Wendy over at Colorado Confidential points us to an NPR interview of Andrew Romanoff, the Democratic Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives.
Why Andrew Romanoff?
As the 110th Congress prepares to convene on Thursday, NPR's Weekend Edition host Linda Wertheimer talked to Colorado Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff about the parallels of the democratically-controlled U.S. House with the Colorado House in 2004.
In '04, the Colorado Dems retook both the state House and the state Senate for the first time in 40 years, ending Republican dominance of government.
This past '06 election they increased their majorities in both state Houses, and took the Governor's mansion from the Republicans as well. Democrats in Colorado have gone from wilderness to Trifecta in just 2 short political cycles.
Now do you see why perhaps what Romanoff says matters?
Responding to a question by Wertheimer about whether he felt pressure from his democratic brethren to get even with the Republicans after winning back the statehouse, Romanoff responded:
Romanoff: Sure. Some of the sisters too.
There is a sort of carnivore wing in the Democratic Party that is out for red meat. They wanted to take revenge.
We had to remind them that the Golden Rule does not mean 'do unto Republicans as they did unto us.'
When asked whether, in hindsight, that was a successful strategy or if the new Colorado majority should have "wailed on them" for awhile, Speaker Romanoff laughed and showed off his "big boy pants":
Romanoff: It would have been more cathartic but I felt very strongly that the right thing to do was to play fair, play by the rules. Try to tap the talent of the other team. Pass bills not on the basis of the party affiliation of their sponsors but just on the merits of their ideas. I think that all makes for better government.
...
If I had any advice to offer my congressional counterparts that would be it. Stop pointing fingers and picking fights and start solving problems.
...
We shouldn't suffer from the illusion that our party has a magical monopoly on good ideas.
I encourage you to listen to the whole thing, especially how he talks about picking off Republicans and pivoting off the executive can reap tremendous rewards and produce positive legislation.
This is also more relevant with the discussion of the Minority Bill of Rights the GOP floated. After hearing this, I’m pretty sure Pelosi should go along with it in some form or another. As Romanoff points out:
Romanoff: Play fair. You've got the votes, you don't need to twist the rules.
I’d also like to remind you that if House passes something too GOP friendly, the cloture vote in the Senate will kill a lot of things. If it ever got that far. Could the GOP Senators get 60 votes? Could they pick off 10 Dems? (Lieberman doesn’t count).
I guess we’ll call it some lessons from snowed in Democrats ran the table, from wilderness to trifecta, in 2 short political cycles.
NPR interview of Andrew Romanoff