Plus: In case you were wondering, how are those anti-Republican Wisconsin recall efforts going? Ann Althouse breaks down a new Kos/PPP poll:
Three Republican incumbents actually [slightly] trail "generic Dem": Luther Olsen, Randy Hopper, and Dan Kapanke. Two more have very narrow leads and garner less than 50% support: Rob Cowles and Sheila Harsdorf. And one more, Alberta Darling, holds a clear lead but is still potentially vulnerable....
But a key thing to remember, though, is that if any of these senators have to face a recall election, we'll need an actual candidate to run against each of them. In that regard, Wisconsin's recalls are very different from California's, where in 2003 voters were simply asked if they wanted to remove Democratic Gov. Gray Davis from office. Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected (with less than a majority) by means of a separate ballot question.... In Wisconsin, if a recall election makes it on to the ballot, there is no California-style first question—we go directly to a head-to-head between candidates (with a possible stop along the way for primaries). So for a recall to succeed, we'll need to convince voters to support a real live Democrat—and that means we'll have to recruit some good candidates.
So the incumbents can argue both that recall is a bad idea and that the specific alternate candidate isn't better. The "generic Democrat" is a vague repository of hope for something better. A specific candidate is a much riper target.
Althouse also points out that Kos/PPP curiously chose not to poll the eight districts in which fleebagger Democrats are facing recall. She suggests at least several of them represent areas that aren't entirely hospitable to Democrats (I'm looking at you, Jim Holperin and Dave Hansen).