While I understand the point of the "End of Bipartianship" diary, I consider the title to be a little misleading. As the Dustin Hoffman replied to an aging soap opera actor who called himself "an old has been" in "Tootsie": "In order to be a has been, one must have been someone once." Similarly, in order for bipartisanship to end, it has to have started once.
The party of Ailes, Atwater, Gingrich, DeLay, Rove, Limbaugh, and Norquist has spent the past few decades viewing the Dems the way that a lion views its prey. In Norquist's immortal words: [Bipartisanship is another name for date rape]. Whether it was the Iran/contra investigation, the 1988 election, the Thomas confirmation, the 2000 election, the IWR vote, or the 2004 election, the GOP has used the same playbook w/ brutal effectiveness time and time again. There is no other playbook the GOP knows by now.
The stimulus bill is no exception. When GOP senators successfully filibustered the Detroit bailout in December, they established a template for what they're doing now. As tchampmass so cogently puts it, they are executing a 3 step process:
Let's review what we've re-learned about Congressional Republicans since January 20th:
- Pious denials to the contrary, they agree with Rush: they want President Obama to fail - even if that means the country fails, too.
- They will work hard to wrest every possible concession from the Dems in negotiations over the stimulus bill, thereby weakening its impact and undermining any intellectual coherence it might have possessed. Then they will walk away, denounce the bill, and demand that the Democrats implement a Bush-style response to the recession.
- And, as always, their sole answer to any fiscal or economic question is to propose giving more money to rich people, and to cut spending for working families
What about the foregoing analysis should be a surprise to anyone? How does it materially differ from everything else they've been doing for over 20 years now? Why did anyone expect them to act any differently this time?
What is happening now isn't the "end" of anything. It's merely the continuation of things as they have been for far too long now. Only time will tell whether the Dems will finally stop acting like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football and finally end business as usual.