The pundit talk is that as Republicans fail to rack up gains in Congress, even as they hold a majority in both houses, the inevitable result will be a switch to Democrats by the next midterm election.

Actually, it's much worse than that.  Republicans are leaving on their own, with no prompting from voters.  The latest, according to the New York Times, is Rep. Pat Tiberi, a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, and by all accounts a loyal-to-conservativism Republican.  According to the Times:

In a sign of mounting frustration among Republicans in Washington, Representative Pat Tiberi of Ohio, a senior lawmaker with close ties to his party's leaders, is expected to resign and take up an executive post with a business group in his home state, according to three Republicans briefed on his plans.

An abrupt departure by Mr. Tiberi, who is an influential member of the House Ways and Means Committee, would signal a deepening level of discontent among mainstream Republicans in Congress. Despite holding Congress and the White House, Republicans have so far failed to achieve longstanding policy goals like overhauling the tax code and repealing the Affordable Care Act.

The Times goes on to add that there's a long list of other Republicans leaving along with Tiberi.

The cause for this exodus is no mystery for anyone who's been watching politics and reading the paper: the tiny slice of Republican jerks in the Congress who, out of spite against President Trump, are preventing any legislation whatever from being passed in Congress.

It's these people, led by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who are responsible for the four-time failure of Obamacare to be repealed in Congress and now the threats to tax reform.  As senators such as McCain, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, and Susan Collins block this critical legislation, which they ran for office with promises to enact, they give aid and succor to Democrats, who are openly crowing that their electoral minority is no obstacle to enacting their agenda.  That agenda amounts to preserving the Obama legacy just as it is.

If you were a good Republican legislator, and caught up in the middle of this, unable to make any use of your legislative majority or the popular wave of support you rode in on, why would you want to stay?  Why would you want to have to keep explaining to voters that Obamacare is still in place and tax cuts haven't been forthcoming as promised because your own party has enough spoilers to keep it from happening?  Why would you want to be the flak-catcher for that and have to defend the indefensible?

Steve Bannon has come under some fire from Newt Gingrich and others for his campaign to rid the Republican Party of its disloyal and spiteful RINOs, but the reality is, these RINOs are a bigger threat to the Republican majority than any Democrat.  Republicans can beat Democrats if they act on their promises.  But when they have members within their own ranks who thwart them, thinking they are just putting a thumb into the eye of President Trump, the reality is, they are acting against their own party's interests.  And they need to be hosed out.

RINOs may think they are spiting Trump, who will be just fine whether he gets his agenda enacted or not, but the reality is, they are damaging their own party.  When are they going to be held up to scorn and shame?