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Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Senate Campaign: Partisan prince
It's fine, even commendable, if Republican senatorial candidate Mike McGavick wants one of the planks in his campaign platform to be bipartisan cooperation. But then, why try to bolster that campaign by bringing the prince of partisanship to town?
The trip offered GOP Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist a two-for-one deal: Boost the local GOP candidate and bash the Democratic incumbent who recently stood in his way on the "trifecta" estate tax, sales tax and minimum-wage bill.
To charge Cantwell with partisan obstructionism is to forget who linked such disparate measures in the legislation in the first place. As Frist cast the choice, a sales-tax exemption particularly valuable to the state's working- and middle-class residents came shackled to a tax break for the nation's wealthiest elite and a gut-punch wage cut for folks who depend on tips.
It was Frist who last year threatened to exercise the so-called nuclear option of scuttling traditional Senate rules when some Democrats balked at being force-fed Bush administration federal judicial nominees whose views they feared were too extreme.
And if McGavick has promise of being a fervent foe of partisanship blocking of important legislation, perhaps he should ask Frist to take his foot off Sen. Patty Murray's port security legislation. The Washington Democrat's bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has passed the House and out of Senate committee and waits only for Frist to allow it to the Senate floor.
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| Do you want a U.S. senator who is fiercely partisan or one who tends to seek compromise? | |
 37.2%Partisan. |
57.6% Compromiser. |
| 5.2% Don't know or care. |
|
| Total Votes: 347 | |
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