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You are here: Home / Politics / Media / What real bipartisanship means

What real bipartisanship means

by DougJ|  February 14, 20093:34 pm| 46 Comments

This post is in: Media, The Failed Obama Administration (Only Took Two Weeks)

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I had forgotten how bipartisan George W. Bush was (from today’s Washington Post):

Bush made an early gesture to encourage bipartisanship: inviting members of the Kennedy family to the White House to see the movie “Thirteen Days.”

While we’re on this topic, just for the heck of it:

Joe Klein: The thing that Gore has to worry about is this—Bush is legitimately a decent, kind, sweet guy…I don’t think George W. Bush actually is a conservative. I really think that, you know, when he campaigned for governor, he campaigned in a bus that said “Opportunity” on one side and “Responsibility” on the other side. (via)

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46Comments

  1. 1.

    chrome agnomen

    February 14, 2009 at 3:39 pm

    another straight talk express that went off the rails.

  2. 2.

    Comrade Jake

    February 14, 2009 at 3:42 pm

    The media really does not know what to do with Obama these days. CNN had a poll up the other day that they were using to suggest Obama has signs of trouble. The poll showed that only 60% of the public approves of his cabinet picks.

    Why would that signal trouble, you ask? Well, his approval ratings on everything else are in the upper seventies. So you know, he’s got to be concerned if one area only has sixty percent approval.

    Just piles of stupid.

  3. 3.

    calipygian

    February 14, 2009 at 3:46 pm

    Are people really this surprised at how much the Pubs love bi-partisanship?

    This whole "change the tone" shtick was always hideously cynical, as Michael Tomasky has laid out in the American Prospect. So in a sense it’s refreshing to hear it finally, gleefully turned on its head by Grover Norquist, a conservative who has the ear of the Bush Administration and is an old College Republican buddy of Karl Rove, the White House political strategist. Norquist contradicts the President, saying what we already know: Republicans are working to make political discourse uglier, not more civil. "We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals — and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship," he tells the Denver Post. "Bipartisanship is another name for date rape."

    I can’t believe anyone thought that those motherless fucks could be reasoned with.

  4. 4.

    Raenelle

    February 14, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    I remember Bush doing that, and I remember it scared me. I remember thinking–not only would Bush never restrain his military and hold out for a diplomatic solution, not only would Bush never have done what Kennedy did, but I didn’t think Bush had the intellectual ability even to understand the movie.

  5. 5.

    Reverend Dennis

    February 14, 2009 at 3:50 pm

    Bush made an early gesture to encourage bipartisanship: inviting members of the Kennedy family to the White House to see the movie “Thirteen Days.”

    Now that the Washington Post has added Kristol as a regular it seems like only a matter of time before they merge with the Washington Times. The difference between them is becoming paper thin.
    Bush invited the Kennedy’s to a Feb. 1, 2000 White House screening of "Thirteen Days." I’m not sure that counts as bipartisanship because the screening was part of a bon voyage party as Bush departed for his first vacation as president.

  6. 6.

    BlackMage

    February 14, 2009 at 3:52 pm

    That last quote should be printed on a banner, strung around Klein’s neck, and then used as a garrotte.

    Please — promise me we never take that guy seriously again.

  7. 7.

    Napoleon

    February 14, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    The quote from Klein and others at the link are just amazing. And the guy still has a job. Amazing.

  8. 8.

    Leo

    February 14, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    One possible reading of last eight years is that Bush was basically an all right, if not particularly gifted, guy who just happened to become the face of an intellectually and morally bankrupt instituion (the Republican party) at the moment it’s bankruptcy became obvious to the world.

    I don’t really buy that, but it has at least a grain of truth to it. Certainly, the failure of the Bush administration was a group effort. The kind of venality and ignorance seen in that adminstration can’t be dictated from the top — it takes committment at all levels of the organization.

  9. 9.

    dr. bloor

    February 14, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    @calipygian:

    I would imagine Grover Norquist is a guy who is pretty familiar with the concept of date rape.

  10. 10.

    Zuzu's Petals

    February 14, 2009 at 4:00 pm

    I love the paragraph following the bit about inviting the Kennedys to watch the movie:

    Bush’s efforts at bipartisanship largely failed, but not until after he had launched a war in Iraq and pursued controversial efforts to expand the power of the executive branch.

    I just feel like, what farkin’ PLANET do these people live on?

  11. 11.

    Corvus9

    February 14, 2009 at 4:02 pm

    Dollhouse is on Hulu.

  12. 12.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    February 14, 2009 at 4:07 pm

    W’s bipartisanship? Reminds of the guy who says "I have this black friend at work …" Which of course in his mind immediately qualifies him for an NAACP Image Award.

  13. 13.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    February 14, 2009 at 4:19 pm

    You can also watch "Dollhouse" at the Fox website, like I just did.

  14. 14.

    SGEW

    February 14, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    In Joe Klein’s defense (it feels very odd typing that), I point out that many people were personally disarmed by George W. Bush’s eerie charisma during his gubernatorial days.

    I know several people who had encountered Georgie Jr. in Texas while he was Governor, and they all attested that he had an uncanny knack at seeming to be very caring, attentive, and understanding in person. A very carefully crafted "nice guy" persona. Mind you well, these are people who were protesting him on a nearly daily basis (death penalty advocates and environmentalists) and who really, really hated the guy, but they (almost) all admit that he seemed really . . . well, nice in person.

    I bet Klein was blinded by W.’s firm handshake and knowing nod (see, also, McCain, John). Not that this renders Joe’s Village Idiot schtick any less blameworthy, but I can’t help but give him a bit of a pass on this particular quote-pull.

  15. 15.

    joe from Lowell

    February 14, 2009 at 4:26 pm

    I remember the delusion that overtook the Villagers in 2000. The lot of ’em decided that George W. Bush wasn’t that conservative.

    (Even) the (Liberal) New Republic ran a piece about how Roe v. Wade was safe because George Bush was totally not going to appoint right-wingers to the Supreme Court.

    I don’t know what those people were smoking.

  16. 16.

    Karmakin

    February 14, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    I actually, I’ll second what SGEW said. He’s always struck me as someone that would be rather personable on a face to face basis. It’s just that a lot of those people you never want to turn your back on them.

  17. 17.

    JenJen

    February 14, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    Off-topic, but K-Lo’s Valentine Link is a classic:

    http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjQ2MTE0YmY3OGZkMzA5ZjQyYzVkMDRlZjM5MDk0YzQ=

    Sigh. If only Mr. Darcy would sweep her off to Pemberley, as reward for her loyalty to conservatism! Every woman needs a REALLY BIG HOUSE and then maybe she’ll STFU. Or something. I really don’t know. I never viewed the story through the looking-glass the way they do, I suppose.

    I could really puke from reading this. There’s little real romance in film…. watch "Before Sunrise" and you’ll get closer, though.

    EDIT: Oh, gawd. Later in the piece, John O’Sullivan starts quoting "Frasier." While waxing about Daphne and Niles, he has the balls to summarize it with "Grow up, Romeo & Juliet." BLEAAARGH

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne

    February 14, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    I remember the delusion that overtook the Villagers in 2000. The lot of ‘em decided that George W. Bush wasn’t that conservative.

    Of course they did. Because as the son of a President and the grandson of a Senator, W was one of them. He was "their people," unlike those nasty Clintons who came from outside of Washington. They knew George HW and Barbara well, had socialized with them many times. They knew W from when he worked for his father’s campaign and they were comfortable with him.

    What I still don’t believe is that they were able to sell Bush as any kind of an "outsider" to the rest of the country. I mean, how stupid are people?

  19. 19.

    Zifnab25

    February 14, 2009 at 4:37 pm

    I don’t know why people continue to insist that Klein and the village crew got "fooled" into thinking Bush was a nice guy. They weren’t fooled. They were paid to write puff pieces. Is the editor of People fooled into thinking Brit-Brit is a great parent? Is the reporter for E! Tricked into fawning over J-lo or Bradgalina?

    It’s the story they are paid to write. And you’ll see a lot of good in a guy when you are paid six or seven figures to see it.

  20. 20.

    Lesley

    February 14, 2009 at 4:43 pm

    Oh my God, this entry should have been prefaced with a gag/nausea alert.

    And I hope you’re words reflect sarcasm, not sincerity.

    Nice guy…hoo yeah, right!

  21. 21.

    justcorbly

    February 14, 2009 at 4:44 pm

    Per Joe Klein, I’m gonna buy a bus and slap signs on it that say "Billionaire" and wait for my bank account to get fat.

  22. 22.

    charlotte

    February 14, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    We KNOW that W was bi-party-man: He loved Bud and broads and blow and bongs. He was committed and fearless.

    Now when Obama throws caution to the wind and gains entry into the Southampton Beach Club and Bathing Corp. we will know just how committed he is to reaching out across the aisle. But not a moment sooner cuz that’s how we roll.

    In other news, the haddock a la reine recipe down below is torturing me.

  23. 23.

    Michael D.

    February 14, 2009 at 4:48 pm

    The Haddock recipe is terrific, I am sure. I love fish cooked pretty much any way.

    But sorry Tim. It just looks disgusting! :-)

  24. 24.

    Davis X. Machina

    February 14, 2009 at 4:52 pm

    The quote from Klein and others at the link are just amazing. And the guy still has a job. Amazing.

    Ever been in an organization where it wasn’t safer, much safer, to be wrong the same way everybody else was wrong, than to be right, alone and by yourself? I can’t think of one off the top of my head.

  25. 25.

    Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist

    February 14, 2009 at 4:58 pm

    You know the code in the Senate: All Republicans + Joe Lieberman = bipartisan

    All Democrats + 3 Republicans = not bipartisan

    The House is a whole ‘nother creature. In 2003 I became convinced that it was no longer meaningful as a governing body. I’m not quite convinced that’s changed.

  26. 26.

    TenguPhule

    February 14, 2009 at 5:15 pm

    Bush made an early gesture to encourage bipartisanship: inviting members of the Kennedy family to the White House to see the movie “Thirteen Days.”

    Whereas Obama visits the Senate GOP and gets labeled weak.

    Somebody shoot these people. Please.

  27. 27.

    Chris Johnson

    February 14, 2009 at 5:15 pm

    Be fair, I’m sure it looked great before he was sick on it :)

  28. 28.

    TenguPhule

    February 14, 2009 at 5:17 pm

    All Republicans + Joe Lieberman = bipartisan Leadership from the strong mainstream conservative majority

    All Democrats + 3 Republicans = not bipartisan extremist liberal commie socialist hippies worshipping Osama at the right hand of Satan

    Corrected.

  29. 29.

    calipygian

    February 14, 2009 at 5:24 pm

    Bush at the Kennedy screening of "13 Days" –

    "Ah did’n know Jack Kennedy knew Kevin Costner. He was grate in Waterworld. Heh heh. You think Jack could get Costner’s autograph for me?"

  30. 30.

    Reverend Dennis

    February 14, 2009 at 5:28 pm

    The mention of "Thirteen Days" reminded me of the time Dana Peroxide had no idea what the Cuban Missile Crisis was.

  31. 31.

    jcricket

    February 14, 2009 at 5:28 pm

    Whereas Obama visits the Senate GOP and gets labeled weak.
    Somebody shoot these people. Please.

    But this is why Obama is "winning" and will keep doing so (as long as he sticks to his guns). The public does want it to appear there was compromise and that no bill is "too extreme" – but they don’t know that most of their (by majority) own opinions are solidly progressive, or at least center-left.

    So the press and the GOP gets away with saying anything that’s only supported by the Democrats is "crazy far left radical".

    The public doesn’t have to be sold on the underlying ideas, just comfortable that the ideas already agree with their preconceptions (which they largely do).

  32. 32.

    kid bitzer

    February 14, 2009 at 5:30 pm

    weird–the son of 41 invites over the younger brother of, i dunno, 35 or so, to see how much better teddy’s big brother was than teddy himself? while he himself, the son of 41, is widely considered to be far stupider and less likely to succeed than his own younger brother, stuck in florida? and is also widely considered to be a failure when compared to his own father?

    meanwhile, son of 41 is himself hoping to attain geo-political significance by the war he is already planning to gin up with iraq, come hell or high water. he’s already lusting after his own finger-on-the-button crises.

    oh man, if anything would make me glad that we did not restore the clinton dynasty to the oval office, this would be it.

    not that i’m ruling out voting for malia in 2050 or so, though alas i’ll be dead by then.

  33. 33.

    JGabriel

    February 14, 2009 at 5:36 pm

    dr. bloor:

    I would imagine Grover Norquist is a guy who is pretty familiar with the concept of date rape.

    Which raises the question: Would the world, or at least the country, be a better place if Grover Norquist were more familiar with the concept of prison rape?

    .

  34. 34.

    kth

    February 14, 2009 at 5:39 pm

    JFK has probably been a little overrated, but I shudder to think of what would have become of the world if any of the plausible alternatives (LBJ, Nixon; maybe Ike could have stood up to LeMay though) had been President in October of 1962. That Bush would have been putty in the hands of someone like LeMay pretty much goes without saying.

  35. 35.

    No Blood for Hubris

    February 14, 2009 at 6:12 pm

    ‘Bush made an early gesture to encourage bipartisanship: inviting members of the Kennedy family to the White House to see the movie “Thirteen Days.”’

    What the f*ck?

    Someone got paid to write this pap?

    I’d so prefer all our "journalists" to admit (perhaps under torture, that’s what it’s for), to having had their bodies taken over by insect-like aliens from Andromeda.

    Then, I could sleep at night, knowing that the ass-licky spin that led to killing millions and bankrupting the country (morally AND fiscally) was merely an honest mistake.

  36. 36.

    toby

    February 14, 2009 at 6:15 pm

    Have you folks checked out this amazing interview with Simon Johnson on Bill Moyers yet? It’s about how the Goldman Sachs et al crowd are playing the government and the public for chumps. Why they think they can keep on awarding themselves billions in bonuses for tanking the entire country economy. Because they don’t think anyone is going to stop them.

    Watch it and get good and mad, here:

    http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02132009/watch.html

    Would love to see some Yes We Can attitude showing Wall Street where the real power in this country is. It’s time for Obama to get some serious backup from his bench–aka the American taxpayers.

    Remember, we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

    Who’s in?

  37. 37.

    JL

    February 14, 2009 at 6:33 pm

    @toby: You are absolutely right. The Citi folks at treasury are disconcerting.
    The second half of the show with the poet Nikki Giovanni was entertaining and allowed my stomach to settle down Johnson’s interview.

  38. 38.

    Zuzu's Petals

    February 14, 2009 at 6:45 pm

    @kth:

    Yes, the thing that "Thirteen Days" brought home to me was the value of a President who, after collecting all the info and opinions, had the intellect and substance to know who to listen to and who to ignore, and choose the appropriate course.

    Unlike, of course, GWB. Which brings to mind (again) the only Dennis Miller joke I’ve ever really liked:

    "GWB surrounds himself by smart people in much the same way a hole surrounds itself by a donut."

  39. 39.

    Delia

    February 14, 2009 at 7:05 pm

    I know several people who had encountered Georgie Jr. in Texas while he was Governor, and they all attested that he had an uncanny knack at seeming to be very caring, attentive, and understanding in person. A very carefully crafted "nice guy" persona. Mind you well, these are people who were protesting him on a nearly daily basis (death penalty advocates and environmentalists) and who really, really hated the guy, but they (almost) all admit that he seemed really . . . well, nice in person.

    So did Ted Bundy. It’s how sociopaths make their way in the world.

  40. 40.

    Mike G

    February 14, 2009 at 10:13 pm

    I don’t know why people continue to insist that Klein and the village crew got "fooled" into thinking Bush was a nice guy.

    This quote comes up again and again when it comes to explaining the Village Idiots in the Cheney/Chimp years —

    "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his paycheck depends on him not understanding it" – Sinclair Lewis

    The Washington mainstream pundits are a pack of overpaid whores without an orginal idea, concept or thought in their collective skulls.

  41. 41.

    cmorenc

    February 14, 2009 at 11:00 pm

    In Joe Klein’s defense (it feels very odd typing that), I point out that many people were personally disarmed by George W. Bush’s eerie charisma during his gubernatorial days. I know several people who had encountered Georgie Jr. in Texas while he was Governor, and they all attested that he had an uncanny knack at seeming to be very caring, attentive, and understanding in person.

    The late Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina was extremely outgoing, personable, and was seemingly very caring in person – and in fact, very likely would have been a delightful peach to have as a next door neighbor. I met him one time (or rather he took the initiative to meet me) on the streets of downtown Raleigh, and we had a delightful conversation. I’m hardly the only person of otherwise solidly progressive leanings in North Carolina who had the same opinion of Jesse as a person on a local, face-to-face scale.

    NONETHELESS I never for a moment lost sight of the harsh, ruthlessly mean-spirited narrow-minded Neandrethal that lived on the political side of Jesse Helms’ personality. That you can sit and have a perfectly fine, friendly dinner with someone and swap some mutually convivial conversation around a table or over a fence may legitimately be *one* of the threshhold measures for acceptability of a politician, but it is light-years from being an adequate measure. It does not necessarily adequately expose the person’s fundamental values, beliefs, and character, or ability to deal in practice with difficult, complex issues, that are far more determinative of what sorts of things the person will actually do if in office.

    THIS REMINDS ME OF A SNIPPET OF CONVERSATION I OVERHEARD IN A FRATERNITY HOUSE BACK IN COLLEGE. A guy had a friend visiting from another college whom he wanted his fraternity brother (who had connections to lots of nubile college women through his gorgeous sister) to hook up with a date. So frat brother asks guy what this friend is like, and guy responds: "Tim is a Chi Psi over at Wake Forest, and he’s a really good guy." Frat brother responds: Yeah, that’s nice, but the world’s full of good guys. Now how about telling me what this guy’s like".

  42. 42.

    numbskull

    February 14, 2009 at 11:57 pm

    I am a numbskull and all, but doesn’t it seem weird to you that Bush invited the Kennedy family to a screening of a movie that centered about the two brothers who were assassinated? The more I think about it, the more it fits in with the creepy insensitivity of George that we all came to know and love for eight long, long, LONG years.

  43. 43.

    headpan

    February 15, 2009 at 8:21 am

    John, is you or DougJ going to cover
    this?

    Please, please, pleez

  44. 44.

    Matthew Hooper

    February 15, 2009 at 10:39 am

    Important point about Jesse: He also made a point of answering to his constituents. When someone wrote to him with a problem – if someone needed a letter for the Boy Scouts, Social Security checks getting mauled by the post office, whatever – he fixed it. It’s the Huey Long/Tammany Hall approach to government, granted, but voters expect elected officials to work for them, and Jesse did.

  45. 45.

    dave

    February 16, 2009 at 4:26 pm

    The part of the Klein quote that galls me is the stuff about the campaign bus slogans. This guy actually thinks the frigging slogans on the sides of the campaign bus are a meaningful indicator of the priorities, characteristics and policies of the candidate.

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  1. The Mahablog » That’s More Like It says:
    February 14, 2009 at 8:38 pm

    […] Balloon Juice, DougJ posts an example of early bipartisanship under George W. Bush, from the same article. I’m […]

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