Bipartisanship Missing From Final Votes: Whose Fault Is That?

Over the weekend, NBC White House Correspondent Chuck Todd took to his Twitter account to say what The Plum Line's Greg Sargent characterizes as one of those "unsayable" things in the political discourse: namely that the "only way for Dems to secure bipartisan cooperation is to completely embrace Republican proposals and nothing more." Here's how Todd put it:

And indeed, that would appear to be the case. But it's worth taking a closer look at the whole concept of "bipartisanship." Typically, the media examines "bipartisan" success through the way the House and Senate vote on pieces of legislation, and -- noticing the propensity for party-line votes -- declares the effort to be in violation of the "bipartisan" ethic. Then, President Barack Obama is assigned blame for the result. HE SAID HE WOULD WORK ACROSS THE AISLE!

What seems to get ignored is the actual "work across the aisle." As everyone knows, the oft-derided stimulus package contained any number of tax cuts that the GOP wanted, and got inserted in the bill. Over the summer, the president embraced the laborious efforts made by Senator Max Baucus and the so-called "Gang of Six" to negotiate in good faith and reach some sort of bipartisan consensus. And, as I'm fond of pointing out repeatedly, the House health care reform bill -- the one that's considered to be more "liberal" than it's Senate counterpart -- incorporated a lot of the things the House GOP caucus wanted in the bill.

All of which demonstrates that there has been a tremendous bipartisan effort made in crafting these pieces of legislation. This effort just doesn't reveal itself when the votes are finally tabulated. But whose fault is that?

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