Partisan Conflict: Within Parties

USA Today Cover story reports

GOP rift on ports, poll dip hit Bush
By Susan Page, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee vowed to "kill" the proposed sale of some cargo operations at six major U.S. seaports to a Dubai firm as a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll found overwhelming opposition to the deal.

The controversy has set up the most dramatic split to date between President Bush and Republicans on Capitol Hill. It also seems to have dented Bush's standing on handling terrorism and narrowed the Republicans' long-standing advantage over Democrats on the issue, the USA TODAY survey shows.

In both 830 and 930 classes we discussed parties as coalitions, and the challenge of keeping a coalition together. The poll that is reported is interesting because of the notion that different parties "own" issues (as discussed in the 8:30 class, and as seen in BSS in Figure 8-4, page 260). the USA Today poll reports figures more favorable to Bush than the CBS Poll reported earlier in the week.

The same Friday USA Today paper has a story on conflict within the Episcopal Church over gays:

Episcopal Church torn by gay issue as more parishes leave

By Martha T. Moore, USA TODAY
More than a dozen congregations have defected from the U.S. Episcopal Church since the first of the year in a growing rebellion triggered by the ordination of an openly gay bishop in 2003.