“Republicans stung by the culture wars that dominated the nation's political discourse this year are standing down on social issues, acutely aware that the presidential and congressional elections five months off are expected to turn on a thin margin of cash-strapped independent voters neither party can afford to alienate,” AP writes, noting that Speaker Boehner hasn’t tried to reverse the birth control/religious freedom policy; on gay marriage, they pivoted to the economy and had muted criticism; and on abortion: “House Republican leaders made it go away by offering a vote on a bill to ban gender-based abortions Thursday -- under special rules that guaranteed it would fail.”
It makes this point: “There is a growing sense among Republicans that, with Mitt Romney all but crowned as their presidential nominee, social issues generally are losers for the party at a time when the GOP is trying to appeal to swing voters.”
“Outcomes in the Indiana, Texas and Nebraska Republican primaries are raising the odds that South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint will move closer to remaking the ranks of U.S. Senate Republicans in the image of the anti-tax Tea Party-dominated House caucus,” Bloomberg reports.
