Beware of Bi

FOLLOWING the Democrats’ failure in 2004 to defeat the president she called “incompetent” and “dangerous,” minority leader Nancy Pelosi sought advice on how to end the GOP leadership’s “freak show.” She reportedly asked a group of marketers, “If you are number two and want to be number one, what do you do?” As recounted in the New York Times, “their suggestion . . . was to ‘take down’ the president; it was not enough to simply kick him in the shins.” The loving grandmother explained that she looked forward to restoring civility and open debate once Democrats were back in control, “but first you have to drain the swamp.”

So soon-to-be Speaker Pelosi resolved to attack and obstruct. She was rewarded by voters this November, and is now dispensing advice of her own: Republicans should be bipartisan by supporting the new majority’s agenda. What she has in mind is the “bipartisanship” of the good old days, when nice Bob Michel-the longtime GOP House minority leader—led an impotent caucus that got along by going along.

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Kate O'Beirne

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FOLLOWING the Democrats’ failure in 2004 to defeat the president she called “incompetent” and “dangerous,” minority leader Nancy Pelosi sought advice on how to end the GOP leadership’s “freak show.” She reportedly asked a group of marketers, “If you are number two and want to be number one, what do you do?” As recounted in the New York Times, “their suggestion . . . was to ‘take down’ the president; it was not enough to simply kick him in the shins.” The loving grandmother explained that she looked forward to restoring civility and open debate once Democrats were back in control, “but first you have to drain the swamp.”

So soon-to-be Speaker Pelosi resolved to attack and obstruct. She was rewarded by voters this November, and is now dispensing advice of her own: Republicans should be bipartisan by supporting the new majority’s agenda. What she has in mind is the “bipartisanship” of the good old days, when nice Bob Michel-the longtime GOP House minority leader—led an impotent caucus that got along by going along.