About six months age we moved off the island and the GOP moved to it.  The problem is they took the country with them!  The beastie needs to eat them all and leave the country alone.

It helps create a better narrative for Democrats in 2006, but it also allows Republicans to have a much needed debate about where their party is going.  A healthy Republican Party is critical for our democracy.

Agreed.  With only two parties, we cannot afford to have just Democrats or (god forbod!) just Republicans as a choice for sensible voters.

For Christ's sake, there's only two!  It'd be nice if both offered non-batchit-crazy agendas.

all of the old divisions inside the Republican Party are going to become disgustingly clear.

Its only because of Delay's iron fist as Majority Leader that all of these divisions have been paved over (with special interest moeny and influence).

If Democrats continue to hold their ground, we will begin to cement the image of unity, cohesion, and the ability to lead, in the minds of the public.

It should all be fun to watch.

It's almost as if there's been a Dem Wednesday Meeting and this is the script du jour, to counter the long-running GOP script the Dems have no agenda/are weakly led.

The idea's absurd, of course. The Dems being organized enough to have a Wednesday Meeting...

Now, I'd agree that a GOP implosion is a clear possibility - probability, almost. But I'd suggest that Dems should put it out of their minds as inducing complacency and counting chickens.

Since the GOP House machine hasn't really been tested like this before, we just don't know. Perhaps it's sufficiently robust to function at a reduced but generally satisfactory level (taking more hits but getting the essential stuff through).

It's only got perhaps another thirty (?) or so legislative days to survive. (I'm too lazy to check that number: but the House hasn't exactly been short on recess time in the 109th!)

Or - as you suggest - it could be habit and fear. Motors not to be underestimated in pols mostly up for reelection in seven months!

I'd be interested to see a rundown of the main pinch-points likely to arise for the House GOP between now and November.

One huge thing will be managing expectations: the subliminal GOP script, presumably, will be that, with DeLay gone, naturally new management is taking time to bed in, renewal is needed, but no cause for alarm.

House majorities have failed to produce a budget before and survived, I believe, including (I think) the GOP during its current run of control since the 104th. And the budget is one of the few measures since the advent of Bush on which Dems have been consistently united in votes on passage.

Besides, a budget is essentially a work of horse-trading and split the difference. Not the hardest sort of negotiation to manage.

I'd be looking at whether the garden variety corporate welfare bill is getting passed as usual. That's the GOP engine-room, and there's a bench of Dem sympathisers that can often be counted on to help out on those bills.

Now, if those Dems started sitting on their hands, then things would really be getting interesting!

Well, they're a damned long way from the days of Barry Goldwater.  

Unless the Buchananites emerge without pissing off McJesus, Inc and Delayniacs, the GOP is headed toward it's second major independent break-off in the last 15 years.

There are a lot of Perot Republicans who are pissed.

The Massachussetts health care plan is an example of why you need too strong parties.  Its a double subsidy to the insurance companies, once directly, and once by requiring everyone to purchase health insurance with no cost controls.  And it doesn't break the link between health insurance and employment.

This is what you get from a one party state.  Yes, there is a Republican governor (put there deliberately to check the legislature), but he can't do much because his vetoes can be overridden.

Sure, we are in the catbird's seat and can exploit these fissures within the Republican Party only if people like Joe Lieberman stop fucking other Democrats at every turn and for all the world (and Fox News) to see.