Meanwhile, In Bizarro World…
December 22nd, 2009
“[Obama] said there would be a change in the climate in Washington,” McCain said. “There’s been a change. It’s more partisan. It’s more bitterly divided than it’s been.”
McCain, when prodded by host Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” said that the administration “in some ways, of course” more partisan than the White House under President Bill Clinton.
Yes. All Obama’s fault. He hasn’t tried one bit to appease Republicans, while the GOP has been breaking its back trying to lean over backwards to give Obama everything he wants.
As evidenced by Republicans using the filibuster twice as much in the first half of this session of Congress than ever used before. See how much they’re trying?
It’s like the adulturous Republican preaching family values.
Then again, which major bills have Obama signed that had bipartisan appeal? Clinton had NAFTA, Bush had No Child Left Behind. I’m trying to recall a centrist bill that the Republicans (particularly these Republicans) wouldn’t get hives voting YES on. And that even includes this anemic health care bill.
Steve:
Right now, that is a moot point–Republicans have vowed to oppose nearly every and any major piece of legislation that is not essential to running the ship of state, and are quite open about their obstructionism. (Mostly what has passed [search for all “enrolled bills,” find 161 results] is either trivial or business-as-usual.) They have used the filibuster–again–in record-breaking frequency, and are staunchly opposed to letting anything pass which might make it seem that Obama has achieved something out of the ordinary.
In an environment where Republicans are so stridently partisan, so committed to killing any bill of note that has bipartisan appeal, asking what Obama has signed with bipartisan appeal as if he were the one deciding how partisan things should be is a patently unfair question.
BTW, take these 100% unanimous Senate votes:
H R 3590, H R 2892, and H R 3082. Here’s a list of most of the large-majority votes in the Senate.
There actually are a couple of significant bills in there–ones which would hurt the GOP to vote against–but they have not generated much notice in the media precisely because they are not controversial.