Squeezed in The Middle; They were 'saviors of the Senate.' But the Gang of 14 may find that moderation doesn't pay at the polls.

Byline: Jonathan Darman and Holly Bailey

Fran DeWine just wanted to talk about apple pie. Campaigning last month for her husband, Ohio Republican Sen. Mike DeWine, she handed constituents a family cookbook, complete with Mike's favorite pie recipe and her own "Fran's Best Bread." But one voter was interested in a less appetizing topic: why had her husband defied his party leadership on judicial nominees and joined the Senate's so-called Gang of 14? Taken aback, Fran rambled on like a schoolteacher, explaining the nature of filibusters and the history of Republican appointees on Capitol Hill. Later, when pressed by a reporter, she was more succinct: her husband had defected, she confided, in order to save the Senate.

It is an odd political moment when a wife believes her husband's role in rescuing history's greatest deliberative body is something she has to explain. After all, in May 2005, when the seven Democrats and seven Republicans in the Gang of 14 announced they'd reached a deal on President George W. Bush's judicial nominees--preventing the dread "nuclear option" (where a majority would end a Democratic filibuster and destroy the rules of the Senate) --they were the first to proclaim they'd brought democracy back from the brink. With a classically senatorial mix of solemnity and self-congratulation, they wondered if their deal might be the start of a new civility in Washington. "We have lifted ourselves above politics," said the old Senate stalwart, West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd. "Thank God for this moment."

But politics has a way of bringing senators back down to earth. With control of Congress on the line this November, both political parties are pressing the wedge issues--immigration, stem-cell research and, most prominently, Iraq. And creatures of the center are struggling to simply stay in the game. Nowhere is the struggle more desperate than inside the Gang of 14, whose alliances across the aisle could cost three senators their jobs. Their fellow Gang members are helping where they can, but some wonder about the future of moderate coalitions in American politics. "This is an incredibly close election," says former Louisiana Democratic senator John Breaux, himself a celebrated centrist. "The bases of both parties don't like anyone who looks like they've helped the other side."

So far, DeWine has most artfully pulled off the balancing act--not surprisingly, by stressing his partisan credentials. At first, his association with the Gang of 14 ...