million into Chafee’s campaign; this might be forgivable in a general election, in a primary it’s almost enough to make you want to scream,” blogged Leon Wolf at redstate.com.All the money and time the NRSC spent making sure Chafee was the GOP candidate may all go to waste in November. Chafee is trailing Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse in the polls. Republicans make up only ten percent of Rhode Island voters. Non-stop get out the vote efforts may not be enough to retain the seat. The best they can hope for is to put out enough attack ads to make voters forget they were misled into a war with no exit strategy and that civil rights have become a thing of the past.The GOP will spend millions placing ads in districts and states where its congressman and senators are at risk of losing their jobs. Instead of standing proudly on their records, the ads will put down their opponents. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Chuck Schumer has characterized the GOP strategy as “an unprecedented campaign of slander and misinformation.”The effect of calling war critics “cut-and-runners” has faded. Now anti-war Democrats are known as “terrorist appeasers” among Republican strategists. In Connecticut the Republicans are doing the next best thing to defeating the Democrats with their own candidate. They are backing incumbent Senator Joseph Lieberman, who lost the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont. Lieberman, the antithesis of Chafee, is a Dem who might as well be a Republican when you consider his voting record.The desperate measures the GOP is taking are more likely to alienate their base than attract moderates to support them this November. Karl Rove must be losing his touch.