Republicans bolting GOP

House Republican leaders, who confidently predicted they would drive a wedge through the new Democratic majority, have found their own party splintering:

Freed from majority pressures and the bull whip of Tom DeLay , and increasingly mindful of shifting voter sentiment, many back-bench Republicans are showing their moderation and have sided with Democrats in droves on the House's opening legislative blitz. Indeed, last week's closest vote, 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."

• "Times have changed. I don't want to be someone who they say is too stubborn to change too," said Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), whose 92 percent conservative rating did not stop him from voting with Democrats on the homeland security and minimum-wage bills.

After having their asses handed to them last November, House Republicans threatened to draft procedural motions and parliamentary gambits to split the new majority. With so many new Democrats hailing from moderate-to-conservative districts, this was a plausible idea. And they attempted these strategies:

• Republicans spoke out strongly against Democratic measures over the past two weeks, saying new deficit-control rules would guarantee tax increases, stringent homeland security measures would cripple commerce, and a minimum-wage increase would hurt the economy.

• To counter the prescription-drug bill, GOP leaders drafted a parliamentary move that they said would ensure senior citizens' access to local pharmacists and the full panoply of prescription drugs. They tried to beat back the stem cell bill with a popular alternative, a ban on federal funds for human cloning. And they countered the minimum-wage bill with a motion to send it back to be redrafted to include tax breaks and health-insurance benefits for small businesses. On the minimum-wage bill, Republican leadership aides even offered a list of 25 Democrats they could pull over to their side.

The results? Eighty-two Republicans joined a unanimous Democratic front to vote to increase the minimum wage, while 54 Republicans voted against their leadership's counteroffer. Eighteen Republicans defied their leadership by opposing the parliamentary move against stem cells.

The homeland security bill -- designed to implement most of the remaining recommendations of the commission that examined the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- even garnered the vote of Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), who as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee last year, thwarted one of its central provisions, the screening of all shipping containers heading to U.S. ports.

Several Republicans, including Todd R. Platts (Pa.) and Jim Ramstad (Minn.), sided with the Democrats on every major vote. But these cross overs weren't limited just to these closet mavericks:

• Rep. Deborah Pryce (Ohio) was a powerful member of the Republican leadership, responsible for uniting her fractious colleagues behind a single message. After narrowly escaping defeat in November, the swing-district Republican bolted from her party's leadership last year. Last week, she virtually bolted from the party. With but a sole exception, she sided with the new Democratic majority on every major bill and rule change that came to a vote in the past two weeks, even voting against her party on a procedural vote, a move considered heretical in the years of GOP control.

• The Democrats "deserve the same credit that we got in 1995," when Republicans took control, said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.). "They've picked up on the really big issues of the day, the ones they won the election on, and the ones that really resonate in Republican districts."

Although they were always counting on GOP votes, even the Democratic leadership has been surprised by their margins of victory. Republicans from swing districts who have been beat up for years over their party-line voting have finally been liberated by their minority status.

The Republicans, natch, quickly dismissed the significance of this winning streak, however. The Democrats' opening legislative blitz IS being conducted under parliamentary rules that run roughshod over the Republicans, and foreclose on any chance for amendments. How's that feel, guys? Relax, once the 100-hours agenda runs its course next week, you'll be given more latitude. Furthermore, we're burning through all of the most important legislation very quickly.

Read the next quote carefully:

• "Republican discipline was critically important when we were passing legislation and moving an agenda," House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said. "The Democrats will soon move from these issues that poll at 80, 90 percent to issues that really matter."

See? They still don't get it! Issues that poll at 80-90 percent most certainly DO matter. . .at least to the people you work for, the people who sent you a strong message last November, the people who are still trying to send you messages on Iraq, the American people. . .heed our words or prepare to be kicked out of the sandbox!