Gang of 14 may pay a price at the polls.

[Rose Siding]

...With control of Congress on the line this November, both political parties are pressing the wedge issues—immigration, stem-cell research and, most prominently, Iraq. And creatures of the center are struggling to simply stay in the game. Nowhere is the struggle more desperate than inside the Gang of 14, whose alliances across the aisle could cost three senators their jobs. Their fellow Gang members are helping where they can, but some wonder about the future of moderate coalitions in American politics......

So far, DeWine has most artfully pulled off the balancing act—not surprisingly by stressing his partisan credentials. At first, his association with the Gang of 14 threatened to sink his political career—one state religious leader called him "an absolute embarrassment." But after the agreement, the Senate confirmed a slew of Bush's federal-court nominees and two Supreme Court justices, and DeWine skillfully recast his participation in the Gang as service to the conservative cause. DeWine tells NEWSWEEK he has an easy answer when confronted by party members who still question the compromise: "Look, we got our judges ... We won." The strategy has helped DeWine shore up Republican support and focus on his Democratic challenger, whom he trails by some eight points.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14097560/site/newsweek/page/2/

[stepnw1f]

1. GOOD! They are all Compromised

and do not represent America as a whole. Time after time they have sided with big corporations and the Bush administration.

[welshTerrier2]

2. the MSNBC spin defies belief

they stated, and i quote: "DeWine has most artfully pulled off the balancing act"

they also stated, and i quote: "The strategy has helped DeWine shore up Republican support and focus on his Democratic challenger, whom he trails by some eight points."

it sounds like he's doing pretty badly to me ... they make it sound like he's doing just fine ...

[PATRICK]

3. On another post

They are scared witless because dewine is 8, count them, 8 points behind his "liberal" challenger.

Yes, I would say that is blind conservative spin by a media toady. And outdated.