The End of the Party

In the House, Bush is a liability, the Hammer's been indicted and the once-united GOP juggernaut stumbles toward an ugly divorce

The first hint I had that something was wrong -- that the karmic balance of the U.S. House of Representatives had shifted irrevocably -- came at about the twenty-two-minute mark of what was supposed to be a routine fifteen-minute vote on a labor appropriations bill. Republicans weren't supposed to lose this bill -- H.R. 3010, a relatively uncontroversial Fiscal Year 2006 Appropriations Act for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. It wasn't even supposed to be in play. The big challenge was supposed to be later that evening, in a heavily politicked budget-reconciliation package that threatened to be the toughest fight a wounded Republican Party had faced since the Gingrich years.