Is there a spine store?

So where did the Republicans in the U.S. Senate suddenly get a spine?

After months of rolling over for outrageous Democratic fillibusters of Bush's judicial nominees they're finally going to make the Democrats actually do a real fillibuster and talk all night before the cameras. Expose them and their tactics. Amazing.

And then I read this week that the Republicans actually shut down the Senate Intelligence Committee until Democrats reveal who wrote the treasonous memo about using hearings into pre-Iraq War intelligence to damage Bush right before the election. Shut down a committee. Unheard of testosterone.

Right on the heels of winning a ban on partial birth abortion and passing Bush's $89 billion request for war spending intact.

I'm guessing the spine has a name and it is, unexpectedly, Majority Leader Bill Frist.