AFTER a month of nerve-racking tension, the news came that the battle had finally been joined: “Congress Resumes Partisan Warfare,” declared a New York Times headline. And the report was accurate: By mid October, Democrats were howling about Republicans’ plans to push their own proposals on tax cuts, airline security, energy, and trade. The GOP is realizing, none too soon, that just as the desire for a broad international coalition cannot be allowed to thwart our war aims, the hope of a bipartisan congressional coalition should not frustrate the efforts to promote growth in the economy, safety in the skies, and other national priorities.
An obituary for bipartisanship that ran on the Times’s editorial page points up the fundamental problem—for Republicans—with the call for putting allegedly partisan concerns aside: When partisanship is shelved, the media play referee—and blow the whistle only on the Republican team.
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