Obama & the GOP: Getting Off on the Wrong Foot

Obama meets today with the new GOP leadership. But after last year's failed bipartisan health summit, should anyone expect this meet to go any better?

Today, the President will meet with the Republican and Democratic Congressional leadership. At this date, the meeting has the strong possibility of resembling the court fight between Mel Gibson and his girlfriend Oksana.

Enter the Republican Senate leadership. Why should Mitch McConnell be upset with this President? Despite being Senate Minority Leader, it took the President almost two years to have a single one on one meeting with him at the White House.  Since McConnell will likely need to consult Google Maps to find the White House, anyone expect him to be inclined to help the President move forward with his agenda?

Enter the Republican House leadership. And why should soon to be Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner be upset with the President? Of course, Boehner probably knows that just over sixty days ago, the President devoted an entire speech to attacking him and everything he stands for in terms of economic policy and political philosophy.

Enter the Democratic Senate leadership. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to have lame duck session votes on the DREAM Act, “Don't Ask, Don't Tell”, the START Treaty with Russia and who knows what else before the new Senate appears the first week of January. That should be helpful to the President in setting up a level of cordiality and negotiation.

Enter the Democratic House leadership. Current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will hopefully at least have spent the prior two days studying pictures of the Republican House leadership in preparation for the meeting. If she doesn't look like the stepmother from Cinderella to the newly empowered Republicans, who would? Can anyone remember a House of Representatives debate on a single bill since Ms. Pelosi became the Speaker of the House?

And enter the President, fresh off his visit to Kokomo, Indiana where he lambasted Republicans from his bully pulpit regarding “tax cuts” for the wealthy. This speech was obviously written and designed to have a solid starting point for a new partnership with Congress. In Kokomo, the President again stated his position that since both Democrats and Republicans agree on middle class tax rates continuing at their current levels and there is disagreement only on the wealthy getting their tax cuts, passing tax cuts exclusively for the middle class would be a great compromise.

If accepting the President's tax plan exactly as he is proposing it is what the President believes is political compromise, the last person entering the meeting will be the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. The Mad Hatter might be a credible source for describing concession as compromise.

The actual final entrant to the meeting will be the memories of the Democratic/Republican healthcare summit where not a single Republican idea was given a subsequent hearing or any Republican idea was seriously considered by the joint committee working on finalizing the bill with the President and his advisors. This entrant may have the tallest seat at the table. As a result of the White House healthcare experience, the Republicans may see this meeting as perfunctory in the "been there, done that" genre.

Soooooo, where will the meeting go on Tuesday? This one is truly in the President's hands. If the President wants to extend the proverbial olive branch, he needs to take the difficult first step and offer up something the Republicans really want, something the more liberal Democrats will find generally distasteful and something the more conservative Democrats and those pesky independents will find acceptable. This would be a great first step towards reasonable compromise and governance in lieu of politics. It must come from the President.

There are lots of possibilities for the President to seek true common ground with the Republicans. Hopefully, he will be comfortable in this role. It is what every previous President has done when faced with a Congress not completely of his own political party.

If the President cannot lead toward true compromise, sadly, the next two years will truly look like a child custody meeting between Mel Gibson and his formerly beloved Oksana.