<p>So Bush tries (and will fail) to crash the Bolton U.N. nomination through the lame duck Senate, takes another stab at making his domestic spying retroactively illegal, tries to crash the Gates nomination through a more partisanly receptive audience. </p>
<p>As usual, I don’t pay attention to his words. I’ll believe the actions when I see them.</p>
<p>I like Henry Waxman’s observation that there are so many things demanding investigation that it will be hard to pick which one to do first. As Waxman, my home Congressman, will be the chairman of the House Government Operations committee, his opinion is not just a casual utterance.</p>
<p>I found it hilarious on NPR last night hearing all the republicans talk about bipartisanship, and what a great thing it is. </p>
<p>My hope is that the dems do at least as good a job at it as the republicans have done, especially during the bush years. I hope they give the republicans at least the same opportunities to study and amend bills, take part in the house-senate reconciliation process and so forth. </p>
<p>I’m sure the dems can meet the bipartisanship standards the republicans established!</p>
<p>Heard same on NPR. However, I don’t think it will happen because of the general neocon’s intransigence to behavior modification. I’m thinking of moving to the libertarian party.</p>
<p>Mini, under Bush, bi-partisanship has meant “smile, bend over, and do it my way.” There are still vestiges of the old days, such as the way that Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch collaborate on education issues. Bi-partisanship had been eroding for years, the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress drove it over the cliff, and Bush drove it into the ground.</p>
<p>Republicans on the Hill made a bunch of changes in operating rules to give the majority even more power. It will be interesting to see which the Democrats keep and which they roll back. There’s a tension between wanting a few pounds of retribution and wanting to re-establish a better order. I’ll bet $20 that Democrats don’t put up with horse manure like holding House votes open so that they can negotiate and arm twist for extra votes until they’ve got them.</p>
<p>Likewise, in light of Democratic gains in governor’s chairs and statehouses, I would deliver a stiff diplomatic note to the Republicans: reverse the atrocious mid-census gerrymanders in Texas and Georgia or find out over the next five years how the same attitudes can come back to bite you.</p>
<p>Oh, don’t be “contrarian”. The Dems backed the War in droves, readily and happily, they backed the occupation, they backed NAFTA and CAFTA and the shipping of jobs abroad, they backed the Patriot Act and the donut hole, and had a nice walk in the park talking about and voting on torture provisions. If the Dems were told to “smile and bend over”, they were more than happy to do so.</p>