How the Political Gridlock in Washington Might End

Anger at Washington and midterm elections are driving both parties to recalibrate their self-interest. A tentative bipartisanship is emerging

Obama has involved himself more in the process of drafting legislation Pete Souza/Official White House Photo

By Paula Dwyer

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Obama and House and Senate leaders discussed working together in February Pete Souza/The White House/PSG

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(Editor's Note: This version updates the 10th graf to add details on a proposed higher tax rate for capital gains.)

In Washington's current state of dysfunction, everyone has a favorite hyper-partisan moment. House Republican Whip Eric Cantor's moment came at a White House meeting with congressional leaders on day three of the new Administration. He handed President Barack Obama a list of ideas to fix the economy. Pointing to a small business tax-cut item, Obama said: "We disagree on tax policy." When Cantor tried to justify his own position, Obama responded: "Elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, I won."

Since then, Republicans have made it their mission to prove that Obama's 53% popular vote may have put him in the White House, but it didn't give him the final word on fundamental economic policy debates. The GOP's coordinated resistance has derailed treasured Obama legislative priorities such as financial regulation, carbon credits, and, above all, health care.

The resulting gridlock has cost the President much of his popularity, particularly among independents. A Jan. 31-Feb. 3 Iowa Poll, conducted for the Des Moines Register by Selzer & Co., has Obama's approval rating among Iowa independents at 38%, down 10 points since November. Remember that it was Iowa independents whose support for Obama in the 2008 caucuses vaulted him to the front of the Presidential pack.

Confronting an inflection point in his Presidency, Obama has begun to recalibrate. He put in an appearance at a retreat of House Republicans in late January and set the table for the bipartisan health summit on Feb. 25 with a plan that omits the public option much loved by liberal Democrats. Over some of his own party leaders' objections, he used executive power to create a deficit-reduction commission, naming a moderate Democrat (Erskine Bowles) and a former Republican senator (Alan Simpson) as co-chairs. And Eric Cantor, take note: Obama even backed tax cuts for small business in the scaled-down $15 billion jobs bill the Senate passed Feb. 24, with the support of 13 Republicans.

Such moves have had the intended effect. On Feb. 22, in a rare show of bipartisanship, five Republican senators crossed the divide to join Democrats in agreeing to debate the jobs bill, a real achievement in this climate. "In campaigning, every day you have to get up and destroy your opponent," says Kenneth M. Duberstein, who was White House chief of staff under President Ronald Reagan in 1988-89. "In governing, every day you have to get up and make nice to your opponents."

Bipartisan Partnerships

Of course, building bipartisan coalitions also requires lawmakers willing to buck their parties. Luckily for Obama, a handful of Republicans—mindful that rejecting every White House idea is not an effective campaign strategy—have started to work with Democrats on issues ranging from tax policy to education reform to financial regulation overhaul. They may have political motivations, but that doesn't mean Obama can't exploit them.

Consider Senator Bob Corker, the first-term Tennessee Republican who rocketed out of back-bench obscurity last year when he tried to forge a deal with Democrats on a rescue package for Detroit automakers. That effort failed, but Corker is at it again, working with Senator Chris Dodd, the retiring Connecticut Democrat, on financial regulation reforms after the Senate Banking Committee's senior Republican, Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, failed to find common ground. Now that Corker has stuck his neck out, the White House may need to compromise over its demands for a stand-alone consumer financial protection agency and a new out-of-court, wind-down process for failing institutions, both of which Corker opposes.

Of the five Republican senators who voted to allow debate on the jobs bill, it's noteworthy that two are retiring after this year—Kit Bond (Mo.) and George Voinovich (Ohio). Their parochial interest was the bill's reauthorization of the highway trust fund, freeing up billions of dollars for construction projects. But they're proof that it's a lot easier to be bipartisan if you're no longer running for office.

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