You might look at post #36 and chain forward to see the replies, re Trent Lott's leadership to play hardball.
I've not seen Reagan Man's reply yet to my response in #39, though I hope he yet will.
Our elected representives are hogtied by our refusal to fight the power structure of liberalism: the media and education system. There isn't much they can do when the dumbified general public has "Republicans are evil" rammed into their heads from school-age to adulthood and every hour of the day.