The Hill:
Democrats fired back in the rhetorical fight on bipartisanship Sunday, complaining Republicans didn’t support President Obama’s stimulus bill even when their ideas were embraced.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) complained Sunday that even after the Senate voted to accept amendments offered by Republican Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), the GOP senators voted against the bill.
“We don’t know what more to do in terms of bipartisanship,” Schumer said in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
[...]
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) echoed the point, saying that other Republican senators who voted for the plan got their ideas included.
“Step up to the plate; offer your amendments. You know, we took all of their amendments,” Waters said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham probably takes the cake for GOP hyperbole here. “If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country's screwed,” Graham said. That's right, if we don't do exactly what Graham wants, the nation is doomed. Doomed!
Of course, the New York Times reports that Republicans are openly talking about Newt Gingrich-style obstructionism as a strategy for retaking the majority.
[Representative Eric Cantor, the House #2 Republican] said he had studied Mr. Gingrich’s years in power and had been in regular touch with him as he sought to help his party find the right tone and message. Indeed, one of Mr. Gingrich’s leading victories in unifying his caucus against Mr. Clinton’s package of tax increases to balance the budget in 1993 has been echoed in the events of the last few weeks.
“I talk to Newt on a regular basis because he was in the position that we are in: in the extreme minority,” he said.
As always, Republicans are perfectly comfortable with cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy. They complain about a lack of partisanship to the media, then turn around and brag about a strategy of hyperpartisanship.
