The Quorum Report today reports that the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call has a story saying that John Cornyn is encouraging Greg Abbott to join the Senate race to serve out the remainder of Kay Bailey Hutchison’s term. I was surprised to see this. Abbott supposedly has ruled out a Senate race because traveling back and forth to Washington would be difficult due to his physical condition. In fact, he said this to me a couple of years ago. Furthermore, he has had his sights set on running for lieutenant governor and governor. The considerable warchest he has amassed could not be transferred to a federal campaign, although I believe it is lawful to return the money and ask donors to resubmit it under the federal campaign limitations. The obvious question here is whether the encouragement of Abbot reveals that national Republicans are worried that their current lineup of Senate hopefuls is not strong enough to retain the seat. Can the answer be anything but Yes?