Where Have All the Washington Deal Makers Gone?

[question everything]

AUGUST 27, 2009

Where Have All the Washington Deal Makers Gone?

By GERALD F. SEIB
WSJ


The loss of Sen. Ted Kennedy to brain cancer has produced an outpouring of praise and affection from across the political spectrum -- a reaction that in its own way only raises a profound question: Where have all the deal makers like him gone? There was a time, not so long ago, when Washington seemed full of figures who knew how to fight, but also how to get a deal done at the end of the day. The Senate, Mr. Kennedy's haunt, was ground zero for these folks, and the names now represent a kind of Hall of Fame roster: Democrats Patrick Moynihan and Lloyd Bentsen, Republicans Howard Baker, Warren Rudman and Bob Dole. Such figures also were found in the House: Democrats Lee Hamilton and Jim Jones, Republicans Barber Conable and Bill Frenzel.

(snip)

It isn't some accident of history, or deficiency among current lawmakers. There are a couple of fundamental reasons the deal makers have become so scarce. First, the structural problem: In the past generation, the two parties have sorted out by ideology and by geography. They have moved steadily toward opposite ends of the political spectrum, leaving fewer moderate centrists from either party who can stand on the middle ground where compromises are made and deals are done. As it happens, Sen. Kennedy, like his Republican colleague Sen. Dole, was one of the rare figures who was immune from this force. He was an unabashed liberal, yes, but also an iconic figure, secure in his place as senator-for-life from Massachusetts and free to set his own course. He didn't need to be of the center to move to the center.

But many of the other great deal makers could fill that role because they were rooted in the center to begin with. Sam Nunn was a moderate Democrat from Georgia who got elected to the Senate precisely because he was comfortable in the middle and knew how to reach out to conservatives in a conservative state. Today, Democrats don't get elected statewide in Georgia; it has moved right and its governor and U.S. senators are Republicans. Similarly, the state of New York once sent a healthy contingent of moderate Republicans to the House, where they helped build bridges to moderate Democrats just to their left. But New York has moved left and its moderate Republicans are an endangered species. In the 1980 general election, New York sent 17 Republicans to the House; last year, it sent just three.

But it isn't just that the parties have moved away from the center. There now are machines in both parties that work hard at keeping away from the middle ground. Groups loosely aligned with the two major parties stand ready to go after not just the other party but also members of their own team should they stray from the partisan line. Thus, Democrats who have suggested compromises on health care have seen the heat turned up on them back home by liberal organizations such as MoveOn.org, and by Organizing for America, the successor to President Barack Obama's own 2008 campaign organization. And on the right, Republican Sen. Robert Bennett of Utah has been targeted by the Club for Growth, an economic conservative group, which has launched an advertising and letter-writing campaign among Utah Republicans attacking him for working on a bipartisan approach to health care. Is it any wonder that those who want a health-care bill bemoan the absence of Sen. Kennedy?

(snip)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125133280835062347.html (subscription)

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A4

[FSogol]

1. There is no one on the right reasonable enough to deal with. The GOP

exorcised the moderates, thinkers, and non-fanatics from their party. Since Newt, they are the party that wants to insure that nothing happens.

[MarjorieG]

2. Always equal blame with media, esp WSJ to ignore GOP bad faith negotiating. Obama has tried to the

frustration of Dems, and doesn't get respect from either side for trying.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. It doesn't help when the Republicans are crowing

about using "negotiations" as a means to slow down and kill (they hope) health care reform.
I'm also tired of hearing about these small non-representative "gangs" of Senators/Congressmen from both parties whom are essentially cutting back-room deals and making decisions for the rest of us like the "Gang of Six" currently making decisions about health care reform in the Senate Finance Committee and the "Gang of Fourteen" back in 2005 that basically forced the rest of the party into acquiescing to some of Bush's worst judicial nominees and limiting the possibility, if not altogether eliminating, the use of the filibuster against Roberts and Alito when they were nominated for SCOTUS vacancies left by O'Connor and Rhenquist. :mad:

The Dems need to buck up and pass something by themselves unless the GOP wants to be a fully active participant in further negotiations and are willing to give some ground on health care reform. Fortunately, that's where we seem to be headed.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. "They have moved steadily toward opposite ends of the political spectrum..."

Not true.

Generally, both parties have moved rightward.

[Engineer4Obama]

5. The republican ones have been purged

By the religious right. We have plenty of Senators who are capable of making deals but it takes two to tango.

[ProSense]

6. Inhofe admits he’ll vote against health care bill without even reading it.

“I don’t have to read it, or know what’s in it. I’m going to oppose it anyways,” he said.

Maybe the WSJ can do a critical analysis of the Party of No.