Childers, Cazayoux and Foster

That's not a law firm, folks. Those are the three Democratic Representatives elected in special Congressional elections in Mississippi (Travis Childers), Louisiana (Don Cazayoux) and Illinois (Bill Foster) in the last three months.

These aren't three Democratic districts, either. Foster was elected in former House Speaker Denny Hastert's district in Illinois. Cazayoux was elected in former Representative Richard Baker's very Republican 6th Congressional District in Louisiana. Childers was elected yesterday in Mississippi's "reliably Republican" 1st Congressional District to replace former Representative now Senator Roger Wicker who was appointed by Governor Haley Barbour to fill the remainder of Senator Trent Lott's term.

One thing that bodes ill for the Republicans in November that came up in both the Cazayoux and Childers elections is that Republican advertisements attempting to tie the respective Democratic candidates to Reverend Wright and Senator Obama and Senator Clinton failed resoundingly. If the Republicans can't fall back on dog whistles and going deeply negative to rally their base and corral independent votes in November, we may see something truly historic in the U.S. House.