Now Bush Wants to Play Nice?

After enduring years of excrutiating taunts and outrageous claims at the hands of a Republican federal government, Democrats are finally back in a position to shape policy in their own direction. Despite Bush's dire warnings leading up to the election that if the Democrats win, the terrorists win, the country will go broke, the antichrist will appear and all that is good and right with the world will be ruined, now that he's at a clear political disadvantage he expects them to play nice?

With the House squarely in Democratic hands and the possibility of a Senate power shift still looming, President Bush made two back-to-back phone calls Wednesday morning -- one of condolence to House Speaker Dennis Hastert and one of congratulation to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Bush thanked outgoing Speaker Hastert for his leadership and told him that "while we came up short, we're committed to working with Democrats to get things done for the country," deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.
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"[Pelosi] talked about energy independence, and we want to work on comprehensive immigration reform, some things we can get some action on," Snow said. "It will be interesting politically, a new opportunity to get things done. We're going to get a lot done. On energy, education -- those are clearly things we can work on."

The president wants to work with the new House leaders, said Snow, and was encouraged by several Democrats' calls "to get rid of partisanship."

"Bush wants to go back to the Texas model. He's always reached out. He's been trying over the last couple of years with limited success," Snow said.
It's tough to have a whole lot of sympathy for an administration that essentially ignored the existence of the minority party for so long and now has to have its actions checked by that same party. And the example set by the Republican Congress in the late 90s when Bill Clinton was in office didn't exactly scream "bipartisanship," particularly during that whole, you know, impeachment thing.

As much as they're used to it, the Dems absolutely do not need to bend over and take it from the Republicans, or George W. Bush any more. However, their interests (not to mention the interests of the rest of the country and key parts of the world) would be best served by not overreaching and misusing their newfound power like the Republicans did when they took over Congress. It's possible to keep the president in check and change the national agenda without the vitriol that characterized the Republican Congresses who squared off against Clinton.

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