No Compromise

Posted on 01/30/2009 at 8:01 am by JumpyPants

John Podesta defining the difference between “talking with” and “capitulating to” the Republicans:

But I would not confuse [a dialogue with the Republicans] with an idea that he’s compromising on his big goals of trying to deal with the very difficult economic circumstances we face and deal with the big challenges this country faces on energy, education, health care, and the other things.

Just as we suspected. This isn’t Harry Reid capitulation. This is a whole new thing.

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  • Damaj

    Step 1 was: Reach out to the folks across the aisle. You know, give ‘em a chance to play nice. Well, that didn’t work.Step 2 should be to just pummel them until they beg for mercy. Beat them over head with every piece of legislation to make it to the floor. Ram everything down their throats. Just roll over ‘em until they finally get it through their thick skulls that they are irrelevant and that the only way they’re going to get any say in anything is if they first admit this.I think this is the only way for this so-called “post-partisanship” to work.

  • Alan4s

    I disagree Damaj. I think the dialog should continue, and President Obama should continue to listen to what the republicans have to say. There is a chance that one of them just might have a decent idea that would be good for the country. (I can’t think of any in recent years, but it’s possible. Really.) If this ever happens, the President Obama needs to acknowledge it and give credit.But even when there are no good republican ideas presented, the dialog needs to be made public. The administration needs to go out of it’s way to make sure that the American public knows why the bone-headed republican input is NOT being considered. We should be hearing from the President right now about how the only input offered was to reduce taxes, and that the bill being discussed already has enough of that included, and how that policy has failed to prevent us from getting into this mess in the first place.Every time advice is offered from the GOP, it’s critical that the administration explains why it’s rejected. All Americans need to understand that the ideas aren’t rejected simply because they are Republican ideas, but because they are wrong.Bipartisanship does not mean conceding to bad ideas simply to get something done. It means agreeing on good ideas regardless of which party thought of them. And the reality is that the majority party has the privilege of deciding what a “good idea” is, by virtue of being the majority.