White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel spoke Thursday, at a Monitor breakfast.
(Michael Bonfigli / Special to The Christian Science Monitor)Photos (1 of 1)
Rahm Emanuel redefines bipartisanship
Obama's chief of staff says the final vote on a bill is not the only yardstick. Presidential outreach and incorporating GOP ideas count, too.
By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer/ June 25, 2009 edition
Washington
The final legislation on healthcare reform will be bipartisan, though it may not look that way, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said Thursday.
“The test of bipartisanship is not just how many Republican votes you have,” Mr. Emanuel told reporters at a Monitor breakfast. He laid out three tests of bipartisanship:
• The bill contains bipartisan ideas.
“That is a test the president laid out, and he has said it repeatedly: This will be bipartisan. There will be ideas from both parties and individuals from both parties in the final product,” Emanuel said. “Whether Republicans decide to vote for things that they’ve promoted will be up to them.”
• The president has reached out to Republicans.
“For [a bill] to be bipartisan, or appreciated for its bipartisanship, the president has to try,” Emanuel said. “As I said after the Recovery Act [economic stimulus bill], everybody said, ‘Oh you didn’t get Republican votes.’ But the American people saw the president trying. They saw the Republicans, implicit, instinctually and reflexively just rejecting any effort in the height of an economic recession as severe as the Depression.”
• The final vote count.
“Then you’ll get into the measurements that we have – ‘Oh, you didn’t get this many,’ ” Emanuel said.
Emanuel bemoaned the end of an era in which members of the opposition were willing to work with the party in power to pass major legislation. Specifically, looking back to the last big effort on health reform, in 1993 and ‘94, when Emanuel was a top adviser in the Clinton White House, he remembered the late Sen. John Chafee (R) of Rhode Island, who worked with Clinton’s team to fashion a compromise. At one point, Emanuel said, Senator Chafee brought along 32 or 33 Republican votes, but the effort failed.
There are no more Chafees, Emanuel said. “The Republican Party doesn’t have that voice anymore. It makes the quote unquote vote-counting and bean-counting part of bipartisanship hard. But that doesn’t mean we failed. It means those who have defended the status quo have failed.”
Emanuel seemed almost incredulous at the fate of the Republican Party, which has gone from controlling the White House and both houses of Congress to controlling nothing in just a few years. Both the 2006 and 2008 elections were “national elections” – that is, broad repudiations of the party in power, sweeping some usually safe members out of their seats. Two national elections in a row happen rarely.
“Today,” Emanuel said, “they’re lower than ‘06 and ‘08. That doesn’t happen.”
The GOP, he added, has gone from being a national party to a regional party, “and that regional party does not represent a national breadth.”
Comments
2. steve gio | 06.25.09
I feel that a true final judgement / test will be determined by the next national elections - not the last two.
3. BenjaminF | 06.25.09
The voters have spoken: The majority of US citizens regard the policies of the Republican party as failures. There is no reason for the President or his administration to be ashamed of the fact that the shrill, hostile remnants of the Republican Party are sniping at him from the sidelines, rather than making a positive contribution to the formation of new, successful policies and laws. The President has been polite and respectful towards the Republican Party, and has received nothing but abuse in return. He has his mandate, and I am glad that he intends to use it to clean up the debris handed to him by the Republicans in international affairs, the economy, the environment, and the US healthcare system. The alternative would be more unemployment, more uninsured, more Katrinas, more painful wars, more failed companies, more e-coli in our food, and more despoiling of the public exchequer by well connected companies like Bechtel and Halliburton.
4. Concerned | 06.25.09
Remember Democrats win elections by not counting absentee ballots along with other tactics. They use organizations like ACORN to intimidate voters. Don’t forget the ILLEGAL foreign campaign contributions that went to Mr. Obama. Remember, Mr. George Soros and the millions of dollars this FOREIGNER uses to destroy our country. If Republicans played by such slimy rules they would still be in power.
6. Bryan | 06.25.09
And if America once again votes for the party that many of you despise, what will be your stance? That the voice of the people is corrupt and you represent the holy minority? America as a whole is intelligent and generally forward thinking. If a critical enough mistake is made, America will vote for what we deem just, which is what happened during the ‘06 and ‘08 elections. If not, we will still vote for what we deem just. The same will happen in ‘12. If you wish ill things on the people and the fate of this country just to get the direction back on your self-proclaimed “right” path, then America will continue to shun your views.
7. Kathleen | 06.25.09
Obama is doing everything I want him to do. He doesn’t rush into decisions, he studies problems and he is genuinely working for the good of the American people.
My only criticism is that Obama seems to be spending too much on the rich through his support of the banking and financial industries. They still aren’t selling or writing off their “bad assets” and there is no transparency in terms of their financial records where we or the government can see what shape they are in. And I thought there was going to be a tax change were people earning, that means having a net income after deductions, $250,000 would be taxed more so that we could be taxed less.
But I’m too anxious for change. I keep forgetting that Obama is in his first year in office and has already faced some momenteous challenges and advanced some ideas that will change the US and the world.
Feeling thankful and practicing patience…
9. SammHill | 06.25.09
The Democrats won. Let them pass Healthcare, Global Warming, Open to the Public Ballots for Unions, and everything else they hold dear. Oh yes, some Gun Control for good measure.
The Republicans should be the Party of NO, so future generations can credit the Dems for all those things.
10. Joe Bachofen | 06.26.09
As an independent, unaffiliated voter, I place a high value on the two party system. The current Democratic majority in Congress and President Obama are presenting me with detailed plans of action on every problem that I see threatening our country.
The GOP is giving me empty rhetoric and polemics. I want well reasoned alternatives not knee jerk ideology and “just say no” sound bites. Does the GOP have anyone left with an IQ above 100?
11. Amy | 06.26.09
Obama won 365 electoral votes, in all areas of the country, with a 7 percentage point margin. It’s time to deliver on what people endorsed — real health care reform with a public option.
12. Chris Temple | 06.26.09
Pure,Unadulterated SPIN
Lets redefine “bipartisanship” so the Democrats can say that they are bipartisan. Lets redefine the Constitution so we can be constitutional. Lets redefine morals so that we can be moral.
What other terms can we think of that are in flux as to meaning: Marriage, Fetus, Racist / Racism, Bigotry, Gender, The Rich, Taxes, Terrorism, Muslim, Christian, Extremism / Extremist, Assault Weapon… Are we seeing a trend here?
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Leave a Comment
We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. The comments feature is a forum to discuss the ideas in our stories. Constructive debate - even pointed disagreement - is welcome, but personal attacks on other commenters are not, and will not be published.
Tip: Do not write a novel. Keep it short. We will not publish lengthy comments. Come up with your own statements. This is not a place to cut and paste an email you received. If we recognize it as such, we won't post it.
Please do not post any comments that are commercial in nature or that violate copyrights.
Finally, we will not publish any comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence.
1. steve gio | 06.25.09
i think the final judgement will be the next election cycle not the past two