The American Spectator

br> Senate Republicans are expressing concern about recent decisions taken by some of their colleagues for the 2004 election cycle. With Sen. Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois already out the door and difficult elections for incumbents expected in Alaska and Pennsylvania, and weak candidate pools to challenge Democrats in Florida, Arkansas, and California, GOP senators are putting pressure on Sen. George Allen to ramp up his recruitment program in a last-ditch drive to try to build a series of campaigns that could get the GOP close to 57 or 58 seats. /p>

Allen, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has failed to recruit strong candidates in states where other Republicans believed the party had a shot at beating incumbents. An exception may be North Carolina, where Republican Rep. Richard Burr appears to have a better than average shot at picking up departing Sen. John Edwards’ seat. Elsewhere, though, Allen has no one strong to face Arkansas’ Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Florida Sen. Bob Graham (who has yet to announce whether he will seek another Senate term while he pursues the Democratic presidential nomination).

Yet another state where Republicans were thought to have strong pickup possibilities is Georgia, where Democrat Zell Miller has announced his retirement. “For Miller’s seat we have to view it as nothing but a hold,” says a Senate Republican leadership staffer. “Miller votes for us so many times that he might as well be part of the caucus. If we lose that seat it’s like we’ve lost doubly so.”

Allen has been putting the hard sell on restaurateur Herman Cain, an African American, to challenge for that seat. And several state party officials have thrown their hat in the ring.

While it doesn’t appear that Republicans will lose their slim Senate majority, it also doesn’t appear that they will pick up the five or six seats that they were hoping to earlier this year.