It couldn't be more obvious that the Republicans know how the Democrats could roll them, but the Democrats refuse to see it.

It's maddening.

When people think back to 1994, they tend to focus on the Contract For America and other partisan dynamics.  Most people forget that Republicans took over congress with a seemingly non-partisan "throw the bums out" message.  That year they also pushed hard on term limits which helped promote that message.

It is important to keep this in mind.  Within a local district it is much easier to sell the idea that the bums in congress must go than it is to sell some particular party is bad and this other party will solve everything.

Our incumbent, Mike Fitzpatrick, in Bucks County is doing an excellent job of running this strategy.  You should hear him talk about energy, the environment and mass transit.  I almost want to vote for him myself when he gets going.   Then I remember that the rest of his positions are lunatic.  

"This is... not a referendum on the president," said RNC spokeswoman...

Guess what that means we should do: Make this election a referendum on the President and his Rubber Stamp Republican Congress.

Frameshop had the perfect idea for how to make this work in local races, based on Lamont's success in Connecticut: find your Republican opponent's "kiss" moment with the President (or, I would add, Cheney, who is even more toxic) and hammer on it from now to election day.

Mike Fitzpatrick's Democratic opponent is already doing this. His new TV ad has Bush praising Rumsfeld, then Bush praising FEMA's Mike "Brownie" Brown, then Bush praising Fitzpatrick (and Jim Gerlach) in exactly the same way. It then asks the viewer if she agrees with the President....

I say this has Matthew Dowd's fingerprints all over it.  Just look at the similarity from his strategic plan on the CA-Gov race.

...this race is not, as the Democratic operatives and many pundits say, a referendum on Governor Schwarzenegger. Races for governor, especially the governor of the largest State in the Union, are about a choice. This campaign will be a choice between Arnold and the Democratic nominee, a choice between what Arnold has done in office and what the Democratic nominee has done in his career, and most important, a choice between the vision Arnold has for California in the next four years contrasted with where the Democratic nominee wants to take the state."

Dowd is a senior advisor to the RNC.

....control congress

Hell, I'd settle for most people simply finally figuring out after twelve years that the Dems don't.

President Bush is Republican.  He will be until after the 2008 election.

Republicans control Congress too.  You can change that in November.