Here’s a shocker, coming from David Broder:
Now that the Minnesota Supreme Court has ended the long count on the 2008 Senate race by awarding the seat to Al Franken, Democrats — at least on paper — have the power to pass whatever bills they want, without a single Republican vote.
Nothing would be a bigger mistake.
What if, pray tell David, there are no Republican votes to be had? What if, for example, the Republicans stay united in opposing a public option to the health care bill or insist on watering down the climate/energy bill in the Senate to a point where it cannot pass in conference form through the House? Broder never answers these types of questions when he is penning one hagiography after another to the Saint of Bipartisanship.
Why is the onus always on the Democrats to be bipartisan?
Franken, the loud-mouthed former comedian, will be the 60th member of the Senate Democratic caucus — just enough for them to cut off any filibuster threat if they can muster all their members. With solid majorities in both houses, the Democratic leaders, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, could dismiss Republican objections to any bill without a second thought.
Yet that would not only contradict President Obama’s promise to change the partisan climate in Washington but would also entail unnecessary risks to Obama’s ambitious policy goals.
Never mind that the Democratic caucus includes members like Arlen Specter, Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, and Mary Landrieu who are not reliable cloture votes. Never mind that Teddy Kennedy and Robert Byrd are in ill-health and have spent little recent time in the Senate. Even if the Democrats could ram home whatever legislation they wanted, Broder would oppose them for the simple reason that they rammed it home.
What about the merits of the policies? Why does Broder never, ever, seem to take policy differences seriously. If the Republicans want input on legislation, shouldn’t they be required to make a commitment to vote in favor of it once their input has been incorporated? Or should the Democrats water down bills in an effort to win Republican support even after it has been demonstrated that that support will not be forthcoming?
Al Franken might occasionally mouth-off, but he at least cares about policy. He’d made a good columnist at the Washington Post if the Post ever decided to hire ‘serious’ columnists.
first- Krugman rips broder a new a…..le on his blog.
second– What do you, or for that matter expect fron wapo? As far as broder is concerned, he has reached the stge of life at which someone should put a name tag on his chest, take him to a shuffleboard court, pin a note to him telling anyone that when it starts to get a little dark to please call the attached phone number and come and take him home!
It’s because Broder is a Platonist. No, seriously. He lauds bipartisanship and ignores policy differences because, for him, democracy is just a means of making the people think they’re in charge while the real show is run by the philosopher kings. Public policy is irrelevant because it’s public; the real policies are handled behind the scenes by people (he thinks) wise enough to make such weighty decisions, while the rabble are kept out of the loop. Bipartisanship is critical because real political conflicts create unrest amongst the plebs, which is dangerous to the established order.
Most of the Beltway literati probably do not consciously go for the Platonic philosopher king ideology, but I’d bet you a month’s worth of health insurance premiums that Broder does, consciously and literally. Democracy is, in his view, an anaesthetic that keeps the commoners busy while the philosopher kings make the real decisions.
Or is it less lofty and philosophical than that? Broder has wormed his way into the very heart of the permanent Beltway Establishment. He would see himself as one of the philosopher kings, or at least their courtier. Same thing, maybe, as the way those at the top of the papermaking corps honestly don’t see anything with having dioxin in the water.
atrios pretty well defined high broderism several years ago:
about the same time, greenwald took on the inside the beltway attitude of broder and his ilk as well:
nothing’s changed for these people, these pundits are so far out of touch with reality, that their protestations would be laughable were it not for the gravitas that’s been bestowed upon them…by their own kind.
and btw, the wapo is dead. h/t to brendan.
The Repubs are a bunch of fuckin’ animals. They had their chance and screwed up the country. What could they possibly have to offer? Yet the President and Congressional Dems still try to work with them. Idiots.
I suspect Obama listens to Broder more than you and maybe that is why you are so mad!
It should make you mad, go after Obama.
Broder is a wuss and grossly overpaid. Why does anyone outside the beltway bother to listen to his pontifications? Sure beats me.