Feb
10
2010
1

Bloom Off Of The Rose Watch, Mark Knoller edition.

It’s not that the title of this article (“Obama Says Bipartisanship, But What He Wants Is GOP Surrender“) itself is so startling – as Ed Morrissey notes, it’s not exactly telling Republicans things that they don’t already know. It’s that this:

It’s a familiar refrain from U.S. presidents who can’t get their way in Congress.

“We must put aside our political differences if we’re ever to set our economy to rights,” said President Reagan in 1982.

“It is time to put aside partisan rivalries and work together for our nation’s future,” said President Reagan in 1987 in trying to get Congress to enact deficit reduction

“We must put aside partisanship for the sake of our nation,” said the first President Bush in 1990 in appealing for congressional cooperation on the budget.

“We must now put aside bitterness and rancor, move beyond partisanship,” urged President Clinton in 1993 in trying to get Congress to pass his economic plan.

What these presidential appeals for bipartisanship always mean is: do it my way.

…is showing up in CBSNews. Imagine that happening in the pre-post-Dan Rather days.

Moe Lane

PS: I almost called this “Waltzing Bear Watch,” except that this particular ursine is waltzing pretty well by any reasonable standard.  Blogging insiders will also note the opportunity for a jab that I passed up, mostly because I see no reason to boost the fellow’s anemic traffic.

Crossposted to RedState.

Feb
09
2010
2

The GOP/White House ‘discussion’ on health care, simplified.

I’m going to sum this entire thing up, because the sooner we move past this the happier everybody’s going to be.

  • Republican Party* (in the person of House Republican Leader John Boehner & House Republican Whip Eric Cantor): Mr. President, you claim that you want bipartisan health care talks.  Do you have the moral courage to commit to junking this existing unpopular, hyper-partisan health care bill and start over from scratch, with a further commitment for transparency and against reconciliation?
  • White House** (in the person of Press Secretary Robert Gibbs): No.

And I think that should end it right there: Republican Members of the House of Representatives don’t debate press secretaries, either.

Moe Lane

*H/T: FireDogLake (I know, I know, but there was nothing offensive about this specific post).

**H/T: Hot Air Headlines.

Crossposted to RedState.

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