by Jules Witcover

Nothing has irritated Democrats in Congress more about President Obama in his first 18 months in office than his relentless pursuit of bipartisanship with the obstructionist Republicans. No matter how often the Party of No has thrown up roadblocks to his agenda, he has persisted in the effort to do business with them.

But welcome now to the midterm congressional election season. With predictions continuing to run rampant of major Democratic losses in November, they were fueled most recently by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs' obvious observation that enough House seats are in play to make a GOP takeover possible.

Gibbs quickly backtracked, saying he was confident it wouldn't happen. But that was enough to ignite the partisanship in Obama, with a barrage of stump assaults on the opposition party for rejecting his repeated overtures to its yet-to-be-seen conciliatory side.

In campaign speeches for Democratic congressional candidates, the Mr. Nice Guy Obama of earlier days was not heard. Instead, he lashed out at the Republican leadership in Congress in ways Harry Truman would have been proud of. In 1948, the man from Independence castigated "the do-nothing Congress" and won election in his own right. Obama clearly hopes he can retain control of the House the same way.

Then, in a classic case of shooting fish in a barrel, the president took to the Rose Garden on the morning of a sure-thing vote in the Senate on extending unemployment benefits. He proceeded to reprimand Republicans there for their anticipated opposition to the extension.

His appearance and words were timed and orchestrated to make more political hay in a fight he had already won. The interim appointment by Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin of West Virginia of another Democrat to replace the late Sen. Robert Byrd provided the one needed vote to dodge a Republican filibuster on the jobs benefits bill. The new senator, Carte Goodwin, then dutifully cast it.

Goodwin said he was privileged to cast the vote "that helps millions of Americans and 12,000 West Virginians who are still looking for work as the economy continues to turn around," in the process throwing in a verbal boost for Obama's recovery efforts.

The show left the Senate Republicans with the exception of Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Scott Brown of Massachusetts being cast as Scrooges in the staged drama.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was reduced to playing the deficit card -- the recently acquired GOP concern over the rising federal debt, after having burned down the surplus handed over by Democrat Bill Clinton to George W. Bush in 2001.

"There's no debate in the Senate about whether we should pass a bill," he said. "What we do not support, and we make no apologies for, is borrowing tens of billions of dollars to pass this bill at a time the national debt is spinning out of control."

His Republican colleague, John Cornyn of Texas, echoed: "When given the option to pay for these benefits with unused stimulus funds, the president and congressional Democrats chose adding to the country's red ink over fiscal responsibility."

Some recent polls have indicated rising voter concern over the mounting federal debt resulting from Obama's huge stimulus package, and doubts about its effectiveness in stirring economic recovery. But the Democratic strategists are banking more on a perception of Republican disregard for the plight of the jobless, an estimated 2 million or more of whom have lost their unemployment benefits since May.

The stage is thus set for a continuing debate on compassion versus frugality in the House and Senate races between now and November. It's a debate that may determine whether Obama can hold onto control of one or both chambers of Congress or face even more obstruction in his next two years in office.

The president's efforts to remind voters that his first term has to a considerable degree been hostage to inherited economic and foreign policy woes seems not to have gained much traction. So now, with George W. Bush gone, he is focusing more on making the Republicans in Congress the villains.

 

Available at Amazon.com:

The Feminine Mystique

The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy

The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics

Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks

The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House

 

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Bipartisanship on Hold | Politics

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