Now Hastert will go...

Hastert to step down as Republican House leader.

DeLay, Hastert, Allen, Santorum - there are very few of the Gingrich or conservative Republican stars left. Where do they go from here? Indeed, it looks like the GOP may suffer from a lack of big personalities soon. George W. will be gone soon, Rumsfeld is out, Rove's tactics of negative devisiveness have failed, JEB Bush will be gone soon, Katherine Harris is out of a job. Bush's cabinet is filled with the old guard: Cheney and all those other cronies of Bush's dad are nearing the end of their shelf-life. The only really famous guys left are centrist: Schwarzenegger, who basically won by turning himself into a Democrat, McCain, Specter. Will the Republican party marginalize the far right, leave behind the politics of Karl Rove and try to move to the center? If so, it will be crowded ground. My guess is that the social conservative/ corporate America consensus, always something of an unholy alliance, is pretty much shot. It will take a long time for the Republicans to reinvent themselves and come back. The Gingrich revolution is over.