While the Broders of the world continue their partisan game of calling for Democrats to be bipartisan, it's obvious to anyone paying attention that they really only intend for a unilateral Democratic capitulation. It was obvious from the moment President Obama took office that his sincere desire to work across the aisle would only be taken advantage of, and that it would be seen as a sign of weakness. After a year of Democrats negotiating down their health insurance plan until it most resembled Romneycare or the 1993 Republican plan, for which the Republicans gave it not a single vote and now call for its repeal, nobody any longer should be buying into the myth of bipartisanship.
While the president continually calls for bipartisan cooperation, the Republicans continually make clear that they will not compromise, will continually try to move the goalposts, and that despite the Democrats having not investigated any of the many horrendous crimes of the Bush-Cheney administration, there now is nothing about the Obama administration the Republicans won't obsessively investigate. As I've been saying for some time, it shouldn't surprise anyone if they send a fact-finding team to Kenya to search for the "real" birth certificate.
The Democrats need to stop buying into a myth that means but their own destruction. They need to use every media opportunity to hammer home the point that they have tried to cooperate and compromise while the Republicans have not and will not. They need to vote to pass middle class tax cuts, repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, and appoint and confirm judges, while they can. Nothing good will get done once the Republicans take control of the House. If the Democrats intend to get anything done, they need to do it now, they need to be focused and uncompromising, they need to ignore their critics, and they need to be constantly mindful that the clock is ticking.