Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio isn't a cult figure. He has admirers, but no adoring crowds await his pronouncements. He speaks for no one except himself; he's not one to lead a mass movement or to be a popular symbol.
And yet when the Ohio Republican defected from his party colleagues the other day and balked at swift approval of President Bush's nomination of John R. Bolton as chief American delegate to the United Nations, he became something of a symbol of the new challenge facing the Republicans who control both chambers of Congress and the White House: how to grow without growing apart.
April 23, 2005
The Republicans, to be sure, remain in a commanding position in Washington.
They are not about to split apart hopelessly in victory, the way the Democrats do repeatedly in defeat. But more than ever, there are signs that the Republicans are struggling to manage their majority.
It is a natural consequence of political triumph. Two oversimplifications make the case: The Democratic victory in the 1936 election ended up hurting Franklin Roosevelt, not helping him. And the Democratic Party's successes in the Lyndon Johnson landslide of 1964 were so big that the coalition became unwieldy and eventually led to a fracture that produced the worst possible consequence (two-word summary: Richard Nixon).
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1316&ncid=742&e=13&u=/ucds/20050423/cm_ucds/divisivenesscouldspelldisasterforgopin2008
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