A Sunday Washington Post article by David Broder discusses calls by a gathering of former federal officials for “a government of national unity.”

“If we don’t see a refocusing of the campaign on a bipartisan approach, I would feel I would want to encourage an independent candidacy,” former Democratic Senator David Boren told Broder. “Until you end the polarization and have bipartisanship, nothing else matters, because one party simply will block the other from acting.”

Boren says none of this has anything to do with their meeting this week with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who’s been touted as a possible independent candidate. Whether it does or it doesn’t, I think Boren and his associates are way off the mark.

For starters, where were they during the first six years of the Bush administration? When Republicans were announcing that anyone who questioned the will of Glorious Supreme Leader Bush or the wisdom of invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 was a filthy traitor and “objectively pro-terrorist?” I suppose calling for everyone in Washington to do whatever Bush tells them might be considered a unity government (it’s certainly the only concept of unity or bipartisanship Bush himself has ever considered acceptable), but I don’t think that’s what most Americans have in mind.

I’ve read accounts of administration officials rejecting the best-qualified contractor for a government job because he made an “anti Bush remark”; hiring contractors in Iraq based on whether they voted for Bush; of US attorneys fired because they wouldn’t undertake anti-Democrat investigations that Republicans wanted; and multiple accounts of people being thrown out of Bush appearances for wearing moderately anti-Bush T-shirts or simply not being Republicans.

And for that matter, the only party “blocking” things would seem to be Republicans, who’ve set a record in the current Congress for the number of filibusters. Two years ago, Broder, along with other pundits, was lecturing Democrats on the need to stop using filibusters to thwart the will of a country that elected a Republican majority; not a peep out of him on Republicans doing the same now. Why is it that “bipartisanship” is only an issue when Democrats control Congress and have a chance of returning to the White House?

Second, while pundits such as Broder often consider bipartisanship as an end in itself, it only makes sense when there’s genuine agreement or a reasonable compromise. If one party is wrong, there is absolutely no point to the other party going along with it—and under Bush, the Republican party has been very wrong indeed.

The Bush administration has fought to authorize the use of torture by the CIA and the military; eavesdropped on Americans without warrants; abused provisions of the Patriot Act such as National Security Letters; destroyed videotapes of CIA interrogations that allegedly involved torture; claimed it can lock up American citizens indefinitely if the president authorizes it; claimed the president can ignore all laws and constitutional provisions if he decides they conflict with his authority as commander in chief; and despite America’s overwhelming support for getting out of Iraq, recently began negotiating an agreement with the government there for our military to be stationed there permanently.

Oh, and we have a vice president who claims that he doesn’t have to obey the laws normally binding on the executive branch because he’s actually a “Fourth Branch” of government.

Under those circumstances, I think it’s entirely appropriate if Democrats are partisan. In fact, I think they should be more so: Their reluctance to take any steps toward ending the war, and their support for Bush’s illegal eavesdropping — even to the point of granting immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated in turning over information about us — are something to be ashamed of, not applauded.

For Democrats or liberals — and for that matter, for the country — bipartisanship is a bad idea as long as Bush is in office.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 11:01 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.