A thaw?

Are these signs of a thaw in the political stalemate and the partisan extremism in Congress?

1.  Republican senators finally backed down and agreed to allow confirmation votes on a number of President Obama's nominees for judges and agency heads, including the new Consumer Credit Protection Bureau.   It took the threat of changing the filibuster rules, but it worked.

2.  More moderate Republicans are engaging in a debate (or a fight in some cases) with Tea Party zealots over ideology.

3.  The House GOP leadership withdrew an austerity bill because they didn't have the votes to pass it.

4.  Sen. Ted Cruz admitted that they do not have the votes to defund ObamaCare -- "Right now we don't have the votes.   We're not even close."

5.  Sen. John McCain is reinventing himself. . . once again . . . as a maverick in his own party.  He's now saying that his vote for the sequester was "the worst vote I've made in a long time."  And, after spending four years criticizing every foreign policy decision the president made, he has been sounding a different tune, culminating with the announcement yesterday that he and Sen. Lindsey Graham will be going to Egypt as special envoys from the Obama administration.

6.  Sen. Tom Coburn, Saxby Chambliss, and other mainstream Republicans have been speaking out against the more radical calls for shutting down the government in another budgetary fight.   Chambliss said, "We tried that before, and we got out butts kicked."

At least there seems to be a bit of sanity emerging.    And now they'll be home for a month and hearing from their constituents.   The only problem is that, in the House with its local districts that get gerrymandered into safe seats, the radicals will continue to be elected -- even when they hurt the national party.   This could increase the intra-party GOP fight, prompting some moderates to revolt and join Democrats to get something done.

Again, I say it:   the 2014 elections can't come soon enough.

Ralph