Party Switches Bode Well For Democrats In 2006

First it was the President's plummeting polls numbers.  Then the Plame, DeLay and Abramoff scandals started taking their toll. 

Clearly, the 2005 midterm elections served up an ominous warning for the national GOP from large state Governorshps that went Democratic, to the flipping of a strongly Republican legislative district in the suburbs of St. Louis, Mo. 

Now there is yet another deeply troubling sign for the GOP--the recent trend of longtime GOP elected officials switching to the Democratic Party.  Politicians have a nose for losers and tend to move away from them. 

Last month, longtime Johnson County, Kansas District Attorney Paul Morrison announced he was leaving the Republican Party and running for Attorney General as a Democrat.

And now comes the news that  former three term GOP Legislator and current Wayne County, Michigan Commissioner Gary Woronchak is becoming a Democrat.

Morrison and Woronchak may very well be the political canaries in the mine, yet another signal of the troubles ahead for the GOP.