NeoRepublican power is broadly based, the result of a clever pincer attack on the checks-and-balances built into the system. Not just the obvious fact that they hold all three branches of government, but because they've been able to create what they call "backlash insurance" to insulate themselves from the will of the mainstream, to defeat the normal democratic mechanisms by which voters can expel officeholders who don't pay attention to the wishes of their constituencies.

Long after they throw Dubya to the wolves to save themselves, they'll be clinging to tremendous power in Congress. Hillary was dead serious when she called the House of Representatives a "plantation". Despite the transparent attempt to deflect attention from what she said by the spurious outrage characterizing her remarks as somehow "racist" (funny how the comment played so well to Black audiences, isn't it?), she was clearly referring to the iron hand with which DeLay and his successor MiniDe run the House. Moderate Republicans don't stand a chance; they're kept in line by a few carrots, but mostly by the threat of a primary challenge from their own party. The results of gerrymandering to produce safe seats means that a Republican doesn't have to fear a challenge in the general election, but has everything to fear from displeasing the Party machine and causing it to run a challenger in the primary. Thus the historical forces of moderation in American politics are neutralized, and the country is dragged far to the right against its will.

NeoRepublicans are engaged in large scale disenfranchisement of the American people. Republican "Representatives" no longer represent the people who elect them, they represent only the Party and the powerful elite that controls it.

While it's a relief to know that Dubya has at most less than three years, we dare not lose sight of the deeper problem. We have to get rid of the NeoRepublicans, not just Bush. If we miss even one cancerous cell, the tumor will return.