Jacob Weisberg complains that over the last seventeen years “Republicans shifted from fundamentally responsible partners in governing the country to uncompromising, hyperpartisan antagonists on all issues. . . . The rise of hyperpartisanship is not one of those problems for which the left and right are equally to blame. Democrats, who like legislating better than Republican do, and who have seldom had the GOP’s ability to march in lockstep, still instinctively prefer to work on a bipartisan basis.”

He’s got a point. It is too bad that Republicans blocked welfare reform in 1996, stopped the creation of a children’s health insurance entitlement in 1997, and refused to cooperate with Democrats on No Child Left Behind in 2002. Meanwhile, the Democrats were awfully sporting about letting Bush’s lower-court nominees go through and reaching a deal on Social Security.

Update: Reader G. A. adds: “Don’t forget the GOP’s failure to support the Democrats’ visionary efforts to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Sure, now the Republicans talk about ‘too big to fail’ and implicit guarantees, but where were they when we needed them?”