Favors

by digby

Every morning, my favorite thing to read is Chuck Todd’s First Read. It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it makes me wonder what it must be like to live in a world filled with unicorns and rainbows and stand up guys who love God, Mom and apple pie:

Looking For Bipartisanship Down The Road: Why does bipartisanship support for the stimulus matter? Let’s get one thing straight: Obama’s stimulus plan is going to pass Congress, and the vote won’t be that close. But this isn’t the goal this week — or next. For Team Obama, it’s about winning over Republicans. And for some on the left, this doesn’t compute. After all, some might ask, “Who cares? The election just happened and voters overwhelmingly chose Democrats to run the government, both in the White House and in Congress.” But what Obama needs is a Republican Party that isn’t consistently confrontational, because he’s going to be asking for some trickier bills, including more money for the financial industry, potentially support for nationalizing some parts of the banking industry, and a bunch of money to shore up the housing crisis. So while Obama doesn’t need GOP support for stimulus, he wants the opposition to be against him in a way that he can win them over for more favors and — most importantly — prevent potential filibusters.

Right. Because it’s in their best political interest to give Obama “favors.”

They will cooperate if they get what they want and they won’t if they don’t. If Obama comes to them and says “we capitulated on your demands on the stumulus package a year ago, so now you need to fulfill your end of the bargain” they’ll say “what bargain?” And that isn’t something that just applies to Republicans. It’s the way politics works. The idea that the Republicans will eschew a filibuster on, say, health care, because Obama gave them some extra tax cuts in the stimulus package is just absurd.

But then, Chuck Todd is just the political director for NBC News, so he can’t be expected to know that.

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