With one week to go, it looks like the Dem's are making a last second push in the polls. I think this is probably do, to ,two major factors. One the dem's are becoming more intentional about which races there going to put their money in and second the continued problems that the Tea Party candidates pose to the republican establishment.

The reality is that the republicans would very likely be looking at winning Del easily if not for the Tea Party. In addition the tea party candidates in Alaska, Nevada and Kentucky are all in closer races (some which they could lose) then the Republican Party would otherwise be. All of these races should have been easy victories for the republicans had they not been caught up in a civil war. With that said the democrats are so weak that it looks as if even with the republicans having some internal instability they will probably pick up something like 5-7 seats at the end of the day. This would leave the republicans just out of range of holding majority in the senate.

With the democratic senator of indiana stating today that he will not seek re-election this will only get worse for the democrats unless they find a way to stop loosing independents.

Things keep looking worse for the Democrats, with healthcare on the ropes because of the loss of the senate seat in Mass, a growing unease among the left wing of the democratic and independents upset over the government spending things are looking bleak for the Democrats.

Things are not completely smooth for the republicans either. With the tea party movement now having a 40% approval rating far above either of the two parties. there are a number of highly conservative tea party sponsored primary challengers to the incumbent republicans. If these fights get to bad they could either bloody the nominees or force them to move farther right making hurting their appeal to independent and by that might in the end hurt the republicans. The republicans also should worry about the outside possibility that the tea party could move from being a political movement to a political party. If that happens this is a whole new game.