> Their spinelessness and willingness to be the Bush-lite party could cost them dearly in the mid-terms and 2012. The republicans could pick up some disaffecte

> Their spinelessness and willingness to be the Bush-lite party could cost them dearly in the mid-terms and 2012. The republicans could pick up some disaffected democrats as single issue voters on hot-button topics. But the social conservative agenda that the republicans are married to is fairly distasteful to people who regularly vote democrat - even if the parties are 95% identical in practice.