It is now 2006. Fewer than eleven months from now one of North Dakota's Senators, Kent Conrad, will be up for re-election. He needs to be defeated. When he isn't up for re-election Conrad is a party-line Democrat and a tax and spend Democrat. In short, he doesn't represent the views of the average red-state North Dakotan.

For years Conrad has been coasting along on name recognition alone, mostly for lack of a good candidate from the opposition (though, to be fair, Conrad does bring home a lot of tax dollars for state interests). I won't speak to problems of past campaigns against Conrad, but this year the problem is clear: The Republicans just don't have it together.

For weeks now we've been hearing about the possibility of ND Public Service Commissioner Kevin Cramer running against Conrad. Cramer has apparently traveled to D.C. a couple of weeks back to shore up funding issues with the national Republican party, but since then everything still seems to be in a holding pattern.

While I think Cramer would make a very good candidate against Conrad, this "maybe I will, maybe I won't" thing is seriously hurting his chances. To this observer, the Republicans look confused. The hesitancy over Cramer's decision to run makes it look like maybe he doesn't have the full backing of either the state or national GOP. Or maybe both. Even if Cramer decides to run and comes out strong in the coming months many are going to be left with a feeling that he's a sacrificial lamb thrown out to be chewed up by Conrad because a better candidate couldn't be found.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not slamming Cramer here, but if the Republicans want to beat Conrad they're going to have to show some more energy. Conrad is a firmly entrenched Washington bureaucrat. He has shown national Democrats that he will be a party player and they aren't about to let him lose without a fight. He is an incumbent, and a strong one at that. Whoever runs against him will have to grab the attention of North Dakotans with a lot of energy right from the start.

Unfortunately for North Dakotans hoping for a change, the Republicans aren't exactly charging out of the chute.