State Sen. Pamela Gorman appears to be the victim of her battle against chocolate soldiers.

Senate President Bob Burns finally exercised the nuclear option and booted Gorman from the Senate Rules Committee. It doesn't exactly sound like a dramatic moment, but here's the underlying meaning: Every bill in the Senate has to come through the Rules Committee, so it's the last chance to stop anything from reaching the floor.

Gorman, the majority whip who has been undermining Burns for much of the session (to the delight of a few colleagues and the annoyance of others), led the effort to reject the budget compromise that Burns had worked out with Gov. Jan Brewer at the close of the session. As a result, the governor's proposal for a one-cent-per-dollar sales tax increase died, and so did the GOP budget, once Brewer vetoed it.

The question remains: Will Gorman remain as majority whip? It would take a full vote of the caucus to strip her of that position.

Here's another question: WTF is a chocolate soldier? Gorman explained it in a post on the Fox News Forum earlier this year:

Early in my career, a friend warned me about entering battle alongside a colleague, describing him as a “chocolate soldier.” “Chocolate soldiers say all the right things and look formidable entering the battlefield,” he explained. “Problem is that they melt in the heat.” As we confront the nation’s largest budget deficit in Arizona, I understand what he meant.