It is truly amazing how quickly the Republicans, even when wounded, crawl out from under their rocks and successfully frame the debate. Even more amazing is how quickly the Democratic leadership lets them to it.
Yesterdy and today, President Bush convened a series of photo ops where he and Vice President Cheney sat down to "meet with" Democratic leaders.
But if we listen carefully, these were not meetings "with" the Democrats, but were carefully staged events designed to look like the President was "meeting" the Democrats for the first. "Hi, my name's George! You work here, too?"
Why would President Bush stage these events this way? Well, it appears that Bush wants the country to believe that the elections signal a new beginning, a new start.
And it appears that now, more than ever, the Republicans have redoubled their effort to frame and control the debate.
Beware of Invitations to Stages
These staged "meetings" are a classic attempt by the Republicans to dominate how the act of governing this nation is perceived by the general public.
They might have lost the elections, but boy-oh-boy have they not lost the drive to control the debate.
With Bush and Cheney, we take a break from framing at our peril.
And with newly emboldened Democratic caucuses in both the House and Senate, Progressives have even more work to do now than ever to make sure that the Republicans do not control the debate.
So step one for the Democrats is simple: Be very careful of stages controlled by the Republicans.
"Stages" are not just physical platforms, but the situations in which debate takes place. The Oval Office is the ultimate of all stages controlled by the Republicans right now. It represents the seat of Republican power. And it is to be avoided.
The Democrats may think they are controlling the debate by going into President Bush's office, and there might not have been any way to avoid these particular meetings. But they need to be very careful moving forward about letting the President control the stage.
Always Define What The Debate Is About
In the meetings with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, President Bush seized upon the opportunity to define what the debate was about at this point.
Here is what President Bush said after his photo op with Harry Reid:
I want to thank Senator Reid and Senator Durbin. Dick and I have had a really good discussion with them. The elections are over, the problems haven't gone away. And I assured the senators that we will cooperate as closely as we can to solve common problems. I of course said this after I congratulated them on great victories. I know they were proud of their team's efforts, and they ran good campaigns and they talked about issues that the people care about, and they won.
My attitude about this is that there is a great opportunity for us to show the country that Republicans and Democrats are equally as patriotic and equally concerned about the future, and that we can work together. Senator Reid and I are both from the West. I'm from West Texas, he's from Nevada. And we tend to speak the same language, pretty plain spoken people, which should bode well for our relationship.
Now, you can rest assured that Bush's real "attitude" right now is taht he has very little time to stick it to the Democrats before the new marority takes over, and he is going to do everything he can to abuse his power while he can. President Bush believes it is his right to circumvent the Congress. No amount of election victory from the Democrats is going to change that. President Bush beliveed in autocratic, top down, unfettered executive rule last week--and he believes in it this week, too.
But, knowing all this about President Bush's real attitudes, this is how Harry Reid responded to Bush's framing and spin:
Mr. President, thank you for having us here. This has been an excellent discussion. We talked about issues that are important to our country. Election is over. The only way to move forward is with bipartisanship and openness, and to get some results. And we've made a commitment, the four of us here today, that's what we're going to do.
Honestly, I am a fan of Harry Reid. I can see why he is so successful in Nevada because of his ability to really speak with feeling. And he is very well staffed. But Harry Reid threw away this opportunity to frame the debate. Rather than talking about "bipartisanship," Harry Reid should have taken the opportunity to tell the American people what these meetings were really about with a short statement that could have sounded something like this:
"Mr. President, on behalf of the American people it is great to be here in the Oval Office. After six years of having you as our President, we are glad to finally get started with the balanced work of governing this country. Our founders who wrote the Constitution of the United States did not envision a country that was ruled by one party over the other, but a nation that was governed by three equal branches. And so I am here today on behalf of the people of the United States, and on behalf of the founders of this nation, to resume that mission. And we look forward to working with you over the next two years."
You see...the point is not that the Democrats are going to bring a new spirit of "bipartisanship." Democrats are reconnecting the United States government to its constitutional roots and that is a three part system of balance between all branches.
"Bipartisanship" my ass. The Democratic wins at the polls are about restoring the legitimacy of the Constitution.
I'm With Nancy
And in this respect, I have to say that I am rapidly becoming a fan of Nancy Pelosi, our soon-to-be new Democratic Speaker of the House.
All this talk about "firsts" for women leaders coming from those who think Hillary Clinton will be our next president--forget all that. Nancy Pelosi has a few things to teach us about women and leadership.
After her staged meeting to "meet" the President, Bush said pretty much the same thing he said to Reid. But this is how Pelosi responded:
Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you for the opportunity to join you and the Vice President in what I think was a very productive meeting. We both extended the hand of friendship, of partnership to solve the problems facing our country, the challenges that America's working families face.
I look forward to working in a confidence-building way with the President, recognizing that we have our differences and we will debate them, and that is what our founders intended. But we will do so in a way that gets results for the American people.
It is very exciting to be the first woman Speaker of the House, God willing, if my colleagues support that in another few days. And again, as Speaker, I understand my responsibility: Speaker of the House, of all of the House, not just the Democrats, and the responsibility to work with the administration to make progress for the American people.
We've made history. Now we have to make progress. And I look forward to working with the President to do just that. Thank you, Mr. President.
It was not perfect what Pelosi said. Not by a long shot. She missed the opportunity to reenforce the idea of three equal branches of government. But she invoked the
founders--she rooted her meeting and her presence in the Oval Office in a
principle larger than competition between parties. And that was a smart way to frame the debate.
Nancy Pelosi is going to need our help, however, carrying this framing forward because even if the Democrats have won the elections, the Republicans still wake up much earlier with the goal of framing the debate.
Now more than ever, I call on every progressive in the netroots and beyond to renew their dedication to fighting the Republican attemnpts to frame the debate--and to driving the debate towards a progressive vision even if our own party leadership seems at times to be reluctant or unable to do so.
So, what can we say?
Rather than talk about two equal parties (e.g., bipartisanship), let's talk about
three equal branches, and helping the country find its
roots again. Equality of parties is nice, but the real goal of a Progressive victory is reconnecting the country to the Constitution.
We may have won the election. But the work of framing the debate has just begun.