Bipartisanship is impossible, says James Fallows (via Jonathan Chait), because of the unprecedented party discipline of the Republican opposition. He quotes a source: “The GOP now maintains party discipline by the equivalent of a parliamentary party’s tools: The GOP can effectively deny a candidate the party label (by running a more conservative GOP candidate against him or her), and the GOP can also provide the needed funds to the candidate of the party’s choice. And every GOP member of Congress knows it” (the emphasis is either Fallows’s or his source’s).

I must have missed all the Democratic congressmen who endorsed Bush’s Social Security reform. And all the complaints from Fallows about Ned Lamont’s challenge to Joe Lieberman.