Reaching Across the Aisle with Empty Hands

Benjamin Kantack
UNL Political Science and Spanish Major


Bipartisanship.

It was a rallying cry for Senator Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. But slightly more than a month after Inauguration Day, according to Brookings Institution scholar Stephen Hess, “He has learned one big, first lesson for a new president: we are not in a post-partisan world in Washington.”

The stimulus plan passed without a single Republican vote in the House and the blessing of only three Republican senators – who are, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune on February 22, “generally considered the most liberal in their party.” The new cabinet, which ideally would have included an unprecedented three members from the opposing party, derailed when Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire withdrew from his commerce secretary post. And Republican congresspersons have decried the President’s actions constantly through many news outlets.

Yet, according to a February 23 ABC News poll, 73% of the country believes that the new President has been “trying to compromise with Republican leaders in Congress,” while only 34% believes Republicans have been trying to compromise with him. It would seem that the blame for President Obama’s failed bipartisan rhetoric falls squarely on the shoulder of congressional Republicans. Is this blame deserved, or is it misplaced?

Let’s examine Senator Gregg’s appointment as commerce secretary. Since Gregg left the post of his own will – not because of any scandal – many assumed he was simply unwilling to work with political rivals. But Gregg’s move only came after the President had taken the Commerce Department’s most important duty – the 2010 census – out of Gregg’s jurisdiction, as per the Union-Tribune. This sent a message that, while the President is willing to put Republicans in his cabinet in a spirit of “unity,” he isn’t willing to trust them with actually doing the jobs they are given.

More publicly, though, the stimulus package has been an egregious example of failed bipartisanship. According to the Boston Globe on February 18, President Obama visited Republican senators and representatives, courting supporters for his party’s legislation – but only three senators and zero representatives supported the stimulus. Many blamed the bitterness of the GOP at their dismal election results. But while the Democrats courted Republicans votes, they “never consulted them in drafting the economic stimulus package,” the New York Times reported on January 27. Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reed wanted bipartisanship when it came down to voting for a Democrat-forged stimulus, but rejected it when it was offered in the formation process.

Not everyone is fooled by such empty gestures. Representative Spencer Bachus of Alabama stated that “The House Democrats have failed at bipartisanship, I think that’s clear.” And Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told CNN unequivocally that “If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country’s screwed.”

Let this evidence not be construed to indicate that the President and congressional Democrats ought to reach out more to Republicans; in fact, many experts agree that bipartisanship, in the words of Claremont McKenna College political science professor Dr. Jack Pitney, “has about as much of a future as squirrel-flavored ice cream.”

President Obama and his party are fully entitled to spend the political capital they earned in the 2008 election. But it will be nothing short of hypocrisy if they continue to claim the mantle of bipartisanship while offering only a cheap imitation of it. Yes, Democrats have reached across the aisle, but they have had nothing of substance to offer Republicans, and deserve no praise for said efforts until they extend something other than an empty hand.