Republican Alan Schlesinger, who is apparently running for the GOP nomination on a platform of embracing President Bush and pushing to privatize Social Security, hopes beyond hope that 2006 will be a replay of 36 years ago, when Lowell Weicker won his seat in a three-way race:

On Monday, the 48-year-old Schlesinger became the second announced Republican candidate for the seat. Speaking in Hartford to a small audience of backers and reporters, he said that a repeat of the 1970 race is "the best scenario, in my humble opinion," of how the race would play out.

But he's obviously gone back one 18-year cycle too far. You only need to go back to 1988 to see how 2006 will play out - it's an eerie mirror image.

As just one example of many, take these two candidates both defensively relying on "seniority" as a reason to stay in office:

"I feel very strongly that I have a lot that I can give this state, both on my seniority and independence over the next six years."

- Joe Lieberman, quoted on Fox 61's "Beyond the Headlines" (video), April 2006.

''You don't have seniority, you don't have anything,'' he said. ''I'm 16. If Joe Lieberman goes in, he's No. 100.''

- Lowell Weicker, quoted in the Washington Post, October 29, 1988.