Greg Sargent: Broderesque calls for "bipartisanship" mainly serve the GOP

[BurtWorm]

http://www.prospect.org/horsesmouth/2006/12/post_440.html

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<L>et's remember that in the context of Iraq all these Broderesque calls for bipartisanship mainly serve the very partisan political ends of only one party -- the GOP.

Some overly candid Congressional Republicans let that ... point slip in interviews with today's Washington Post:

On Capitol Hill, however, lawmakers in both parties seemed generally upbeat about the prospects for the Baker-Hamilton recommendations, whatever they may be. Republicans in particular -- dismayed by their losses in the Nov. 7 elections -- can, without appearing to undercut their president, tout the report as an authoritative case for beginning disengagement, some sources said....

These Republicans feel their party paid a heavy price for Bush's Iraq policy in last month's elections, and they will use the report to insist on a change in U.S. policy if Bush appears hesitant, the aide said. "Genuinely they want to see victory" in Iraq, the aide said. "But there is a recognition that Iraq discolored voters' views of Republicans."

Democrats agreed that the study group's report will lend legitimacy to their criticisms of the Iraq war while also allowing Republicans to distance themselves from Bush's strategies.

What the Post really means by this, but couldn't come quite out and say, is that the ISG report's bipartisan nature may give Congressional Republicans cover to put distance between themselves and Bush on Iraq in time to begin rescuing the GOP politically in preparation for elections in 2008 and beyond. For these Republicans, Broder Bipartisanship is awfully useful: Even though they backed Bush's war to the hilt for years now in an aggressive and unrelenting display of raw partisanship, they can now be seen to be sensibly seeking bipartisan solutions to the disaster while Iraq as a political problem remains tightly tied around Bush's -- and only Bush's -- neck. What do Dems get? The group's report lends their criticisms "legitimacy." But the Dems' critiques have already been granted legitimacy -- by the American electorate. It's obvious which party gets the better deal from Broder Bipartisanship.

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