Republicans just don’t get it. Everyone who sat out the election in 2006 to “teach the Republicans a lesson” wasted your time, they did not listen to you. These people have lost their way and think pork is their ticket to re-election. *sigh*

Two lopsided votes in the U.S. Senate last week reveal a power vacuum in the Republican Party.
President Bush’s influence is diminishing quickly, Sen. John McCain has not yet established himself as the party’s leader, and Senate Republicans are worried more about their own reelection prospects than they are about the need to stand by either man.

“The Senate has already basically decided to disregard Bush,” said one GOP Senate aide.
But in joining Democrats in voting to override Bush’s veto of the Farm Bill and to approve Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb’s expansive new GI Bill, a substantial number of Senate Republicans also disregarded McCain. The Arizona senator has said he would have vetoed the Farm Bill if he were president, and he opposes Webb’s GI Bill in favor of a less expensive version of his own.
But McCain didn’t show up for the votes. And although Republican leaders specifically pitched the vote on the Webb bill as a test of loyalty to the presumptive Republican nominee — “It’s us against them,” GOP senators were told — 25 Republicans ultimately crossed over to support the legislation.
The White House hopes to regroup and rally House Republicans to the president’s side. In fact, conservative factions in the House are already demanding that their leadership shift to the right.
But Senate Republicans, to a large degree, have already made a different decision: They will support any legislation deemed important for their reelection, no matter what position the president takes.

Bush and McCain are reaping what they sowed. Because of Bush’s spending and support for amnesty, he ticked off the base and they sat out the 2006 election. Why should the Republicans stand with the guy who killed their brand? McCain hasn’t shown any loyalty to Republicans, so why should they show any to him. They are just doing what he does all the time. *sigh* again! It isn’t a great time to be a Republican, that’s for sure.
And then there’s this:

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the House Democratic leadership face some political challenges of their own. The U.S. economy is weak, and the party does not want to be seen going on a huge federal spending spree just as voters are forced to make do with less at home.

Republicans won’t be able to bring it up if they are part of the porkfest, will they?
And this:

In some cases, Democrats are winning these legislative battles by submerging their own differences on new federal spending — differences that could come back to haunt them as the legislation moves through the process. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) voted with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on the Webb legislation but has complained loudly that the GI Bill — which would cost almost $52 billion over 10 years — should be paid for.

This is why I laugh at you commenters who say that Democrats are more fiscally responsible. Yeah, $52 billion for this bill and almost $300 billion for the farm bill which subsidizes farms during a time when food prices are on the rise. Yeah, that makes sense. The Democrats have added around $352 billion to the deficit, so tell me again how they are deficit hawks and fiscally responsible, I could use a good laugh.
BTW, I support GI related benefits but I don’t support the pork that has been added to the bill to push the cost up so high.