About That Bipartisan Cabinet, Hold Your Horses

President-Elect Barack Obama's intention to bridge the chasm between Republicans and Democrats, by assembling a bipartisan cabinet, is a gorgeous idea.

It's the embodiment of his vision for America to be that 'more perfect union,' the Founding Fathers wished it to be. It is also a testament of his magnanimity and refinement, his political intelligence and statesmanship, his ease and self assurance.

And surprise, surprise, the party of ideological purity, that wouldn't yield on anything in the last eight years, has had a deathbed conversion about bipartisan government. What happened to the Republican principle of unilateralism, and contempt for dissent? What happened to "either you are with us or you are with the terrorists/other preferred GOP bogeyman"?

On March 19, Dick Cheney, who was shoveling a large pile of horse manure about progress in Iraq, was asked how his trenchant analysis fit with polls, showing two thirds of Americans opposed to the war in Iraq. "So?" Mr. Cheney retorted. "You don't care what the American people think?" the reporter asked. "We can't be blown off course by polls," he said, once more giving the American public what he felt they deserved from their leaders -- the one-fingered salute.

After the President-Elect named Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, Republicans got their collective knickers in a twist.

Alex Conant of the RNC and John Boehner, Minority Leader shuddered with outrage. "This decision undermines his promise to 'heal the divides'. Rahm Emanuel is a partisan insider," said Conant. "This is an ironic choice for a President-elect who has promised to change Washington, make politics more civil, and govern from the center," Boehner huffed.

I love their gush of vitriol and lectures about non-partisanship and governing from the center. After two terms of absolute and unconditional power, which they used to serve only their own agenda, Republicans are singing the virtues of collaborative government -- citing Lincoln's plan to create a bipartisan Cabinet that would govern "with malice toward none, with charity for all."

Why was bipartisanship hiding like a shy Geisha behind her rice-paper fan, during the attorney general firings and hirings orchestrated by Reptilian Rove and Amnesiac Alberto?

Democrats and Republicans are like the citizens of Lilliput and Blefuscu in Gulliver's Travels. We have doctrinal differences about the proper way to crack eggs.

A bipartisan cabinet is a knucklehead idea. Besides, how will Republicans go through their dark night of the soul and reinvent their party -- an exercise best conducted in the wilderness -- if they're sitting in the Cabinet?

Read more reaction from HuffPost bloggers to Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election

Comments

[thedirtman]

I'm wondering which cabinet position is going to go to a Libertarian, and which to the Green Party. Then we'll have to make room for the Reform Party, Ralph Nader, the Constitutionalists, the Socialists and any other party I haven't mentioned to this point. What will we do to make room for these change Democrats that were promised?

[Foreground]

Hm... Does Bipartisan mean Omnipartisan? Certainly, they do deserve to have their viewpoints heard, but I don't know where Ralph Nader and Ron Paul would best fit in a presidential cabinet.

And quite honestly, I would like to see a Socialist in charge of health care.

[bigmadd]

We have seen how the GOP ruled, now it's our turn.We must govern from the left to fix the mess we are in. FDR went to the left to fix what the GOP did in the 1920's. Now we must look back and fix what the GOP did this century and never let them have total power again! Listen to their ideas, maybe,but never let them do what they did to America again!

[nansofast]

the only thing I want from republicans is the years of tax breaks they've
enjoyed..we need funds to build a new America, maybe a little manual
labor would be nice too.

[bygollymissmolly]

About the only Republican I can see Obama bringing into his administration would be Chuck Hagel. I hope he does.

[betrayus]

Hi,

Looks like Obama is hiring 80%-90% of the X-Clinton employees....if the country wanted 4 more years of Clinton...they should have just elected Hillary or amended the Constitution so "Bill" could have gone another 4- 8 years.

Peace,
Dan
http://iraqsinconvenienttruth.com/

[Leahk]

Apparently, you have no idea about the number of cabinet members that President-Elect Obama will select. In other words, your figures are premature/

[theVoice0fReason]

Yes Dan, Mr. Betrayus, let's do our country a favor and hire a bunch of n00bs to the white house, so that we don't betray your projections about what "change" looks like.

Competence = Change.
Change = Competence.

Think before you flame.

[bygollymissmolly]

Well, since ex Clinton employees are the only experienced people he has to choose from (other than ex Bush employees), then if he wants experience he has no choice. And just because someone worked for the Clintons DOES NOT mean that they think and act like the Clintons. Besides, Obama is going to be the boss. If he hires anyone who goes rogue, he can just fire them.

Would you rather he hire nothing but inexperienced people in this time of crisis in our government?

[fan4truth]

right on. I think we all remember how well that went with the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Who was that guy again? An inexperienced friend of B.U.S.H.

We didn't vote for 4 more years of the same, otherwise McCain would be heading toward the white house.

***shudder****

[Davwbaird]

Clinton folks have experience which President elect Obama values, in other words he wants the best people. The only place to go is back to the Clinton era. No doubt he will include a republican but not an incompetent hack and certainly none relate to the evil Bush administration (My the Bush name become unmentionable).

[helpusa]

President Clinton had a very youthful staff for the most part and they are now very experienced and that is who President-Elect Obama has to choose from AND THAT IS NOT A BAD THING.
I'm so glad it isn't McCain doing the choosing as he would have to picked a lot of old Republican
Bush hacks.
HALLELUJAH AND PRAISE THE GODS!

[SkimaskBob]

loving the finger pointing and acidity in both comments and original post ... my guess, and I'm just going out on a limb here, is that Obama's attempt at a bipartisan cabinet is an attempt to MOVE PAST all that. He's got that whole new age philosophy of "loving thy neighbor" and "turning the other cheek" ... it's so new and wildly outlandish it just might work!

In other news, a republican called a democrats mother fat!

[OoiGooEE]

lol. Spot on.

Someone should write a book about that "turn the other cheek" stuff :o)

[anninroosevelt]

I'm not so sure Obama is into "turn the other cheek" and "love your neighbor" as much as knowing deep down that venegeance and recrimination do not work if you want to solve problems. I suspect that rather than forming a bi-artisan cabinet he is more inclined to form a post-partisan government where he digs for possible solutions and then sells the solutions to, 1) the public, and 2) the Congress. The Obama organizing strategy wasn't just for winning an election, it is for changing this country, and that will take new strategies that make sense to enough people that we can move forward. Some of us on the left are all bent out of shape by the fact that "there are too many people from the Clinton camp," or Lieberman should have been drummed out of the caucus. Governing is hard, and it gets done best when it involves creating a consensus. I don't think that is centrism, because I think that the liberal/conservative, left/right, Democratic/Republican labels don't help us find solutions to the 21st century problems we are facing. Clinton looked for centrism solutions and it just trained up a generation of Democrats willing to compromise with Republicans, hoping for any solution. Differences of opinions and policy perspectives are good, but if they prevent us from clearing our minds of old formulas in order to find new solutions, those differences are just childish.

[bbridges1962]

Lead by example...I love it!

[armile]

i think the idea that obama will have a disparate group of people in his cabinet is a good one. not all republicans are idiots. hagel(nebraska)snow and collins(maine)seem to be abel to think for themselves.
obama isnt about payback. as much as i would love to see it, i dont think that he will even open hearing into the multiple abuses of power that occured under bush. he seems to really want to move beyond that and it would only stir up more partisan rancor. the same will be true if he only has dems in his cabinet.
bush is right about one thing, he(and the republicans)will be judged by history and my guess is that it is not going to be kind.so why should obama get involved in a pissing contest with a skunk? let them rot and move on

[blueskybigstar]

Well said.

[bootman69]

great comment.

[kellykw33]

Funny how dems thought there should be more bipartisanship for the past 8 years.
Now that they have a majority in the legislative branch and a president elect we read from this article, "A bipartisan cabinet is a knucklehead idea."
Hypocrisy is running rampant from all sides.

[Querent]

It's called payback. How typical of Republicans to demand what they themselves wouldn't dream of doing. One rule for Republicans. Another for everybody else.

[kellykw33]

Payback? I sure hope the dems don't make decisions based on "payback". What's best for our great Republic as a whole should be the driving force behind any government decision.
But as you've commented "payback" is how Democrats do things. They're going to "pay back" and give handouts to the under-achievers.

[OoiGooEE]

kellykw33, the quote "A bipartisan cabinet is a knucklehead idea." is by the author of the article not the Dems or PEBO hence no quotation marks in the article.

Yes, Dems AND Independents have asked for more bipartisanship over the past 8 years only to get little to none with the Rethugs giving us the proverbial middle finger. I think you can find hypocrisy on either side but I think after 8 years of having partisan legislation, poisonous presidential edicts and unilateral approaches to both foreign and domestic policy, I'd say the rightwing wins hands down.

That said, the bipartisanship was never about Bush's cabinet. We all knew what they were and that that would not change. Bipartisanship in the Congress is about compromise. Repugs have felt that since they are in power they don't need to compromise and yes we called for it.

To act in a bipartisan manner will or will not be seen come Jan. 22nd. Why would the Dem leadership want to compromise with this abismal lame duck administration? I personally hope they put off whatever they can until after PEBO is sworn in. As far as his cabinet is concerned I think PEBO knows better who is best suited for the positions. I choose to defer to his good judgement. And I'm willing to bet there will be a couple of moderate Repubs either in the cabinet or advising PBO.

Personally I don't care if he has any Repubs in his circle or cabinet.

[FR]

Funny how Repubs asked for power eight years ago by claiming "I'm a uniter not a divider," then proceeded to NOT win the election but get it handed to them by a mostly Repub-appointed Supreme Court, and then put together one of the most divisive, dismissive, ideologically exclusionary administrations on record, with abysmal results at home and all over the world.
Funny how Repubs gloated about all that, and told us all that anyone not with them was unpatriotic traitor material.
Funny how Repubs now whine at the prospect of being cut out EVEN AS the new administration is thinking of making some room for them.
Funny how there is no room for Repubs who insist on whining (again with the oh-poor-little-victims-we-are c.r.a.p), rather than on becoming productive helpful members of this nation.

[willpen]

There is a wonderful article at The American Prospect, called "The Audacity of Patience" that discusses Obama's vision as a politician and his expertise as a political tactician. It is worth the read.

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_audacity_of_patience

[canucklivinginUSA]

Willpen that was indeed a great read. Thank you.

[Megan97401]

Sorry for being obtuse, but didn't we win here? Why do we want them back in again?

Yes, I'm sure there are some Republicans who might have an idea or two, and I agree that the best person for the job should get it, but are they really the best person for the job, or are they being considered in the name of bipartisanship?

[cosmic]

"Besides, how will Republicans go through their dark night of the soul and reinvent their party -- an exercise best conducted in the wilderness -- if they're sitting in the Cabinet?" Exactly. You refute your own thesis :)

[SoD1]

The attempt to involve the corrupted gang of old "Brotherhoods" in the future development of our World, is even for an intelligent Individual as Obama a very naive and dumb decision!
It is in fact the "one-fingered" middle finger salute the American Public has been receiving from Bushism in the last 8 years.
Interesting is how those pathetic bad losers are now crying for authentic "Bipartisanship" when they have no say whatsoever anywhere in the Government. They truly want to bright the Chasm, then they should sit down, SHUT UP and sign ALL the Bills President Obama purposed! Or the entire Republican mafia can be gone for ever!!
Just kick their corrupt derrière into the Abyss they already are in with one foot!
And start the mass prosecutions already, Americans. Momentum will be very essential here!

[joebaggadonuts]

Dream on. For me. Thanks.

[canucklivinginUSA]

If they block all the proposals that Obama shows them which would benefit the American populace, they will suffer the consequences. I will clamor with glee if that happens. Then the moderates can take over and bring this party into the 21st century

[vicki122]

JMBrodie, I like your cabinet picks. I see a good number of female nominees and he has to "dance with those that brung him."

I would like to see Hagel in the cabinet. The rest of the Republicans that are prominent now, not so much.

[bknott]

Not all Republicans are partisan, and if Democrats act as petty as the Republicans for the next four years, they're probably going to start seeing results in the congressional elections, just like the Republicans did. Obama is smart enough to know that he represents the whole country.

[Querent]

Your empty threats are meaningless.

[canucklivinginUSA]

You absolutely right.