Behind the Republican Resistance to Compromise - NYTimes.com

by Nate Silver, the Times's brilliant political statistical analyst. - GWC

Behind the Republican Resistance to Compromise - NYTimes.com:

"The chart that I’m going to show you is one of the more important ones that we’ve presented at FiveThirtyEight in some time. It helps explain a lot of what’s going on in American politics today, from the negotiations over the federal debt ceiling to the Republican presidential primaries. And it’s pretty simple, really, although it took me some time to track down the data.


Here’s what the chart will show: The Republican Party is dependent, to an extent unprecedented in recent political history, on a single ideological group. That group, of course, is conservatives. It isn’t a bad thing to be in favor with conservatives: by some definitions they make up about 40 percent of voters. But the terms ‘Republican’ and ‘conservative’ are growing closer and closer to being synonyms; fewer and fewer nonconservatives vote Republican, and fewer and fewer Republican voters are not conservative."

Log Cabin Republicans win: 9th Circuit Enjoins Enforcement of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

In a classic example of the dynamic interaction between legislation and litigation the Log Cabin Republicans have triumphed.  "The circumstances balance of hardships has changed" said a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel in an unsigned Order.  Citing the repeal of DADT by Congress, and the Obama administration's decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act  the court has lifted the stay it had granted to the Defense Department - and enjoined enforcement of DADT, freeing soldiers and sailors who were facing removal from the service under the nearly defunct statute.

Key documents in the litigation can be found HERE