"Our country needs a strong, diverse Republican Party," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday at a press conference touting the Democrats' legislative achievements in the first 100 days of the Obama administration.

Speaker Pelosi may really mean it -- up to a point. But she's clearly relishing the increased dominance of her majority to impose its will on the country. The Democrats' willingness to utilize reconciliation to push through future big ticket items on the agenda -- like health care -- demonstrates that the Speaker and her party aren't interested in opening any doors to let the Republicans in out of the legislative wilderness.

At the same time, Ms. Pelosi recognizes that, as a purely tactical matter, Democrats want and need a viable opposition party to use as a political foil. With Mr. Specter's defection, Democrats now have something approaching complete control of government and will own the consequences of whatever legislation they pass.

A Republican Party that has flat-lined offers few opportunities for Ms. Pelosi to shift the blame. She sincerely wants a GOP that is ambulatory (if heavily medicated) that she can cast as obstructionists and villains in the unfolding drama of President Obama and the Democratic Party seeking to deliver the "change" agenda the America supposedly voted for last fall.