Reaching Out

There is nothing real shocking about this article. It reads like a press release.

If I were a congressman in the Democratic party right now, I would say the same thing... and there are certainly things that Bush wants that I could in good conscience support.

However, the Democrats are the opposition and need to draw the line on things that are important. That's what we elected them for.

I think there is room for compromise. However, the initiative for compromise usually needs to come from the majority party. If the party in control draws a hard line, the minority has no choice but to fulfill its role as opposition.

But all this talk about "reaching out" is just talk. Hard line or not, entrenched positions or no both parties have an incentive to paint themselves as "reasonable" and the other party as "devisive". This kind of stuff is pure PR.

But we will see how reasonable each party is issue for issue. I am very curious to see what kind of SC Justice Bush puts up. If he is really in the mood for compromise, this is one big place he can show it.

I found this article a couple of days ago. It will be an interesting re-read when we see who's on Bush's short list for the SC.

White House Calculus