There's no doubt that much of the acrimony between the two warring halves of the Virginia GOP in the General Assembly started to melt away after Democrats won control of the Virginia Senate in November's election.

For proof, look no further than the Dec. 17 press conference in which House and Senate Republican leaders -- who less than a year before had been locked in a political fight to the death over transportation funding -- stood side by side to decry Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's budget proposals. 

But the ghosts of the division that grew out of 2004's budget fight with then-Democratic Gov. Mark R. Warner over the car tax and the $1.4 billion budget reform and tax hike can still be found on Capitol Square, if you know where to look. The place to look was this morning's clash on the floor of the Senate over Senate Bill 713. A similar version of the bill was killed in a House of Delegates committee earlier this month.

Four Republicans crossed party lines to vote with the 21-member Democratic majority to pass the 5-cent gas tax hike bill, including Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Mount Solon, Sen. Fred Quayle, R-Suffolk, and Sen. John Watkins, R-Midlothian. All three were part of a powerful block of moderate Republicans that sat on the Senate Finance Committee, led by now retired Sen. John H. Chichester, R-Fredericksburg, and Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr., R-Winchester.

Road funding has long been a sore spot between the two halves of the General Assembly's GOP, and by all appearances it still could be.