With 23 days to go and McCain looking like an electoral dead man walking, how long before GOP luminaries and pundits like Kathleen Parker, Peggy Noonan or Newt Gingrich start calling on the Republican National Committee to spend its remaining cash on Congressional races?

Think about it: Palin is doing a two-day bus tourthrough West Virginia – a state Obama wrote off during the primary campaign.  A Republican candidate in red Nebraska is touting Obama over McCain. There’s loudgrumbling from GOP stalwarts across the country that it’s too late for a comeback.  The Ayers attacks haven’t worked and McCain is fumbling around for a strategy for the closing weeks.

Throw in the fact that the GOP’s congressional campaign committees are at a cash disadvantage while Democratic candidates are growing stronger by the day as talk of a filibuster-proof Senate gets louder and it’s only a matter of time before one of the right-wing glitterati writes a column or tells Sean Hannity that the RNC ought to dump its McCain stock and put its money into the congressional races.

It would be stunning if the RNC actually did it — Drudge would have to invent a new version of the siren…  If I were a reporter, I’d call around to as many prominent Republicans as possible and ask them if they think the RNC should spend its money on McCain or the House and Senate races with 23 days to go.