Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s conference is largely taking his advice to sit back and let Democrats eat their own over President Joe Biden’s stalled domestic agenda. The calculus behind that approach is about more than just the boost Republicans predict for their midterm election fortunes: The longer negotiations drag on between the Democratic Party’s two factions, the more time it loses to devote to other legislation Republicans staunchly oppose.

And the handful of GOP centrists who are trying to stitch together a dozen or so votes for the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, once it finally gets to the floor, are getting no help from Democratic leaders who — despite periodic attempts to decouple them — have kept the $500 billion roads-and-rails measure harnessed to a separate social spending framework. With the infrastructure bill remaining a de facto legislative hostage to Democrats’ more progressive social policy plan, Republican moderates are finding it harder and harder to boost their numbers for it.

The result is a GOP conference mostly avoiding the spotlight these days, getting fewer tough questions about Donald Trump’s enduring hold on the party or about the handful of House conservatives with a penchant for extremist and divisive rhetoric. While Democratic infighting blots out the sun in Washington, Republicans don’t mind the shade.