Simply wait:

E. J. Dionne has a column in the Washington Post, Time to Leave the Table, where he says that Democrats will be totally cut out of the process when it comes to final legislation on changing Social Security. That Bush has precluded several options (involving tax cut repeal or raising caps). That there is no "good faith" coming from the Republicans.

Kevin Drum agrees, and cites a litany of instances where the Republicans have trashed traditional procedures - in the House and Senate - that were aimed at consensus-building as well as bipartisanship. Over at TPM, guest blogger Matthew Yglesias agrees that Dionne "gets it" (Yglesias doesn't say much about Dionne, he's more peeved at Richard Cohen). On Air America this morning, Howard Fineman, talking with Al Franken, thought that for "sensible, let's-try-and-work-it-out" Dionne to say what he did, was significant. Perhaps the idea that Republicans can't be trusted to be fair will gain currency among the press.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again:

The only way to achieve true bipartisan Social Security reform is to have each party hold (at least) one of the following: House, Senate, or Presidency.

If it takes 2, 4, or 6 years until that's the case, so be it.

posted by Quiddity at 5/03/2005 12:28:00 PM