The routine of Very Serious People like Brooks, Bob Woodward, and friends is that no matter how much the Dems compromise and the GOP doesn't, at the end of the day, they admonish both sides for refusing to compromise.
So it was that during the debt ceiling fiasco in 2011, though the President had offered Boehner 15% revenue for 85% spending cuts, Woodward ended up writing a book that faulted Obama for "not exercising leadership."
Some of the VSP were complaining about the President's inauguration speech last Monday. Where was conciliation? The olive branches? The bipartisanship? The answer was that there was none. Paul Ryan claimed yesterday on Meet the Press that the election was a "status quo election."
We've seen a lot of things already that prove this is not true. If it were then how do you explain that Obama's already gotten his tax hikes for the rich, the debt ceiling has been raised, Sandy relief and now we are hearing that the framework of a immigration deal that includes a path to citizenship and is comprehensive is in place?
This is what bipartisanship looks like
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/01/25/dont-write-off-gop-support-for-obamas-gun-proposals/
The reality is that bipartisanship is the effect of strength, not endless conciliation as Brooks and company claim. In the 80s Democrats thought Reagan was strong-popular with the public-so they worked with him.
In his first term Republicans thought Obama was weak and so they tried to undercut him at every turn. Now he's shown that he isn't and they're realizing they have to work with him.
If they don't then they simply won't get any input. The real lesson of House obstructionism is that it doesn't work. Boehner's GOPers refused to work with Obama on either debt ceiling deal of 2011 or the fiscal cliff deal. In both cases it ended up going through the Senate and then getting rammed through the House with Democratic support and small GOP support.
Brinkmanship has paid the GOP a sorry return.
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