GOP: Bipartisanship After Midterm Is Up to Obama

(CBS)  Top Republican politicians are sounding confident that they'll take control of the House of Representatives, which they think will force bipartisanship in Washington.

Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina portrayed President Barack Obama as being too far to the left, and suggested that after the election, Mr. Obama will have to move more to the center.

Graham expressed a vision of "bipartisanship" that resembles a way for the Republicans to finally get what they want in extending tax cuts and rolling back health care reform after two years of Democratic control in both chambers of Congress.

"About bipartisanship after the election, I predict there will be a good bit of effort," Graham told "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer. "There will be a bipartisan effort to extend the Bush tax cuts and not let them expire. 2012 and 2014, Democrats in swing states are going to get the message from independent voters to come to the middle. So I think we're going to have some bipartisanship when it comes to replacing the health care bill with a more moderate approach."

Liz Cheney, Republican strategist and chairwoman for Keep America Safe, echoed Graham's vision, but said "bipartisanship" will be up to President Obama.

"It will depend a lot on what President Obama does, frankly. I think that once he doesn't have control any longer of both houses of Congress, if he wants to get things done, I think he's going to have to move more to the center," she told Schieffer.

But Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was skeptical of this view of how to break Washington gridlock, and said that it's the Republicans who are unwilling to move to the center.

"I think the Republicans are too far right for the country," the former Vermont governor said. "Republicans think they're on a mission. The mission is well outside the mainstream."

Dean cited Graham's own efforts to try to work with the Democratic Party, and suggested that there are deeper systemic challenges to compromise:

"Let me thank Senator Graham for his willingness to work together. Look what happened to him when he got home. The far right of his own party pilloried him.

"That's a big problem not just on the right - all the districts are drawn in more and more partisan ways, so you have very partisan big majorities," Dean said. "The fact that we're so polarized in what we've done to each other as parties over the last 30 years, in redistricting, that it's very, very hard to overcome your own constituencies and move to the middle."

Cheney dismissed Dean's redistricting hypothesis, and blamed Mr. Obama.

"I don't think that, you know, Governor Dean's point about this is about polarization because of redistricting is accurate. I believe that in fact what we've seen is a president who has taken much more radical positions than the people voted for in 2008," Cheney said.

Graham agreed that the election will partly be a referendum on President Obama.

"I do believe it's the rejection of an agenda that scares people," the senator said. "The health care bill, the stimulus package, the financial regulation, all the spending, was not what people expected from this president. He turned his agenda over to the most liberal people in the House, and two weeks before the campaign, nobody's running for the health care bill. Most Democrats in swing states are running against Nancy Pelosi and against the Obama takeover of most of society.

"So this is a rejection of an overreach of governing from the left," Graham said.

Will Galston, the former deputy assistant for domestic policy in the Clinton administration who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution studying the partisan divide in Washington, said it is the parties that have become more divided, not the American people.

"The parties are a lot more polarized than they were 30 years ago," Galston told Schieffer. "The American people aren't as polarized as the parties. But the center of the electorate is weaker, and more people have flocked toward the extremes. That does make cooperation across party lines more difficult."

But Galston said he is optimistic that the two parties will eventually work together. He said that after the midterm election, there may be as many as 80 new Republican representatives entering the House, some beholden to Tea Party voters, and there will be an early confrontation, but the confrontation will come to an end at some point.

"As a veteran of the Clinton White House, I can tell you that the confrontation comes to an end when one side or another hits a wall, because the American people expect parties who have a share of governing power to be part of the solution and not part of the problem."

Galston furthered claimed that 35 percent of the American people call themselves moderates, so there is a "potential coalition of the center" who would expect bipartisanship.

Dean, on the other hand, said that he doesn't think the Democrats have to worry about compromising from a position of weakness, because he said his party will keep control of Congress.

"I actually think we're going to hold the House and the Senate. The reason I think so is the president, electorally wise, has done a really good job in the last three weeks convincing people this is a choice, not a referendum.

"Frankly, we have better candidates than the Republicans," Dean said, "not because they're Democrats and the other guys are the Republicans."

Graham and Cheney, however, seem confident in a Republican House victory. Cheney said bipartisanship will help the political situation in Washington, and President Obama will have to compromise in the next two years.

"I also suspect, because he is a very good politician, that he will get the message. He's got to listen to the American people," Cheney said.

[lt649036]

There is plenty of blame to go around; however, rather than to name every mistake of each Democratic, Republican and Independent politician in the United States or of every Democratic and Republican president, I agree with you that the beginning of the end for the United States was when President Nixon took the United States off of the gold standard.

I do agree that all presidents of the United States have made mistakes, as well as have had successes, and no party has a monopoly on mistakes or successes.

Rather than to polarize ourselves into Democrats and Republicans, and to ignore Independents, I think we all need to start thinking of compromising, instead of trying to win arguments, while the problems, our national debt and current account deficits just continue to get more out of control.

From what I have read in The Economist and many other credible sources, in my life, I believe that President Reagan was attempting to create a more competitive economy, but that brings us back to President Nixon. Every politician and president of the United States, regardless of party, has been sucking at the federal credit give-away *** of the United States government, since Nixon took us off of the gold standard; and, naturally, since there was no longer a reason to have any kind of restraint whatsoever, complements of Nixon, every politician [regardless of party] in the United States, has been promising something for nothing to his, or her, constituency, even though the United States has been virtually broke for decades. Lastly, regardless of where one is in the pecking order, everyone, poor, average and rich Americans, and anyone esle who could get a place at the big federal ***, has been sucking on it since Nixon made it convenient for all of us to continue to add to the United States debt, while we all personally benefited [from the decline of the United States, both economically and morally].

Ironically, I believe that what President Reagan was attempting to do would have worked, had we not joined NAFTA and the "Giant sucking sound" [coined by Ross Perot] from the United States to the rest of the world.

The old American work ethic is alive and well with new and recent immigrants, but not with those whose families have already lived the American dream, with some exceptions. Few of those who have prospered for generations would agree to the idea of starting at the bottom and working one's way up to the top, as their ancestors did.

Again, I have one more caveat about the "Giant sucking sound" that is still streaming loudly, like a giant pipeline of sucking air, from the United States to other countries; if we did not have this huge American federal debt, there would be a chance that the first President Bush's NAFTA crusade would have invigorated the rest of the world, economicially, and would have created huge middle-classes internationally [actually it has and is doing that], but more importantly, we would have time to make those huge newly developing middle classes, worldwide, our customers and get the United States out of debt, which is not happening fast enough. Nevertheless, with the mind-boggeling amount of debt we now have and our tremendous deficits, we will not last long enough to take advantage of the benefits of NAFTA if we do not use the model of the few other countries who have gotten themselves from where the United States is now, back to prosperity and better directions, like Chile and Singapore did -- both countries used to be basketcases, but Chile and Singapore are now prospering, even in the current severe, lopsided worldwide economic recession.

Last night I was watching the interview of one of America's finest intellectuals by Charlie Rose. The intellectual referred to the United States as the richest and most powerful nation in the world, as of last night, October 25, 2010.

Although his statement was not still true [we, as a nation, owe over 13 trillion dollars and our annual deficents are truly depressingly large, and our ability to continue paying our national bills without borrowing from foreigners is almost nil], I think it can be if we learn to compromise with each other, worry about what is right for America [strengthen ourselves, our families, our communites, our companies, our institutions, and genuinely help each other to do what is right politically and otherwise], rather than what is right for ourselves, our political parties, our point-of-view, our vested interests, or our next re-election.

We need to stop whip-sawing America and our citizens from all the way to the right, to all the way to the left, to all the way to the right, to all the way to the left, from administration to administration, and we need to all be grateful for the middle ground -- because it is the only hope that America will get fixed, find better days, again, and a strong and free America, once again, will be left in a better condition to the next generation and those to come.

God Bless America!

[catmomtx]

Bipartisanship after the midterms elections up to Republicans. Regardless of what happens in the midterm elections, the American people elected a Democrat. They elected Barack Obama and did so based on his promises to reform health care and to do something about the wars and the mess Republicans made of our economy. HE WON and until Republicans accept the fact that they no longer control the agenda, nothing will change.

[dougd120]

an idea to move forward is prevalent with CBS news Sunday morning regarding mist in Doug's system.

[AmericanLady100]

I just love the headline. GOP: Bipartisanship After Midterm Is Up to Obama. Why should anything change? No matter how the election goes, the GOP is going to obstruct the democrats and the president, just as they've done for the last two years. McConnell made it very clear before Obama ever took the Oath of Office that he planned to say "No" to everything the president brought before the Congress. The idea that bipartisanship was ever possible with this GOP is hilarious. If by some freaky twist of fate they do take the House and/or Senate, just watch for less to get done and for things to get worse, especially with the economy. They have no economic plan that makes any sense. This GOP supports the wealthy and has only a short term vision for our country. Please look a little further down the road. We're going to have to get some true fiscal conservatives in at some point time to work with the democrats, but it's apparently not this GOP.

[jimbobkalina]

Oh sure, having more repugs always makes things better for the little guy. Except really, if you actually think about it. But then Fox and Rush listeners let someone else think for them.

[ge556]

Obama's health care reform was what he was elected, by the people, to do. It evolved into a version that he could get passed, e.g., the public option was removed. The people were in favor of it, until the Republican lie machine scared them with lies about death panels, rationing, and "complete government takeover". It's been 2 years of obstructing progress, frightening people, and blaming Obama if he does something as well as if he can't. He even cut taxes, and the right is so convinced that he's a taxer that they cannot accept the truth. The anti-Obama fever is destroying America. TruthTeller

[tsigili]

Let's tell the truth here, guys.....the Dems have clearly demonstrated that they not only will make zero effort to work together with the GOP, while they control the Congress, (led by the king of partisans, Obama himself.)

Not only that, BUT beyond that, they have passed legislation against the will of the people.......the citizens.....and for that reason alone, MUST be turned out of office!

[ddal10]

What and bring back the Republicans so that they can put the final nails in the Coffins of the American Middle Class?
Let's see how many more jobs, or what's left of them they can outsource or Downsize.
The Republicans need a taste of their own Medicine. They had no qualms about Outsourcing and Downsizing our jobs, now they should be Outsourced and Downsized!!!

[ddal10]

The Republicans committed an act of Economic Violence on the American Middle Class that can be defined as Economic Terrorism.

Is there such a thing as Economic Terrorism?

When the Middle Class loose their Home, their Jobs and their Health Care, you can bet your bottom dollar that they are living in Terror!

[ddal10]

For the life of me, I can not see how the Republicans can stand in front of the American People without hiding their faces and act as if they did nothing to destroy our economy and the worlds economy. They have castrated the Middle Class and put so many people out of their homes and jobs and yet here they stand before us like some Violent Alcoholic promising their wife that they will never Beat her and the children again!

[ddal10]

For the life of me, I can not see how the Republicans can stand in front of the American People without hiding their faces and act as if they did nothing to destroy our economy and the worlds economy. They have castrated the Middle Class and put so many people out of their homes and jobs and yet here they stand before us like some Violent Alcoholic promising their wife that they will never Beat her again!