Bipartisan-Curious
by digby
It’s Groundhog Day:
One of the key Democratic senators whose vote remains up for grabs when it comes to health care reform urged his colleagues to continue to push for a bipartisan bill, even as party leadership said it was time to give up on recuriting GOP support. In an interview this week with the Huffington Post, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) maintained that there was still “great interest in the Finance Committee for a bipartisan bill on both sides of the aisle” and he urged lawmakers to continue to pursue a collaborative path.
He would not comment directly on news that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had urged the Committee’s Chairman, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to drop efforts to attract Republican support. But he also didn’t hide his own preferences. “I’m committed to the priority that the president laid out,” said Wyden. “I think the president got it right. He said ‘I want to get it done this year’ and he also indicated that his first choice is to have a bipartisan bill because he recognizes that a bipartisan bill allows the country to come together.”
The country is already together in a thoroughly bipartisan way on this issue. It’s corporate whores in Washington who are at odds with the people.
And if anyone in their right mind actually believes that the Republican Party is going to have a “stake” in the success of health care reform because a couple of GOP stragglers are dragged across the line to vote for the Democratic plan, I’ve got some AIG CDOs to sell them. They will be trying to dismantle it for the next 60 years, just as they’ve spent the last 60 years trying to dismantle Social Security.
Wyden isn’t talking to the people, he’s talking to David Broder and the rest of the village punditocrisy and it’s insulting to the intelligence of anyone who isn’t one of them. It’s enough to set your teeth on edge to hear this crap again.
From The Agenda:
Gore asked, what did Boren want changed in the plan in order to secure his vote?
Like a little list? Boren asked.
Yeah, Gore said.
Boren said he didn’t have little list. Raising the gas tax a nickel or cutting it a nickel or anything like that wouldn’t do it, he said. He had given his list to Moynihan like everybody else in the Finance Committee. It was over and done with, and Boren likened himself to a free agent in baseball. “I have the luxury of standing back here and looking at this,” Boren said. His test would be simple: Would it work? If not, it didn’t serve the national interest.
Gore said he was optimistic for the first time.
Boren shot back. “There’s nothing you can do for me or to me that will influence my decision on this matter.” he added. “I’m going to make it on the basis of what I think is right or wrong.”
Nobody responded for a moment. Clinton then stepped in. Why didn’t Boren think it was in the national interest? he asked.
It wasn’t bipartisan, Boren answered. To be successful in this country it had been demonstrated over and over, an effort had to be bipartisan, Clinton had even said so himself, Boren pointed out. Even most optimists, Boren said, thought they were still not even halfway there.
No Republican voted for the plan.
There you have it. That ridiculous Villager article of faith that says bipartisanship is not only important for its own sake, it’s the only thing that’s important.
Someday, in my dreams, Democrats will run as progressives in the same way that Republicans proudly ran as conservatives both when they were ascendant and holding the reins of power over the past 30 years. They won’t apologize for their ideas or pretend that the most important thing in the word is for Republicans to approve of what they are doing. They will recognize that while compromise is a necessary element of politics, progress and systemic change requires a fight which usually results in the losing side being unhappy. That day is not here yet.
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