GOP splinters as minority party

If press coverage followed the same template as it did when the GOP was in the majority, we would now be hearing grave pronouncements of the party's impending doom and snarky remarks about how the GOP don't have their own position on anything. Still, the WaPo notes GOP House members who barely survived the mid-term turnover are now crossing the aisle in droves to join the Dems in passing their 100 hour agenda.

As Rep. Jo Anne Emerson (R-Mo.) put it, "You're freer to vote your conscience."

But of course, there are still a lot of hard line loyalists who shrug this off as a passing phase. The money quote is buried at the end.

"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."

Somebody might want to tell Blunt that the reason the GOP aren't in power anymore is precisely because of the attitude that the issues that matter to 80% and 90% of the voters weren't considered important by the GOP while they were in charge.