Bipartisanism Still a Distant Dream

George W. Bush entered office promising to "change the tone" in Washington (which would have been a nice thing to happen, considering he was elected on the heels of the Clinton impeachment proceedings.) And he did - no one thought it possible but with the help of toadies like Dennis Hastert, Tom DeLay and Karl Rove Washington actually became more partisan than it had between. A change, but one for the worse. However, with the Democrats reasserting themselves and Bush's approval rating approaching that of Richard Nixon during watergate, suddenly the spirit of bipartisanship has returned to the capital. Supposedly. However, it would seem that George W. Bush and congressional Democrats have very different ideas about what constitutes bipartisanship, and are making an ironically partisan fight out of it.

"This group will meet regularly with me and my administration; it will help strengthen our relationship with Congress," Bush told the nation, mentioning a plan to increase the size of the military as a possible first order of business.

But it does not appear that congressional Democrats are too interested in the idea.

"We believe that Congress already has bipartisan structures in place, like the committee system and other Congressional working groups such as the Senate's National Security Working Group, that could produce the result you described in your speech," said a Jan. 19 letter to Bush from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.). "We look forward to working with you within these existing structures."
So essentially what both the president and leading Democrats are saying is that being "bipartisan" means doing what they want with people from the opposing faction present. What the Democrats have on their side that Bush seems to be lacking though, is high ranking officials from the other side that support their position. With more and more respected Republicans like John Warner (R-VA) and Chuck Hagel (R-NB) joining in with senate Democrats who oppose the war, it appears that the congress is coming out of this mess looking a lot more bipartisan than Bush, at least so far.

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