The GOP, self-destructing or morphing?

I thought from the beginning that the compromise on the judicial filibuster was more about internal Republican politics than judges. There are a few sane heads in the Republican party that realize the American Taliban wing of the Party is about to destroy it. Joe Gandelman had an excellent post over the weekend, Will The Stem Cell Issue Be Point Of No Return For White House And GOP? where he discusses this one dividing issue. Joe had a second post, John McCain And Arlen Specter: The Ones To Watch? on the efforts of McCain and Specter to de-rail Frist and the Mullahs of the religious right. Today the Washington Post has an article titled Bush's Political Capital Spent, Voices in Both Parties Suggest suggesting that if Bush has lost the keys to the agenda-mobile already he is about to. Steve Soto does an excellent analysis of this over at The Left Coaster so I'm not going to try to duplicate his efforts. Steve points out that some Republicans are saying that Bush can regain control while giving him really bad advice on how to do it.

To get back on track, Gingrich said, Bush should pare down his Social Security plan to its central element, personal investment accounts funded by payroll taxes. "I don't think he can get complex reform through," Gingrich said. "It's too hard with the AARP opposing you and all of the Democrats lined up against it."

Excuse me, pare the plan down to the very thing that people don't like about it.

Some Republicans see the White House as out of touch.

"There is a growing sense of frustration with the president and the White House, quite frankly," said an influential Republican member of Congress. "The term I hear most often is 'tin ear,' " especially when it comes to pushing Social Security so aggressively at a time when the public is worried more about jobs and gasoline prices. "We could not have a worse message at a worse time."

So that brings us back to the filibuster compromise. Bill Frist is the administration's man in the Senate. The filibuster compromise was an attempt to marginalize him and as such an attempt by some Senate Republicans to marginalize the White House. Sounds like a lame duck to me.