An AP piece entitled "GOP Sen. Won't Commit to Voting for Bush" examines how moderate Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee might not vote for the President in the upcoming election. Here's what they write:

Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee said Monday he plans to support his party in November but may write in a candidate instead of voting for President Bush.

The Rhode Island lawmaker, known for moderate views that often run counter to the Bush administration, said he was going to vote for a member of his party even though he disagrees with the president on many issues.

"I'm a Republican," said Chafee, who was appointed to the Senate in November 1999 to fill the seat when his father, John, died.

[...]

The Republican said the party's direction in the future will determine his political career as well. He said he's "not OK" with the conservative platform from the Republican convention, but would not say if he'd consider switching parties in his next election in 2006.

"It wasn't that long ago that moderates had more of a voice," Chafee said. "It's a cycle that I hope will come back."

This is huge news. A prominent Republican Senator will not confirm he will continue to be a member of the GOP caucus in the future. This is yet another testament to the decline and demise of the Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party.

Alleged-RINO (Republican in name only) Arlen Specter had this to say in the April 12 issue of the New Yorker on his fierce primary battle against uber-conservative Pat Toomey:

"When I came to the Senate, we had a lot of members of the Wednesday Club"-a weekly gathering of Republican moderates. "You had Lowell Weicker, you had Bob Stafford, you had Bob Packwood, you had Mark Hatfield, you had [John] Chafee, you had John Danforth, you had Jim Jeffords, you had John Heinz. Now there are only a few of us. And it's important. When Joe Biden needs a co-sponsor, he comes to Arlen Specter. That kind of balance is really important for the country. It's more than the soul of the Republican Party; it's to have some balance within the Party and within the two-party system."

Spector is staying with his party--at least for the moment. The same cannot be said for a number of former high ranking Republicans.

On the eve of the Republican National Convention, a group of big name GOP moderates including former GOP Govs. David Cargo of New Mexico, Dan Evans of Washington, A. Linwood Holton of Virginia, William Milliken of Michigan, Walter Peterson of New Hampshire; former U.S. Sens. Charles Mathias of Maryland and Robert Stafford of Vermont; and Nathaniel Reed, former assistant Interior Secretary under Presidents Nixon and Ford, and Russell Train, EPA administrator under Presidents Nixon and Ford all came out against Republican extremism. Big names in Minnesota's GOP also had harsh words for the party at the same time.

Later, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, who will be remembered by history as the only African-American man to serve in the United States Senate in the 20th century and the first African-American elected to the Senate by popular vote, penned an op-ed in The New York Times comparing the 2004 RNC to the 1964 debacle in which Barry Goldwater was nominated. After the Convention, a Pew Poll found that while "83% of conservative Republicans nationwide were satisfied by their options for president. But only 57% of moderate and liberal Republicans were, down from 70% in 2000."

The fact is that the Republican coalition founded by Reagan in 1980 and confirmed by Newt Gingrich in 1994--bloated after nearly 24 years at the helm of the nation in one way or another--is set to crumble at any minute. After having bowed to the extreme right over the past year in an attempt to win this year's Presidential election, moderate Republicans across the nation are moments away from leaving the party in droves.

Jim Jeffords already left the party, as have the aforementioned moderate coalition of former governors and senators, and Chafee has now signaled he might even be willing to leave the party. Perhaps even Maine's Snowe and Collins might also be persuaded to make the switch, thus completely finishing the Rockefeller wing of the GOP. One thing is known, though; if Bush doesn't lose most Republican moderates before this election, there's no way they will continue to suffer voiceless in this coalition indefinitely.