Just as an imminent hanging...

...concentrates the mind of the condemned, so can an election shape the rhetoric of a Republican pol. Senator Gregg's sudden discovery that the budgets he has carefully shepherded during his tenure as the Budget Committee chair are economic disaters for America is a case in point. You'd think he'd missed all those meetings.

Similarly, we're suddenly seeing a flock of hawks rethinking their support for our adventurism in Iraq. Steve Benen takes note of a few Senators - Smith of Oregon, Cornyn of Texas, Coleman of Minnesota and Sununu of New Hampshire - who've recently expressed second thoughts about a war they've supported with various degrees of fervor up to this point.

While all of the above have several things in common - not the least of which is their support for the Republican leadership over the Democratic leadership and all the evil that implies - Steve pins what's likely the most relevant trait of these apparent dissenters from the GOParty line share...

They're all Senate Republicans who are up for re-election in 2008. What a coincidence.

Coincidence, indeed.