Here's tonight's rundown on Congressional races: Republicans across the country are getting desperate in the face of some very stiff Dem challenges -- so they're accusing their opponents of various kinds of personal sleaze.

GOP Congressman's Campaign Attacks Dem For Thinking About Masturbation Thirty Years Ago
Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) is stepping up his social-conservative attacks on Dem challenger Kay Barnes, circulating to reporters an article that Barnes wrote back in the 1970s on the subject of sexuality and masturbation. A spokesman for the Barnes campaign told Roll Call that Graves is "fixated on sex" and that voters have better things to worry about.

GOP Candidate's Ad: My Opponent Supports Hanging Soldiers In Effigy
Tom McClintock, the GOP nominee for the open seat of scandal-plagued Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), has premiered this new ad attacking Democrat Charlie Brown, an Air Force veteran, for attending an anti-war rally in 2005:

"Charlie Brown stood with anti-war radicals when a soldier was hung in effigy," says the woman in the ad, the mother of a Marine. "That's no way to support our troops."

Franken Ad: Sometimes I Get Outraged
Al Franken has a new ad up, responding to an attack ad from Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) that used old footage of Franken angrily cursing at public appearances:

"But my question is," Franken says to the camera, "with the price of gas and groceries and health care crushing Minnesota families, and Washington too busy taking care of the special interests to help, why isn't Norm Coleman outraged?"

NRSC Chairman's New Optimism: We'll Hold On At 49 Seats
NRSC chairman Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), who in recent months had taken heat for openly saying the GOP would lose seats in the Fall election, has suddenly changed his tone and is now optimistic of Republicans holding on to their current number of 49 seats. He attributes this to support of oil drilling and the excitement over Sarah Palin.

Poll: Oregon Senate Race in Virtual Tie
A new Rasmussen poll gives Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) a bare 46%-45% lead over Dem Jeff Merkley, down from his once comfortable eight-point margin just a month ago. Smith has recently gone on the air with a pair of brutal attack ads accusing Merkley of coddling child rapists, and this poll seems to confirm that he has reason to be concerned and to go negative.

NRSC Ad In North Carolina: One Tax, Two Tax, Three Tax, Four
The NRSC is on the air with this attack ad in the North Carolina Senate race, a clever cartoon depicting Democrat Kay Hagan as a cartoonish tax-raiser:

This ad does carry with it a certain irony in using animation styled after Dr. Seuss -- the author was himself a deep left-winger whose books were meant to teach children about environmentalism, peace, racism and class inequality,and rebelling against repressive authority.