Required reading:

An essay entitled "The New Rules of Politics" by E. J. Dionne Jr accurately summarizes the current dynamic in Washington D.C.     Essentially, it's winner take all - even if the winner has a razor-thin margin.

Excerpt:

With a slim congressional majority, Bush would have been expected to seek genuine compromise -- under the old rules. But Washington has become so partisan and Bush is so determined to push through a domestic program based almost entirely on tax cuts for the wealthy that a remarkably radical program is winning despite the odds against it and lukewarm public support.

and

Bush promised to change the ways of Washington. He has succeeded brilliantly, but not by creating the "new tone of respect and bipartisanship" he promised in 2000. The new tone in Washington is not bipartisan but hyperpartisan. "Bipartisanship is another name for date rape," said White House ally Norquist, according to the Denver Post this week, as he promised to bring Washington's new ferocity to the state capitals.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Quiddity at 5/30/2003 12:39:00 PM