Demagogue

Two or three years ago, GOP lawmakers in both houses of Congress blindly took their marching orders from the White House. For many years, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has been a horse-trading, pork-barreling legislator whose wishes have rarely been challenged by his colleagues.

But, in recent weeks, someone must have added something to the water they're drinking up on Capitol Hill. Consider these two encouraging developments:

* Four Republican senators are a big part of the reason why President Bush has been rebuked in his my-way-or-the-highway attempt to reauthorize the Patriot Act without any safeguards for civil liberties.

* Today, Senator Stevens took it on the chin -- the A.P. called it a "stinging defeat" -- as the Senate rejected the Defense spending bill to which Stevens had added a provision authorizing drilling in ANWAR.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) said after the vote, "It took a lot of guts for a lot of people to stand up" to Stevens' legislative push.

Does your senator have any guts? If you live in Pennsylvania, you have a truly gutless senator representing you.