Daniel Gross, writing in SLATE, uses an economic metaphor to talk about the Republicans. Like an overheated stock, the party may have peaked and begun a decline.

Given their triumph in last November's elections (and their behavior since), the Republicans have nowhere to go but down. Indeed, polls and nimble online right-wing media types (Glenn Reynolds, Andrew Sullivan) are already starting to call a top in the Republicans' stock. The House and the Senate can't agree on the basics of a budget, the dwindling but vital core of northeast Republicans can't abide their southern and western compadres, and Tom DeLay is morphing into Jim Wright.

today's Washington Post discusses the effects of the Schiavo case on the party

Aggravating GOP frustrations are disturbing new polls, including a CBS survey that found that 82 percent of Americans -- including a whopping 68 percent of people who identify themselves as evangelical Christians -- think Congress's intervention was wrong.

Of course we haven't even gotten to Social Security (Bush's First Defeat per Jacob Weisberg) and, oh yeah, Iraq.