Two longtime GOP senators targeted by conservatives

The GOP is eager to recapture the Senate majority in the 2012 elections, and party leaders are optimistic about their chances given that 23 Democratic seats are up for grabs and a half-dozen of those races are considered toss-ups. Republicans need five additional seats to take effective control of the chamber. The GOP captured control of the House last year. But the restless electorate the GOP hopes to harness to help win those seats is also threatening longtime Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Richard Lugar of Indiana, who are being targeted in Republican primaries by the Tea Party movement and other conservative groups. Republicans will likely end up retaining those seats, but it may not be Hatch and Lugar who win them.