It takes two to cooperate

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/09/06/13705116-it-takes-two-to-cooperate?lite

By Steve Benen - Thu Sep 6, 2012

About an hour after the Democratic convention had wrapped up for the evening, Mitt Romney's campaign issued a statement responding to the day's most notable speech.

"Bill Clinton worked with Republicans, balanced the budget, and after four years he could say you were better off," Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams said. "Barack Obama hasn't worked across the aisle -- he's barely worked with other Democrats -- and has the worst economic record of any president in modern history."

In a series of strange tweets, Newt Gingrich pushed a similar line this morning, saying Clinton "worked with the GOP, Obama didn't."

That would be the same Clinton who congressional Republicans impeached and tried to drive from office.

But putting that aside for a moment, there is a fair amount of interest right now in the larger question: President Obama desperately wanted to work with both parties to advance the nation's common interests, and that hasn't come to fruition.

.....

Clinton himself spoke at some length last night about GOP obstructionism.

"[W]e all know that he also tried to work with congressional Republicans on health care, debt reduction and new jobs. And that didn't work out so well. But it could have been because, as the Senate Republican leader said in a remarkable moment of candor two full years before the election, their number one priority was not to put America back to work; it was to put the president out of work. Well, wait a minute. Senator, I hate to break it to you, but we're going to keep President Obama on the job."

Look, there's no great mystery here. President Obama appointed Republicans to key posts in his administration, and incorporated Republican ideas into his policy agenda. He demonstrated a willingness to work with GOP officials on just about every issue under the sun.

On the other hand, there were congressional Republicans who huddled, literally on Obama's first day, and agreed to adopt "unyielding opposition" to every White House measure. The Senate GOP leadership decided before the president was even inaugurated that they would not compromise on anything. Shortly after the inauguration, one House Republican leader said his caucus was prepared to emulate the "insurgency" tactics of "the Taliban."