Run Far, Run Fast

It's becoming more clear by the day the strategy that GOP candidates are adopting in survive -- they're running away from their party.

-- In three separate incidents, GOPers in CDs ranging from Dem-leaning to solid GOP are finding ways to disassociate themselves from their party and its unpopular president. Tom Latham (R-IA 04) says he wouldn't want Pres. Bush to campaign for him. In the deep-red CO-06 open seat, one GOPer after another has attemped to one-up their disses for the party. And in OH-15, state Sen. Stivers (R) doesn't mind being tied to OH Dem Gov. Strickland.

-- While there've been several Dems who have run away from the Dem label this cycle, particularly in the South, some vulnerable incumbents are staying close to home. Steve Kagen (D-WI 08) appears to have taken Barack Obama's line on Iraq, saying the surge of U.S. troops wasn't a major factor in the reduction of violence there.

-- The current enviro (and the party hierarchy) has encouraged GOPers to run independent campaigns, and they're certainly doing so. But is this good enviro also causing some Dems, like Kagen, to say things that will get them in trouble later on?