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I think that even the most partisan pundits see the upcoming elections as a no-win for Republicans and are just trying to ameliorate the damage as much as possible. Even uber-partisan William Kristol can only urge the House Republicans to stop their whining and do whatever they can to put McCain in the White House.

Wallace: You've got an economy that's in real trouble. You've got an Iraq War that people don't like. Uh the right track, wrong track is now overwhelmingly... I guess now 80% people think wrong track. Can you fight that if people identify that with your party?

Kristol: Well you can avoid further losses if John McCain does well at the top of the ticket. Look, the Democrats...the Republicans lost in 2006 House elections nationally by about 8 or 9 points, that's... the current House balance in the House of Representatives reflects a Democratic about 8 point advantage. Uh right now in the polls it's 12 to 14 points. They need to, it would be helpful to knock that back down to 8. The easiest way is to help John McCain defeat Barack Obama. That will naturally pull Republicans up. The other way to do it is to help Bush's approval rating go up a little bit which I think is doable actually. I... Bush, I think actually has probably has better political sense than a lot of these House Republicans. The idea that they should distance themselves from the President now, Tom Davis was a loyal deputy of Tom DeLay. Tom Davis was all for earmarks. He was going right along with Bush and DeLay on everything and now he's decided now that he's leaving the Congress he's going to be a hero with the mainstream media by writing a 20 page memo, "Distance yourself from Bush, change everything." They can't do anything left. They're not going to pass any legislation. They're not going to have an independent identity to House Republicans in the last four or five months. There's McCain, and there's Bush. Now if they think they want to be tough on spending, why don't they support the President's attempt to veto a bloated farm bill? The majority of House Republicans voted for it. Well, they're their own worst enemy. In my view the House Republicans should be quiet. They should call the McCain campaign and get advice on how they can help McCain win. They're not going to win back the House anyway but that's fine. At least they could hold their numbers if McCain does well at the top of the ticket.