Forrest Brown, one of our great fellows at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, dug up this gem.
Newt Gingrich on the House floor during the health care debate -- March 16, 1994:
Mr. GINGRICH.
I agree with my friend, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt]. I want to reach out in a bipartisan way to pass the bill. I praise the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Bilirakis] and the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Rowland] for a bipartisan bill. I praise the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Grandy] and the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Cooper] for a bipartisan bill. They are starting in the right direction to reach out.
How did that work out?
Yet history repeats itself, and Democrat after Democrat seems intent on playing right into the hands of Gingrich and other reform opponents.
Lowell Feld interviewed Sen. Mark Warner this weekend for Blue Virginia:
Senator Warner appears committed to at least attempting bipartisanship (what he likes to call "radical centrism"), at least with a few "moderate" Republicans like Olympia Snowe (ME), Susan Collins (ME), Charles Grassley (IA), and Michael Enzi (WY). Warner makes a strong case for getting a health care reform bill that's at leaest somewhat bipartisan so it can't easily be dismissed as "Democratic health care reform." Also, Warner wants health care reform that has enough bipartisan buy-in that it actually lasts.
When I was a law student at UVA, I campaigned for Mark Warner during his successful 2001 gubernatorial run -- so I have a warm spot for him.
But this is getting ridiculous. Hopefully, Nate Silver is not correct -- that Warner's contributions from health and insurance interests will play a definitive role in his judgment.
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