Posted on 11/09/2004 6:18:27 AM PST by OESY
...The ferocious partisan dissension that has broken out at home over the war on terror dangerously subtracts from the nation's war-fighting effectiveness.
Partisan warfare at home has given credibility and confidence to America's enemies abroad....
Partisan disunity has damaged America's alliances....
Hyper-partisanship has weakened America's own war-fighting strength....
It's essential to acknowledge mistakes and learn from them....
At home, ...Democrats will do everything they can to stop [Bush]....
There are, however, some actions that might help President Bush introduce some useful bipartisanship to American foreign policy.
Listen: For months after 9/11, President Bush met once a week with the majority and minority leaders in both the House and Senate. The meetings ceased in the spring of 2002, after a series of goading remarks by then Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle....
Learn: On 9/11, the U.S. was plunged into a new era for which it was radically unprepared. Ever since, the U.S. government has been improvising as it goes....
President Bush should be convening national commissions that include respected Democratic lawyers and elected officials -- people like former Solicitor General Walter Dellinger -- to propose a comprehensive set of laws and rules to govern the war on terror at home and overseas.
In the same spirit, the president... would do well to find ways to put Democrats in charge of those individual items....
The Bush administration... is superbly well placed to make use without qualm of Mr. Clinton's great persuasive gifts on the world stage.
Hire: Mr. Bush is advised... there are a lot of qualified and capable younger Democrats well below cabinet-grade....
Bipartisanship is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end: not mushy centrism, but victory in the conflict that defines our era.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
GWB needs to just quit playing nice and giving in to liberals. It never works. You give them an inch and they take a mile.
We're fighting a war on two fronts, and it won't do to capitulate on either one of them.
They can start "asking" to be included in things American when they start putting America first.
The result? Days after the President's meeting, the same Democrat publicly excoriated the Administration in spite of "B" being included in the legislation.
You simply can't work with these people. Identify and lean on 10 RATs in the Senate and 20 in the House who can be browbeat into reliably voting with you, and let the rest go pound sand.
The Democrats Bush has hired before have done little but work to undermine him. Why, in the name of heaven, should he give the work experience and credibility with which to run against Republicans?
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