Republicans Becoming More Sane?

Republicans in the new House are fully taking advantage of their minority status. As they are no longer the majority, they are free to break away from their far-right base, in order to side with the more… umm, sane.

Freed from the pressures of being the majority and from the heavy hand of former leaders including retired representative Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), many back-bench Republicans are showing themselves to be more moderate than their conservative leadership and increasingly mindful of shifting voter sentiment. The closest vote last week -- Friday's push to require the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare -- pulled 24 Republicans. The Democrats' homeland security bill attracted 68 Republicans, the minimum wage increase 82.

"You're freer to vote your conscience," said Rep. Jo Anne Emerson (R-Mo.), who received an 88 percent voting record from the American Conservative Union in 2005 but has so far sided with Democrats on new budget rules, Medicare prescription-drug negotiations, raising the minimum wage and funding stem cell research. "Or, really, I feel free to represent my constituents exactly as they want me to be."

November showed a rejection of far-right policy, and most Republicans realize this. Through the run-up to 2008, Republicans will abandon their far-right roots, realizing that America is not this, like, Christian Conservative theocracy that the Right would have you believe. Being a hardnosed Conservative will not get you elected in most areas, and finally Repubs are catching on, and changing their platform to reflect that.

Perhaps the hijacking of the Republican Party, by the nutters, has finally stopped.

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