Thoughs for the Day

It appears the way to get things done in Washington is to call out the President live on national television when he is making a rare address to a joint session of Congress. Rep. Joe Wilson stood up and shouted down the President during the address by pointing his finger and (bravely?) shouting "You Lie!!" Nancy Pelosi's head literally snaps into focus to see who would dare to do such a thing at a time like this. I'm sure her neck was under stress during the Bush years because I never witnessed a head snap towards those on her side of the isle who booed the President during his 2005 State of the Union Speech. But anyway, 48 hours after Wilson's little outburst he raked in $750,000 for his re-election campaign. Also, Wilson got the public and news media talking about the issue he called the President out on. Obama continued to spread the lie that illegal immigrants would not be covered under (his) health care plan, yet the House Democrats rejected every single amendment put forward by Republicans to enforce the verification process. Wilson called the President out on it and yesterday the Administration gave the impression that it would be implementing verification tools to make sure the Obama public option goes only to those who are legal citizens of the nation. So in the end it's Wilson 2, Obama 0.

Due to the outburst by Rep. Wilson, the media has once again been harping about the "partisanship" in Washington. I was driving to the golf course the other day and was listening to Joel Heitkemp. He did this long segment on how the American people just want the two parties to come together and solve the problems as a united Congress. This sort of talk is getting old and it needs to stop. If anything we should discourage bi-partisanship. The last eight or nine years have been plagued by numerous bi-partisanship bills that have not worked out very well. Let's roll some of them off: No Child Left Behind, Prescription Drug Benefit under Medicare, (attempted) Immigration Reform, the Iraq War, Federal Stimulus bill, Bank Bailouts, Auto Bailouts, etc... That's not a good track record for bi-partisanship. The secret reason so many want bi-partisanship is because it allows them to wipe their hands of any responsibility by uttering that dreadful phase, "this was a bi-partisanship approach to the probelm..." That's why Harry Reid, despite having the votes to push through health care reform, will not do it because he knows that when it fails the only party that will be blamed will be the Democrats. That's the reason for bi-partisanship. Don't kid yourself, bi-partisanship is in reality very partisan.