Playing chicken

Now that the Dems are cueing up their Iraq policy maneuvers, it would be interesting to see how the GOP senators up for re-election in 2008 react.

Congressional quarterly's risk rankings give us a barometer of how safe these senators should feel.

Let's see how well CQ's polls predict their positions in the next few months, shall we?

Safe (expect no waffling):

• Michael Enzi of Wyoming
• Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
• Pat Roberts of Kansas
• Ted Stevens of Alaska (unless his latest scandal goes nova, that is)
  

Fairly safe (calm, but hearing the footsteps):

• Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
• Saxby Chambliss of Georgia
• John Cornyn of Texas
• Pete Domenici of New Mexico
• Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
• Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma
• Jeff Sessions of Alabama
• Gordon Smith of Oregon
• John Warner of Virginia
  

Not-so safe (nervous twitches):

• Norm Coleman of Minnesota
• Susan Collins of Maine
• Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina
• John Sununu of New Hampshire
  

Watch this space - Coleman and Sununu are plenty ripe for blinking.

Edit:
Sen. Collins is making noises already:

I'm finding that my constituents' patience is pretty much exhausted," said Collins. "They're very disturbed by the high casualty rates."

Today, Collins said she has lost confidence in the president's leadership. "If the president isn't willing to adopt a new strategy, then perhaps we, in Congress, have to impose it on him," she said.

I'm no scholar of Sen. Collin's historical position on Iraq, so this may be old news. But there's one GOP senator in the hot seat making the right noises. Let's see if she actually votes that way.