A couple of months ago, I wondered...

...if the United States actually had three, not two, political parties: the Democrats, the Republican establishment and the tea party.

This morning I read in the Times, "Threat to Block Debate on Guns Appears to Fade in Senate" (my emphasis):

Several Senate Republicans said Tuesday that they would not participate in a filibuster of the first major gun control bill since 1993, as Democrats appeared on the verge of overcoming a blockade threatened by a group of conservatives before a word of debate on the measure was uttered.

Senate Republicans began splintering Tuesday on whether the bill should be allowed full consideration on the floor, with nearly a dozen, including Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Susan Collins of Maine, Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, saying they would support a procedural motion to take up the legislation formally for debate and amendments.

The decision by some Senate Republicans to abandon the filibuster on what is formally known as a motion to proceed came less than 24 hours after Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, announced his support for the filibuster, resulting in a rare show of disunity among Senate Republicans.

Thirteen senators, led by a core of younger conservatives, had vowed to try to block any legislation that they saw as infringing on the constitutional right to bear arms.

The civil war continues.