The National Republican Senatorial Committee is in a whole lot of trouble these days. The committee is had terrible difficulty recruiting strong challengers for the incumbent Democratic Senators up for reelection in 2008, as a result of which -- along with impressive Democratic recruitment and a raft of GOP retirements -- the NRSC appears destined to play defense rather than offense this cycle. To make matters worse, the NRSC has less than half the cash-on-hand of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee -- a $17 million disadvantage, to be precise -- making it all the more difficult for the GOP to limit its potential losses. A lot of the disparity in the relative sizes of the two committees' campaign accounts comes from contributions, or the lack thereof, from incumbents.

Republican senators with millions of dollars in their campaign accounts have given little or nothing to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), despite its desperate pleas for cash funds.

Fewer than 10 Senate Republicans met goals they received for an NRSC fundraiser with President Bush in McLean, Va., Tuesday evening. GOP senators were asked to contribute $100,000 from their campaign accounts or recruit four major donors for the event.

While NRSC Chairman Sen. John Ensign (Nev.) has been strapped for cash, his counterpart, Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), has persuaded colleagues to give hundreds of thousands of dollars from their personal campaign accounts to the party's cause.

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Republican Sens. Arlen Specter (Pa.), Jim Bunning (Ky.), Richard Lugar (Ind.), Pete Domenici (N.M.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Tom Coburn (Okla.), and Larry Craig (Idaho) have given nothing to the NRSC, according to campaign finance data collected by the Federal Election Commission and CQ Money Line, a website that tracks fundraising.

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Democrats have showered Schumer with money. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) wrote a $250,000 check to the committee in June. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) contributed half a million dollars last year.

Even lesser-known Democrats have given hundreds of thousands: Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) has given the DSCC at least $100,000; Sen. Tom Carper (Del.) has transferred at least $250,000 from his campaign and Sen. Bill Nelson (Fla.) has kicked in at least $150,000.

Even Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), who calls himself an "independent Democrat" and whom the committee opposed when he faced Ned Lamont, the official Democratic nominee in the 2006 Connecticut Senate race, gave $100,000 to the DSCC in December.

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During a recent interview with The Hill, Ensign said about half the Senate's 49 Republicans were "not even close" to the pace needed to meet their fundraising goals. Ensign has asked members to raise $750,000-$3 million depending on seniority, leadership positions, and committee assignments.

When the Democrats can pull six figures out of Joe Lieberman, who is trapsing around the country and even the world on behalf of presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain, while the Republicans can't even successfully goad half of their members to come "even close" to meeting their fundraising targets, it says a number of things. First, this vast disparity means that the Republicans just cannot and likely will not be able to reach even financial footing with the Democrats. Perhaps more fundamentally, however, it means that Republican Senators don't believe they have much of any chances to stem their losses in November, because if they did they would be contributing to the cause. It's tough to be a Republican...