Quote of the Day: David Axelrod on Republicans

By Michael J.W. Stickings

"Obama Prepared to Move Agenda Forward With or Without GOP," headlines ABC News.

The odds for "with" are probably so high that a responsible bookie wouldn't even take a "without" bet.

Anyway, here's Axelrod:

I haven't given up on Republicans. I do believe that there are Republicans of good conscience who want to work together on issues.

Really? Name five of them. Seriously. Start with five "of good conscience." Then "who want to work together on issues."

Snowe or Collins? Nope. Brown? Not likely, though maybe here and there. Graham? Maybe on climate change, sort of. Cao? Only because he wants to win re-election a Democratic district. Who else is there? Once upon a time, maybe McCain, but no more, not with him veering ever further to the right to ward off a right-wing primary challenge back home.

But that's about it. Look what they did, unanimously, on health-care reform.

I'd say that Axelrod is full of shit, but of course he's not. He knows full well that bipartisanship isn't possible with the Republicans the way they are.

But I suppose he has to say the right things, what with the media's love-in with bipartisanship, and he certainly doesn't want the White House, and his boss (who's certainly smart enough to know what's going on and who plays up bipartisanship because he knows it plays well with the American people -- and if it works, it works, but if it doesn't, the Republicans look bad), to come across as intransigently partisan.

In the end, Democrats will have to go it alone, as they did on health-care reform. You have to be ignorant of political and ideological reality to think otherwise.