In another one of those incidents which prove the return of partisanship and gridlock, President Bush, yesterday, signed into law the Education Reform Bill he promised to make a cornerstone of his first term.
Among those in attendance were California Congressman George Miller - the principal House supporter of Education reform - and Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy the best known Senate supporter. Both, as you know, are Democrats.
Over the holidays, I foolishly considered posting a "Best Of Mullings" page of the best bullet points from columns of 2001. I found a reference to a piece by the LA Times' Ron Brownstein quoting a Texas Legislator who had worked with George W. Bush when Bush was Governor of Texas:
"At the end of the day, Bush knows what can pass and what can't pass," said [the Texas Representative]. "He will try to get as close to his proposal as he can, but in the end he will cut the best deal available."
Interestingly, the date of that column was January 8, 2001 - exactly one year ago.
One year ago the National Punditry was into very serious and very heavy head nodding over the notion that with:
- The House in GOP control by only (at the time) five seats,
- The Senate in GOP control by only (at the time) the tie-breaking vote of the new Vice President, and,
- Half the nation still beyond fury over the Florida recount,
it was absolutely, positively, definitely, without any question whatsoever certain that we would spend every second of every minute of every day of 2001 in legislative gridlock.
"This ain't Austin," was the short hand, and these characters would soon learn what life was like here at the Major League level in Your Nation's Capital.
About 10 days after we were permitted to drop the "-elect" part of President Bush's title, January 31, I wrote about the fact that the President had invited Congressman Miller to the White House to talk about Education reform. I noted that the President had greeted him as "El Jorge Grande" - Big George in a meeting with stakeholders in the White House.
Miller, returned the favor by writing some very kind words about the way the new President was approaching reaching consensus:
"Based on my two meetings with the President, I continue to be impressed by President Bush's commitment to improving the quality of education in our public schools."
I wrote that Miller had been officially - Bushed.
Along the lines set down by that Texas Rep., the President realized early on that vouchers were a non-starter with the tight numbers in the Congress and so he "cut the best deal available" to get a bill.
Now we fast-forward just about a year to the ceremonies in Ohio, New Hampshire and Boston yesterday.
At each stop there were good-natured jokes about who was on the stage - Republicans and Democrats playing nicely together. Not just Democrats, by the way. Miller and Kennedy are two men who wear the title "Liberal" with great pride.
Just last Friday Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle made a speech - no that is not correct. This was SUCH a big deal that it was billed as an "address." I'm not certain when a speech becomes an address. Or, for that matter, when a jail becomes a prison, or a prison becomes a penitentiary.
Ok. Daschle's sp-address: There were four American flags on the stage which demonstrated its importance to the nation, and Daschle used a TelePrompTer which demonstrated its importance to Daschle.
The Daschle address was greeted with a full weekend of "Partisanship Returns" headlines with a number of Liberal columnists pointing their typing fingers directly at one George W. Bush as the culprit.
Remember our discussion of last week about needing to solidify the base as the prime directive of politics? That's what Daschle's speech was supposed to do: Give political cover to the Left, making it OK to criticize the President's domestic policies.
So what do these - I can't resist it - Bush leaguers from Austin do? They take George Miller and Ted Kennedy on the road, put them on stage with the President, on Air Force One, in the motorcades, in the holding rooms, they put them in the photos with the President signing the bill, and let them bask in the full glow of the successful completion of a major piece of legislation.
So much for the return of partisanship. It, too, just got - Bushed.
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