(Albin Lohr-Jones/Sipa USA via AP Images) Protesters hold signs at a rally opposing the GOP tax bill in New York City on December 2, 2017. I n the wee hours of Saturday morning, Senate Republicans passed their version of tax "reform," and you could feel the relief flooding over the Capitol. Yes, they were joyful that at long last, corporations and the wealthy will find the terrible burden of taxation under which they struggle lightened considerably. But even more, Republicans knew that they had averted political disaster by finally accomplishing something, sparing themselves the wrath of their ever-wrathful base. The fight isn't over—there still has to be a conference committee to reconcile the House and Senate versions, and once it comes up with a compromise, that bill will have to pass both houses. But if the conference committee fails, the House could merely pass the Senate's version and be done with it. In other words, the chance that Republicans won't get their tax cuts is not...

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore is questioned by the media in the Capitol T he Republican Party, home of moral clarity and ideological certainty, finds itself deeply conflicted. How do you respond when your candidate for a precious Senate seat is credibly charged with skeeviness so extreme that it might well have been criminal? Do you circle the wagons or head for the hills? How do you weigh your vital political interests against the values you claim to hold? This is the dilemma the GOP faces as the story of Roy Moore and his alleged predilection for teenage girls captures the political world. The reaction of those in Moore's party has covered a spectrum defined by where the different forces in the party and the conservative media draw their support. If you want to figure out where people stand on Moore, all you have to do is look at where they sit. When The Washington Post published its deeply reported story on Thursday, it sent the...