September 14, 2011 09:27 PM UTC

Washington Bipartisanship Teeters Again--Qui Bono?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Our friends at the Washington Post with the latest:

“We’re not going to let our differences get in the way of coming together for solutions that help produce results,” Cantor tweeted on Thursday, the day of Obama’s jobs speech. “Need 2 work 2gether 4 results!” he tweeted later that day, making the same point in 30 characters.

Over the next few days, strange things happened: The hard-driving Cantor became Washington’s chief spokesman for togetherness. The above-it-all president demanded that Congress “Pass this bill.” Supercommittee members spoke optimistically about solving problems that have divided Washington for decades.

The two sides found small areas of agreement, such as tax cuts proposed in the president’s plan. But not much else…

As it stands now, Republicans appear to be hardening their overall position against the “American Jobs Act” after several days of temporizing and vaguely positive comments, citing its elimination of some tax credits used by wealthy Americans to pay for it. A familiar and increasingly risky objection, as Politico adds:

His approval ratings are low, but Congress is worse off, senior administration officials said Tuesday. House Republicans hold a 48-seat majority, but more than 60 of them will run in districts that Obama won in 2008 – and will contest heavily next year, the officials said. And while the tea party may loathe Obama’s plan, the coveted independent vote does not…

[T]he administration’s belief is fueling the White House game plan on jobs, an all-out effort by Obama, Cabinet officials and the Democratic campaign committees to push Republicans into an untenable political position that forces them to act on more than just minor elements of the president’s plan.

“If they don’t meet Obama halfway, a third of the way, a quarter of the way, they will risk losing the majority because they will be viewed as playing politics with jobs,” said John Anzalone, a Democratic pollster and consultant to candidates in the South.

We said previously that the best thing Republicans could do to blunt the political effectiveness of this jobs bill push from President Barack Obama is to co-opt it, and pass a bill sufficiently similar to Obama’s proposal to serve as a defense against the likely major 2012 complaint against them–obstruction for political purposes. Most of the bill based on our reading really is pretty uncontroversial, and despite the ideological brick wall in the House, the public has repeatedly expressed no objection to the modest revenue increases proposed to pay for it.

In short, it’s obviously a necessary move for Obama to push this legislation. The question is whether Republicans are better served by the obstruction they’ve used to devastating effect up to now in Obama’s term–or if we’re finally reaching a point of diminishing return.