Whither Republican Unity?

Sure, it's too soon to be making optimistic proclamations about this issue, but from Noam Scheiber's blog at The New Republic comes this statement from the Times:

One veteran lobbyist, who did not want to be identified because he did not want to antagonize Republicans, said: "What held the Republicans together in the Senate last time was the desire to see Bush through to re-election and a sense that their fates were tied to his. That's no longer true."

In fact, there is widespread anxiety in Republican circles these days, and no real consensus on how to achieve the president's domestic goals or even, perhaps, whether doing so is worth the price. The Republican caucus ranges from the moderate "blue state" senators--Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania--to the firebrand freshmen who are eager to lead the charge for the conservative social agenda and against government spending.

I mentioned a few posts ago that no Republican I know gloated about W's re-election. I wondered if it might be a matter of buyer's remorse. If we're lucky, that's exactly the case. And hopefully the backlash by actual conservatives against fascistic ideologues that I was hoping for before the election will come to pass. I'd love to see a return of the days when both parties were fighting for what they thought was the best way to help the nation, instead of one party trying to rape the nation and the other trying to help-- but without suggesting that they were out to make waves or anything troublesome like that. You know, if that's okay....