[TxMt] regex problem

Hi there! Using 1.1b5 on PBG4/867, 10.3.8, 512M RAM searching this one line: Sue Xxxxxxx 1244 Xxxx Street Bath ME 04530 USA (it's wrapping-8 tabs between last name and street) for this pattern: ^(*[^\t])\t(*[^\t]){8}\t replacing with this: $1\t$2\t searching selection only, regex on, hit replace and find 1)spinning pizza wheel of death 2)swapping hard drive of death 3)watch swap go from 1 to 2 gig in less than a minute... 4)page faults between 2,000 and 20,000 every 2 seconds, cpu about 50-60% textmate 5)get scared, force quit 6)repeat.... Any thoughts? I'm guessing it's a stupid regex mistake on my part, but I can't find it. Thanks for your help.

Cheers,

Dameron