Under the rubrik of "It's Never Too Early," we may as well take a peek over the horizon today when it comes to elections and the Congress.

The House actually has two special elections coming up soon, which each party - if they win - will try to claim is a bellwether of how the country is dealing with an Obama presidency.

Democrats hold a 255 to 178 advantage in the House, with those two open seats.

The first opening that will be settled is in Chicago, where former Rep. Rahm Emmanuel left his seat to take over as White House Chief of Staff.

Democrats should be heavily favored to win this race, but the question is, which Democrat.

The primary is March 3.  The general election is in April.

Let's face it.  If the Democrats lose this one, then they have screwed up pretty good.

(Of course, this seat was once held by a Congressman named Rod Blagojevich.  So, anything is possible.)

The other open seat is in upstate New York, where former Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand is now Senator Gillibrand, as she replaced Hillary Clinton.

Her district is definitely not a reliable one for Democrats, and does give the GOP an opening.

Republicans are rallying behind Jim Tedisco, who is the GOP leader in the New York State Assembly.  He faces Democrat Scott Murphy, a venture capitalist/entrepreneur, who has never run for public office before. 

If the Democrats grab both of those special elections, then they will crow pretty loud that they are In Command.

If the Dems win in Chicago, but lose in the New York, look for them to downplay the results and for the GOP to act like the NY victory is the End Of Obama.

Looking ahead to the 2010 mid term elections, there are already eight House members who have decided to give up their seats and run for other office.

Three are Democrats - Rep. Kendrick Meek of Florida is running for U.S. Senate, Rep. Artur Davis is running for Governor in Alabama and Rep. Paul Hodes is running for Senate in New Hampshire.

All of those seats could well stay in Democratic hands even without the incumbent running.

Meanwhile, five Republicans are trying to get a different job - Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida is going to run for his state's job as Agriculture Commissioner and Rep. Zach Wamp of Tennessee is going to run for Governor.

Three House members are running for the Senate on the GOP side.  Roy Blount of Missouri announced his bid on Thursday.  Over in Kansas, two GOP colleagues, Rep. Todd Tiarht and Rep. Jerry Moran will run against each other.

Also, one GOP lawmaker is simply retiring, Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan.

So as of now, three Democratic seats are open in 2010, to six for the GOP.

Again, those are uphill numbers for Republicans, as they are (right now) defending more open seats than the Democrats.