Monday, August 9, 2010

EJ Dionne and Chris Dodd Have a Chat

EJ Dionne writes this morning of a chat he had with retiring Senator Chris Dodd.  At some point after the obligatory "I love your work, EJ",  followed by the "no, no, no Senator--I love YOUR work" conversation, they got down to brass tacks.  And while I would rather poke knitting needles into my eardrums than be a fly on the wall during this conversation, Dodd did say something with which I agree:

"There's nothing wrong with partisanship," Dodd thunders. "A little more civility would be a good thing, but it was partisanship that created this place." In the early decades of the republic, Congress "was a brawl." Partisanship simply reflects the reality of disagreement in a free society."

The distinction between partisanship and incivility is an important one.  Bi-partisanship sometimes means appropriate, compromise positions--and it sometimes means milquetoast solution-seeking for the sake of seeking solutions.

Three cheers for partisanship, I say.

1 comment:

  1. The only time you hear bi-partisan mentioned is when the Democrats are out of power. The catch phrase after '08 was "Hey, we won the election" followed by an implied F you.

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