Republican officials are under pressure from religious conservatives to enact their agenda.

Charles Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia, said Republican officials are under pressure from religious conservatives to enact their agenda. That wing of the party is no longer its dominant fixture, Bullock said, but its adherents are still among the most loyal voters in the Republican base.

"They have to give these voters something, even if it's not everything they want," he said.

But there is a substantial political downside for the GOP, he said, if the Republican agenda is seen as being driven by voters outside the political mainstream.

"If they [Republicans] try to overstep any mandate they got in the election, they could risk a backlash," he said.

(ajc. 01-16-05.)