Senator Joe Scarborough?

“Republican Party leaders are courting Joe Scarborough to replace U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris in the 2006 Senate race against Bill Nelson,” the Pensacola News Journal scooped this morning.

According to Pensacola businessman Collier Merrill, Scarborough has “met with senior party officials who are encouraging him to challenge” U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris.

“His name recognition continues to skyrocket,” Merrill said of Scarborough. “I know he’s being courted very heavily. I know everywhere he goes, people are encouraging him to run.”

Scarborough has been elected to Congress four times beginning in 1994. He has hosted Scarborough Country on MSNBC since 2003, and his contract is up in March. MSNBCers are buzzing about the speculation, which has reached the AP wire. But Scarborough Country tends to be the top-rated show on the network; I predict he’ll stay at MSNBC…