Thursday, February 12, 2009

Who wins? Who won?

I read this morning about the passage of the rescue plan that was passed by the Congress. The NY Times concluded that the passage would have been impossible without the support some of those mentioned in Wake's previous post. Yet only 3 Republican senators voted for the package.
Mitch McConnell is still sounding the call that the GOP was shut out of the process and thus unable to really get in on negotiations over areas of compromise. I hope that Sen. McConnell will soon be able to let us know exactly which of his proposals wasn't examined. I would expect to hear which portion of the package his party feels a mistake and what their alternative measure would be. I'd love to hear him express which portion of the GOP package he would be willing to let go of in exchange for what Democratic initiative.
But I doubt we will hear much beyond the usual name-calling and fault-finding that both sides have chosen to employ in their battle.
The time is now for President Obama to find some measure of quality in a GOP proposal and use his position to get it through Congress, thereby leading the charge to bipartisanship he trumpets.