"Somehow they think that they are absolved of the sins of Speaker Pelosi because they didn't vote."
Do you think you're absolved of the sins of Specter or Chaffee because "we all have to step up and pull the lever for the GOP"?
But I have no leverage over Speaker Pelosi. Specter or Chafee can be punished within their own party. Specter could be stripped of the precious chairmanship which was erroneously and stupidly granted him. But if Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker, whether you agree with her or not the sins are going to be committed. And she won't have to give a damn whether you like it or not since you can't vote for her and she knows you never would.
Now, we both probably agree with the current GOP leadership (especially in the Senate) is barely better than the DNC at the moment. But that is only because we don't have a DNC controlled Congress to compare it to. One year with a Speaker Pelosi or Majority Leader Reid would force us all to 'get religion'. There doesn't seem to be a logical reason to allow them to gain control just so we can learn the lesson. Better would be to torture these RINOs in the GOP primaries and replace them wherever possible.