Pat Buchanan nailed it last night on Scarborough Country when he said of the GOP that there biggest problem is that they are turning on each other:

"There's a larger problem here," Buchanan said, "The Republican House doesn't know how to fight as a unit. They're all turning on each other."

Pat's right. Republicans need to remember Ben Franklin's warning that "we must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." Right now, it appears, we are all hanging separately.

But why have House Republicans -- a group who used to exercise party loyalty better than anyone -- started turning on each other?

Tom DeLay's departure has already hurt Republicans to a degree that few expected. Clearly, Congressional Republicans are missing DeLay's leadership and insistence that Members behave like a team. I can't help but believe that if DeLay were still in office, Republicans wouldn't be turning on each other right now.

Machiavelli said it is better to be feared than loved, and I can't help but think that Republicans in Congress are misbehaving because there is nobody in charge to fear. Now we know why Tom DeLay was so important ...