Bipartisanship

I don't have much time to post today, but wanted to get something off my chest real quick.

Bipartisanship sucks. My biggest problem is that too often bipartisanship isn't about politicians working together, but rather politicians covering their asses. Get bipartisan support for something and you don't have to worry about the other side beating you up over it come election time. To get bipartisan support for something you include all ideas, but watered down versions. This is about covering asses as well. If the bill doesn't work Congressman X can simply say, well we had to water down what we really wanted to do to get bipartisan support it wasn't my fault.

Another problem I have with bipartisanship, especially as a liberal, is that too often Democrats see bipartisanship as 'give the Republicans what they want'. A perfect example is the family planning that is in danger of being taken out of the stimulus package. The Republicans have done a good job of mocking this, laughing about how we aren't going to get out of this economic mess by giving out more condoms. Since the media is more interested in sound bites, everybody 'har-hars' and family planning is out. A serious media, one more interested in the supply of information over entertainment, would point out that unwanted pregnancies put a huge burden on state budgets. This would require Democrats to stick to their guns and the media to cut into some of their Blago coverage so don't hold your breath waiting for this to happen.

In an ideal world, or at least mine, Democrats would forget about bipartisanship with the stimulus bill. Both sides have to want to work together for people to work together. It isn't happening here. The GOP leaders, before even meeting with Obama, were urging their members to oppose the stimulus package. If the GOP wants to work on the package, awesome, but they have to bring more to the table than tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. Democrats should craft the bill they want and work like hell to get it passed. I don't know if they remember but we just had this thing called an election. Both sides presented to the American public their solutions to fixing the economy. The Republican's view was rejected. Democrats would do well to remember this.

Bipartisanship sucks.