Revenge of the Republican House Moderates

They have been threatened and intimidated for years but with Bush unpopular and the Republican leadership trying to stay out of jail their time has come. The House Republican moderates are just saying no to their right wing leadership.
House Republican Leaders Pull Budget-Cutting Bill

House Republican leaders were forced yesterday to abruptly pull their $54 billion budget-cutting bill off the House floor, amid growing dissension in Republican ranks over spending priorities, taxes, oil exploration and the reach of government.

A battle between House Republican conservatives and moderates over energy policy and federal anti-poverty and education programs left GOP leaders without enough votes to pass a budget measure they had framed as one of the most important pieces of legislation in years. Across the Capitol, a moderate GOP revolt in the Senate Finance Committee forced Republicans to postpone action on a bill to extend some of President Bush's most contentious tax cuts.

The twin setbacks added to growing signs that the Republican Party's typically lock-step discipline is cracking under the weight of Bush's plummeting approval ratings, Tuesday's electoral defeats and the growing discontent of the American electorate. After five years of remarkable unity under Bush's gaze, divisions between Republican moderates and conservatives are threatening to paralyze the party.

This about more than Bush, it is about a House leadership weakened by their own corruption.

"The fractures were always there. The difference was the White House was always able to hold them in line because of perceived power," said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster. "After Tuesday's election, it's, 'Why are we following these guys? They're taking us off the cliff.'"

Acting House Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) did not dispute that.

Josh Marshall weighs in:

What we're seeing today are the cascading effects of the breakdown of Republican party discipline, beginning with the collapse of the president's popularity (especially the rather sudden recognition of that fact within Washington) and echoing out from there.

Moderate Republicans have toed the Bush line because they've believed he could protect them, as indeed he has. They don't believe that now. So a lot of them don't want to go into the election next year with ANWR drilling hanging over them.

They balk on the left and then in response the 'wingers on the other right refuse the compromises they've agreed to. Suddenly the whole thing starts to pull apart since there's no centripetal force, no organizing power to hold things together -- sort of like Hobbesian state creation run in reverse.

The recognition has sunk in: The president is unpopular and weak. And it's every Republican for him or herself.

"And it's every Republican for him or herself.", that's what truly makes a lame duck, a lame duck with 3 years to go.