The moderate middle wins the day

For weeks, the debt-ceiling debate has been defined by a clash of the extremes; tea party conservatives seeking to dramatically reshape government and committed liberals afraid doing so would squeeze the poor and working class.

But, in the end, it was largely a coalition of lawmakers in the middle — 174 Republicans, 95 Democrats — who pushed through a deal that is expected to avert a government default and allow the nation's legal borrowing limit to rise through 2012.

With many of the conservatives who helped define the terms of the debate unwilling to vote for the deal that resulted, the bill's fate instead was left to lawmakers like Rep. Heath Shuler (N.C.), who belongs to a caucus of 25 conservative House Democrats known as the Blue Dogs.

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Karen Tumulty 02 Aug, 2011

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