This is what happens when you mess with the base...

Say you're a pro-life Republican Senator, and were elected among other reasons for your strong support of the pro-life cause and the hopes that your influence in a majority party will be instrumental in advancing that cause. And for a while, your support is solid. You're hated by all on the left, which is always a good sign.

But then, you support a VERY militant pro-choice Republican who is also running for re-election to the Senate. You also work hard to knock down a credible pro-life challenger to that Senator. And when the pro-choice Republican wins, you support him in his efforts to lead up the Judiciary Committee in the Senate. With that power, the pro-choice Senator exerts his influence to pressure the President of the United States to nominate someone to the Supreme Court who is not openly conservative and at the forefront of the battle over the Court. The President nominates a complete blank slate.

What will people in your state think of your efforts? Well, apparently they've had it with you.

Pennsylvania Treasurer Bob Casey Jr.'s lead over Sen. Rick Santorum has grown even larger in their U.S. Senate race, according to a poll released Thursday.

The Quinnipiac University poll of 1,530 Pennsylvania voters showed Casey leading the two-term Republican incumbent by 18 points, 52 percent to 34 percent, in the 2006 race. That compares to a 50-to-39 percent lead in a July poll by Quinnipiac...

Casey, a Democrat and the son of a popular late governor, has maintained a low profile and done a limited number of media interviews.

Casey isn't even campaigning and Santorum is losing. This is what pissing off the base will do. Yes, there may be other factors at work, especially since Pennsylvania voted for Kerry in the last election. But it will be a miracle if Santorum wins this. Casey claims he's pro-life. There are probably a lot of disgruntled pro-life Pennsylvanians who are thinking that Santorum made a big mistake when he supported Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey, and as a result we are now dealing with Harriet Miers.

It is a fact of life that the base, upset over Miers, will not be enthusatically voting for the Republicans in 2006. Supporters of Miers and the President, despite compliaints about it, had better accept it. Just as people disappointed with Miers' nomination have to accept that she's the President's pick, people supporting her have to understand that there will be consequences that result from it. They cannot browbeat conservatives into voting for the Republican party forever, especially when they feel they're being used.