(Image source: The New York Times) BY ELIZABETH HAGADORN ANCHOR CHRISTIAN BRYANT     The fact that both the Hurricane Sandy relief and fiscal cliff measures passed without a majority of Republican support, has some asking if this will become a trend on Capitol Hill and whether the fast-approaching debt ceiling vote will play out the same way. Both measures moved forward despite strong opposition from most House Republicans, but neither should even made it to the floor in the first place under the GOP’s long standing tradition known as the Hastert Rule. The unofficial rule says the Speaker won’t bring forward a bill unless a majority of the caucus supports it. [Video via CNN ] Confused? Consider the House vote on the Hurricane Sandy emergency spending bill which Boehner reversed course on after taking heat from East Coast Republicans. [Image via National Journal ] While the bill passed with 241 yes votes, only 49 of those were Republicans. 179 Republicans -- a majority of the party -- voted against it. That was the second time in two weeks Boehner broke the Hastert Rule in order to permit a vote. And that had the rule’s namesake, Former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, questioning whether Boehner could keep this up and still be an effective leader.   “Maybe you can do it once, maybe you can do it twice, but when you start making deals when you have to get Democrats to pass the legislation, you are not in power anymore.” [Audio via Fox News Radio ] Some are wondering if this could become a trend for the Ohio Republican, with others calling the rule effectively dead. One Republican aide told Roll Call, "The Democrats now effectively control the floor because nothing 'big' will come to the floor without knowing in advance that lots of Democrats support it. That gives the Democrats tremendous power in a body where the minority is not designed to have much power." And with the debt ceiling impasse coming up, a writer for New York Magazine suggests the likely showdown would be the “perfect set up” to again ignore the Hastert Rule. “Republican elites are increasingly coalescing around the view that they just have to raise the thing...The natural solution is to just let the bill pass with mainly Democratic support and give a bunch of angry speeches -- the way the debt c eiling used to work.” The House GOP is meeting this week for its annual retreat in Williamsburg, Virginia where members will decide their debt-ceiling strategy. Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan reportedly told members of the press he “recognizes the realities" of divided government. Of that --  a writer at Slate had this to say: “Fiscal surrender doesn't mean rolling over for the Democrats' agenda, it means giving up on specifically advancing top GOP priorities through repeated rounds of hostage taking. It can be a sound strategy.”