Splitting the GOP

From Holden:

Dana Milbank watches the gallery react to Chimpy’s speech, and notes Democratic heckling (YES!) as well as the discomfort of moderate Republicans.

Pity the Republican moderates who sat in the chamber last night for President Bush’s State of the Union address.

On issue after issue — Social Security, same-sex marriage, energy, taxes and lawsuit restrictions — Bush’s rhetoric split the House chamber between the throaty roars of Republican conservatives and the stony silence and occasionally outright heckling of the Democrats. That left the small number of GOP moderates sprinkled among the Republicans with a difficult choice: Would they swallow their concerns and cheer for ideas they considered objectionable? Or would they sit on their hands when their president proposed policies they oppose?

In a clear warning to Bush, several of the moderates took the latter course last night, with subtle but unmistakable protests as the president spoke.

Read on, it’s pretty juicy.