“Bipartisanship” is a weird, malleable word in the context of Senate legislation. Does it mean a bill that earned votes from a number of senators from each party? At least one vote from each? A bill that most Americans support? A bill that was drafted with input from members of each party? Everyone seems to agree that bipartisanship is ideal but, because of that, everyone also seems to reorient it in a way that’s particularly useful at a particular moment.
So we have Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) firmly proclaiming on Tuesday that “the era of bipartisanship is over.” The occasion was apparently another collapse in conversations between the White House and Republicans over an infrastructure package, legislation that both President Biden and Democratic senators such as Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) hoped would be in some form bipartisan. Again, what standard needed to be met was never clear. It’s like the old “know it when you see it” standard about porn, except for the polar opposite of porn, which is a congressional funding bill for highways.
As soon as McConnell made those comments, you could hear eyes rolling from the offices of Democratic senators. In part because of Biden’s repeated declarations that he wanted legislation to be bipartisan, McConnell has made few overtures to actually meet the Democratic mini-majority on legislation. In fact, he said last month that “100 percent of our focus is on stopping this new administration,” which isn’t particularly “bipartisan” as an outcome. Continue reading.