What's going on with the Oregon House GOP?

I truly believe in the Reagan rule: "We don't eat our own" but, lately I am not completely sure what's going on with our Republican leadership in the Oregon House.

First of all you may have read or heard of Rep. Vickie Berger (along with Republicans Cliff Bentz and Bill Garrard) leading the charge on suspending the voter approved Measure 57. Now I know we have a budget problem and I know that some believe we can't afford this measure but the people passed it and it is not the legislature's job to overturn the will of the people.
I also understand the concept that each representative has their own agendas and their own ideals and don't have to go along with the rest of the caucus all the time, but that break from the group should always be on issues that are good for Oregon and true to what they want.
My question to the leadership of the House GOP: you have got to have a little more control over the caucus members. Perhaps a little more leadership?

Second: the redistricting issue. I am happy that we have a Legislative Redistricting deal done. I know that the Democrats had the GOP up against the wall with numbers and the Secretary of State as a threat, but, did we really need to throw Rep. Patrick Sheehan and Rep. Jason Conger under the bus? Sheehan loses the majority of what he won in 2010 in what was a very difficult race in which he had numbers against him. Now he has 35,000 voters from Multnomah County added to his new district when he was only 130 voters short of meeting the requirements to keep his current district intact. He told me today that "the whole process is gerrymandering, period". He also said when asked how this affects the next election, "I have to step back and really look at the next election". Will all of the hard work he put into his district now have to be done all over again to a completely different constituency and the friendships and promises made to those people all be for nothing?

With Rep. Conger it is much the same story although not to the extent of Sheehan's. In what is a mostly Conservative area, the one small Democrat stronghold is Downtown Bend. His "new" district is missing all of it's old parts. The rural farming and ranching communities around the city. As he stated to me today on the whole redistricting plan: "it was designed incorrectly". Both of these gentlemen made it very clear they still support the leadership and they will certainly still fight hard for their constituents but I could sense the great disappointment in both of their voices that as Freshman Republican House Members, they may not have been treated in the most equitable fashion.

I just have to wonder why the GOP leadership is not being more proactive and a little bit more assertive. We don't always have to compromise. We could, just once in awhile, make a stand.
I also want to make it clear that this is not an attack on the GOP in the House overall, just some fine tuning needed. Perhaps it's been so long since they've had any share of the "gavel", they've forgotten what it means to have a little more "say" in the Oregon Legislature! For that, I am grateful. The 30/30 split this year was one of the more productive (fewer stupid bills) and least rancorous in memory. It tells me too, that come 2012, with a lot more work, the GOP could win that ONE more seat it needs to take back the majority but this redistricting issue will have to be addressed again some day and the leadership needs to do a much better job of keeping their "people" in line.