I was about to write a post about this just before this piece popped up in my Google Reader.
From www.huffingtonpost.com
Rank-and-file Congressional Democrats had been willing to give Republicans the business tax cuts and other provisions they wanted in the stimulus. That is, up until every single one voted against the bill on the House floor Wednesday.
Now, in both the House and the Senate, angry members are lobbying Democratic leaders to yank those tax breaks back.
And I couldn't agree more. "Bipartisanship" is a myth. In my lifetime, aside from Nixon's impeachment (even then the Republicans had to be dragged kicking and screaming), there has never been real "bipartisanship". Bipartisanship means the coming together of our two political parties to work for the common good of the nation and its citizens. It is not the result of threats, fear, or intimidation which is why all the so-called bipartisanship following 9/11 was a load of crap. The Democrats were scared shitless that if they didn't give Bush & Co. everything they wanted they would have been labled anti-American, or worse, traitors.
Yesterday's lockstep vote by the House Republicans against the stimulus bill is proof of the pudding. The lemming mentality of the Republicans will never be overcome by any form of reasoning, pleading, arguing for the common welfare, or any other form of logical discourse whether it comes from the President himself or from the will of the people as evidenced in national polls. They don't care. They will never admit their mistakes (q.v. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, et al) nor will they ever depart from the path of absolute ideological belief.
So I would say to President Obama that you gave it your best shot. You made the historical effort of going to the Congress to present your case. You went so far as to make concessions to them which you basically disagree with but did so out of a spirit of comity. You extended your hand and had it smacked back. You are an extremely intelligent person and one of the savviest politicians around. You don't have make any more overtures to the Republicans. There is nothing, nothing, you can say or do that will get them to agree with you on anything. The country has too many critical issues confronting it right now. We can't have you wasting one moment of your time and energy on a lost cause.
Just remember what Donald Rumsfeld called the last vestiges of Saddam Hussein's followers in Iraq after the U.S. invasion..."dead-enders". This time the term is totally correct as it applies to the Republicans in Congress. Screw'em.