The headliner has been the Democrats’ lead in presidential cash, but their lead on the Congressional front is obviously important as well. Following the release on Friday of the June party committee fundraising figures, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) frets in today’s Roll Call that Senate Republicans are not doing enough to keep the National Republican Senatorial Committee on pace with its Democratic counterpart.

According to figures compiled by Democrats, the NRSC collected $292,500 in contributions from GOP Senators through the end of May. By contrast, the DSCC took in $820,000 from Senators through May, and committee officials estimate that the number topped $1 million by the end of June.

Republican senators aren’t the only ones failing to give, either. The NRSC raised just $3.4 million in June, compared to the DSCC’s $8.5 million. This means that the DSCC, led by the indefatigable Sen. Chuck Schumer ( D., N.Y.), raised twice as much in the first six months of the year. Meanwhile, the Republicans’ House race committee (NRCC) finished June with twice as much debt ($4.3 million) as it has cash on hand ($2 million). Individual Democratic House freshmen like Rep. Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.) are raising money the way freshmen should, whereas many Republicans — including conservative freshmen Bill Sali (R., Idaho) and Tim Wahlberg (R., Mich.) — have started off alarmingly weak. It deserves a much closer look in the near future, but brace yourself. If you hated 2006, there are signs that you’ll hate 2008 even more.