The Extremists in control of the Republican Party are at war with the moderates of their own party, and the moderates have
started to notice:
The next squeeze, for the moderates, will be the explosive question of whether Republican leaders should change Senate rules to bar Democrats from using the filibuster, a two-century-old parliamentary tactic, to block the judicial nominees. Dr. Frist is advocating the change, and a confrontation is widely expected next week.
. . . Mr. Specter is in a particularly tight spot. He is trying to remain neutral, but as Judiciary Committee chairman is expected to advocate for the nominees. John Breaux, a centrist Democrat who was in the Senate until last year, said defying party leaders could be especially risky for a committee chairman. "They can put an awful lot of pressure on you," he said of the leaders. "They say, 'Look, you're a chairman because your party is in control, and you've got to be with the party.' So when you break with them, you have to be fast on foot to explain it."
Ms. Collins, chairwoman of the domestic security committee, is also taking that risk. Along with Ms. Snowe, she has expressed reservations about the rules change, as well as the Social Security plan. Last week, the two returned to Maine to find themselves the targets of an advertising campaign on the judicial nominees, a campaign that had the endorsement of Dr. Frist.
Can you believe that the Senate Majority Leader has approved running ads against Senators from his OWN Party? It is the Dobsons and Robertsons who run the Republican Party. The most extreme elements in the Republican Party call the shots now. But the moderates now realize it:
By this week, Ms. Collins seemed a bit worn down by that debate. "
It seems like it's issue after issue this year," she said, adding that she often envies "those senators for whom everything is black and white."
Ms. Snowe, meanwhile, had a message for fellow Republicans: "Frankly," she said, "the election of the president drew from Americans who describe themselves as moderates, which is about 45 percent of Americans today. That's something we overlook at our own peril."
With due respect to Sens. Snowe and Collins, you overlook at your own peril that the head of the Republican Party is now the Reverend James Dobson of Colorado Spring, Colorado.