The no-compromise campaign

The no-compromise campaign
By: Andy Barr
October 28, 2010 08:09 AM EDT

If Republicans take the House as anticipated on Election Night, voters can expect to hear the customary talk about coming together with Democrats for the good of the country.

President Barack Obama inevitably will extend a hand across the aisle as well.

But that’s Tuesday. Right now, the tone is a lot different – with Republicans pledging to embrace an agenda for the next two years that sounds a lot like their agenda for the last two: Block Obama at all costs.

And even Obama’s pre-election appeals to cooperation are wrapped in an I’m-still-the-president tone that suggests that Americans will be looking at two opposing camps glaring at each other across the barricades — gridlock all around.

Here’s John Boehner, the likely speaker if Republicans take the House, offering his plans for Obama’s agenda:

“We're going to do everything — and I mean everything we can do — to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell summed up his plan to National Journal:

“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Obama frequently reminds voters he believes all the delay in Washington this year is the Republicans’ fault.

“So I hope that my friends on the other side of the aisle are going to change their minds going forward, because putting the American people back to work, boosting our small businesses, rebuilding the economic security of the middle class, these are big national challenges. And we’ve all got a stake in solving them. And it’s not going to be enough just to play politics. You can’t just focus on the next election. You’ve got to focus on the next generation,” Obama said a recent event in Rhode Island.

It is popular to compare 2010 with 1994. Pundits point to a rejection of an overreaching Democratic president, a swing of moderate and independent voters to Republican ranks and a grass-roots groundswell that brings dozens of new faces to Washington.

But the second part of the prediction foresees that Obama will moderate his goals, Republicans will cool their tone and Washington will be able to responsibly address major issues.

Republicans are sounding like they’re not interested in that part.

To be sure, some of this is political trash-talk, each side trying to stoke up its partisans in the closing hours of the election. Republicans have premised much of their whole campaign on one idea – stop Obama – and it’s put them on the cusp of taking the House and scoring big gains in the Senate, so there’s no reason to quit now.

But veterans of the 1994 takeover are advising both Obama and the GOP to work together over the next two years, arguing that the strategy benefits both sides political and legislatively.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich advised Obama to consult with former President Bill Clinton on how to productively operate with Republicans. Gingrich led a budget fight that culminated in a government shutdown in 1995, but the two sides later were able to pass welfare reform legislation and other compromise measures.

“It was painful, it was difficult, and President Clinton did a tremendous job on working with us on balancing the budget and cutting taxes,” Gingrich said on CNN this week.

Obama “has an enormous opportunity to be in charge if he listens carefully to the American people and if he operates in the framework of what they want,” Gingrich added.

But if Obama’s listening to Republican leadership, he’d hear that he’s not wanted.

“To the extent the president wants to work with us, in terms of our goals, we'd welcome his involvement,” Boehner told Hannity.

“There will be no compromise on stopping runaway spending, deficits and debt. There will be no compromise on repealing Obamacare,” said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) in an interview last week on conservative Hugh Hewitt’s radio show.

“There will be no compromise on stopping Democrats from growing government and raising taxes,” added Pence, who may leave the House GOP leadership to prepare for a presidential run.

And many of the potential incoming Republicans have stated that they wouldn’t budge in trying to meet Democrats halfway.

“When it comes to spending, I'm not compromising. I don't care who, what, when or where, I'm not compromising,” Ken Buck, the Republican Senate nominee in Colorado, told The Washington Post.

The White House has indicated that it is willing to reach out the GOP following the election, though Republicans would contend that their track record suggests otherwise.

“I think we're open to speaking to the Republicans, if they really mean it, if they're talking about deficit reduction, if they're willing to move,” Vice President Joe Biden said recently.

Polls show that both parties would be wise to reach out.

A Bloomberg poll out Thursday shows that 80 percent of likely voters want to the two parties to work together over the next two years.

And a new New York Times/CBS News poll showed that 69 percent of the public wants to see Obama compromise with Republicans and 72 percent want congressional Democrats to work with Republicans.

Voters were split however when asked if they wanted to see Republicans work with Obama and congressional Democrats. Forty-six percent want to see Republicans work with Democrats, while 45 percent do not.