In his opening day lament about the lack of bipartisanship in the state Senate, Republican leader Phil Berger of Rockingham County took note of Democrats' failure to support rules proposal opening up operations of the Senate, though he praised Gov. Bev Perdue and Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton for their efforts to "reach across the aisle." He also voted that Senate Republicans would reach out to Perdue and Dalton "to seek new, innovative and bipartisan solutions to the problems facing our state."
I blogged on a part of his remarks last week, including his using "Democrat" as an adjective, which drew some heat from some commenters. That didn't surprise me.
What did surprise me were several e-mails that took issue with the whole notion of bipartisanship as a good thing. One of my regular correspondents, who doesn't like seeing his name in print, sent along a link to an article from "American Thinker" entitled "Why Bipartisanship is Unethical."
Among other things, the writer, Larrey Anderson, believes this: "Depending on the circumstances, "bipartisanship" is almost always a sign of either A) political weakness or (B) moral turpitude.
"In either case, bipartisanship is almost never ethical."
Here's a link to the article:
Another e-mailer from Western North Carolina had this to say:
"I do not want bipartisan at all and I am sick of trying to reach across the isle and getting my hand slapped and surely the others are just as tired unless they like the crumbs off the table of the emperor Basnight and the queen of gambling Perdue. Heck I do not want democratic, democrats, or republicans but just plain old Americans that stand tall for right."
Who knew bipartisanship was so dadgum unpopular?
Also, for those who missed it, here's what Berger said about bipartisanship, in a news release his office sent out Wednesday:
Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) made the following statement:
“Now is the time for a bipartisan effort to remake North Carolina’s government from the ground up.
Democrat Senator Marc Basnight’s speech, accepting his nomination to an eighth term as President Pro Tempore of the North Carolina Senate, shows he is aware of the litany of problems facing North Carolina’s citizens.
“The Democrats did not support any of the Senate Republican’s good government proposals to reform and open the operation of the Senate. Unfortunately, this failure indicates a continuation of past practices in which Democrat leaders dictate the operations of an extremely partisan Senate from behind closed doors. Senate Democrats still refuse to accept the lessons to be learned from the embarrassing tenure of Democrat Speaker of the House Jim Black; those lessons include a need for open debate and transparency in management of the state’s business.
“Senate Republicans are encouraged by the efforts of Governor Perdue and Lieutenant Governor Dalton to reach across the aisle. Senate Republicans will reach out to Governor Perdue and Lieutenant Governor Dalton to seek new, innovative, and bipartisan solutions to the problems facing our state. It is our hope that the Senate Democrats will heed Barack Obama’s call in his inaugural address to end, ‘…the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.’”
