[Marxism] A bipartisan flair

[Louis Proyect]

NY Times, November 24, 2008
Initial Steps by Obama Suggest a Bipartisan Flair
By JEFF ZELENY

CHICAGO — In the third week of his transition to power, President-elect 
Barack Obama is working to build a cordial relationship with Republicans 
by seeking guidance on policy proposals, asking for advice on 
appointments and hoping to avoid perceptions of political arrogance 
given the wide margins of his victory.

Mr. Obama has made calls to Republican leaders, and he dispatched Rahm 
Emanuel, his new chief of staff, to meet with them on Capitol Hill. He 
asked Republicans to support his economic recovery plan and on Monday 
will name Timothy F. Geithner, who has worked with the Bush 
administration’s team, as his choice for Treasury secretary.

And while he has yet to name any Republicans to cabinet-level positions 
as pledged, he is strongly considering James L. Jones for national 
security adviser, a retired Marine general who appeared at a campaign 
event with Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, earlier this year.

“I’d say, so far so good,” said Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a 
member of the Republican leadership team. “If he follows through on 
that, he’ll find plenty of Republicans willing to help him.”

Mr. Alexander added, “It’s almost completely up to him.”

Mr. Obama has shied away from inserting himself in the still-to-be 
resolved Senate contests in Georgia and Minnesota. While he recorded a 
radio advertisement for the Democratic candidate in Georgia, advisers 
said he would not visit there, to avoid appearing to be too political as 
he works to deliver on his campaign pledge to bridge the partisan divide 
in Washington.

The bipartisan concessions have infuriated many liberal Democrats but 
offer a window into how Mr. Obama hopes to approach the presidency. The 
criticism from the left illustrated the challenges he faces as the 
symbolism of reaching out to Republicans gives way to disagreements over 
the Iraq war, taxes and a health care overhaul, particularly considering 
the size of the Democratic majorities in Congress and the pressures that 
will bring from his own party.

Mr. Obama has sent centrist and pragmatic signals by selecting Mr. 
Geithner as Treasury secretary and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New 
York as secretary of state, while offering more traditionally liberal 
signs by delegating the health care overhaul to Tom Daschle, a former 
Senate Democratic leader.

But should Mr. Obama go forward with postponing the upper-income tax 
increase, as some advisers have recommended, it would be a powerful way 
of attracting Republican support on the economic package he outlined 
over the weekend.

Liberal activists lit up the blogosphere last week when Mr. Obama 
absolved Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and 
asked Democrats not to strip him of his chairmanship of the Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs despite Mr. Lieberman’s 
endorsement of Mr. McCain for president. Mr. Obama also drew ire from 
some partisans when he met with Mr. McCain and discussed potential 
Republican appointments to the cabinet.

Chris Bowers, who writes on the OpenLeft.com blog, complained that the 
foreign policy lineup was a center-right team. “I feel incredibly 
frustrated,” Mr. Bowers wrote last week. “Progressives are being 
entirely left out of Obama’s major appointments so far.”

It is hardly unusual for an incoming president to extend his hand to 
members of the opposing party. (Mr. Obama is spending a good bit of 
time, aides said, studying the approach of President Abraham Lincoln.) 
What is far more difficult, though, is sustaining the radiance of the 
bipartisan honeymoon, a difficulty President Bush encountered eight 
years ago after early signs of goodwill to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, 
Democrat of Massachusetts, in their pursuit of an education overhaul.

Mr. Obama’s challenge is no different — it is perhaps even more acute — 
as he works to straddle the partisan divide that has grown deeper over 
the last eight years. Advisers said he was well aware of the balancing 
act awaiting him, particularly as he worked to avoid disappointing or 
angering Democrats on the left, a constituency that was vital to his 
winning the party’s nomination.

“Even though the majorities are big, the challenges are of such a 
magnitude that we’re all inheriting, it’s going to require 
bipartisanship to solve,” Mr. Emanuel said in an interview after 
completing a round of meetings with Congressional Republicans. “We’re 
not lip-synching bipartisanship here.”

Mr. Emanuel, who was formerly the No. 4 Democrat in the House and helped 
expand the party’s majority in Congress, signaled to Republicans that 
the president-elect wanted to work alongside them. He handed out his 
personal cellphone number, urging them to call at any hour if they 
needed to reach him, and he asked them to submit their ideas for the 
economic recovery plan and other issues of potential agreement.

Even when they were in the majority, Republicans were often frustrated 
with the Bush administration’s lack of outreach to Congress. They said 
Mr. Emanuel’s arrival on Capitol Hill less than three weeks after the 
election — though no breakthroughs were made on issues — sent a good 
preliminary message.

“I think the new administration is off to a good start,” said Senator 
Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky. “This is an opportunity to 
tackle big issues and to do them in the middle. And it would not be a 
good idea for the new administration, in my view, to go down a laundry 
list of left-wing proposals and try to jam them through the Congress.”

The bipartisan potential of the Obama administration will be easier to 
determine, Mr. McConnell and other Republicans said, when more cabinet 
appointments are known. Mr. Obama has pledged to nominate more than a 
token Republican to his cabinet, though positions are filling up quickly 
and only a handful of Republicans have been mentioned.

One sign of Mr. Obama’s commitment to bipartisanship, several 
Republicans said, will be whether he keeps Robert M. Gates on as defense 
secretary. Democrats familiar with the Obama transition said Mr. Gates 
was among contenders for the post. The selection is not scheduled to be 
announced until after Thanksgiving.

“From the point of view of most members of the Senate, that would be a 
welcome appointment,” said Mr. Alexander, the chairman of the Senate 
Republican Conference. “It would show that the president-elect is 
thinking more broadly and bipartisan than just a narrow base of antiwar 
activists.”

Mr. Obama’s greatest challenge in actually achieving a bipartisan tone 
includes navigating the demands of Democrats in Congress. Even though 
Democrats are now two seats shy of having 60 votes in the Senate, 
Republican cooperation will be needed on big-ticket items.

Mr. McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, dug up a quotation from 
Mr. Obama after he was elected to the Senate in 2004, when Republicans 
were in control of both chambers and the White House. Late last week on 
Capitol Hill, Mr. McConnell read it aloud, with the words of the 
president-elect now sounding oddly prescient.

“Whoever’s in power is going to have to govern with some modesty and 
some desire to work with the other side of the aisle,” Mr. McConnell 
read. “That’s certainly the approach I would advise Democrats should we 
regain control.”