No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

I try not to be surprised by anything I read these days, but I have to admit being a little stunned by this incredibly bad article in the Washington Post on Saturday by Charles Babington.

I've generally thought Babington is pretty good, but this article takes the cake. It's about Harry Reid's plan to hold a closed session of all 100 Senators prior to the opening of the new Congress. As is pretty clear, the move is an attempt by Reid to try to show some bipartisanship and cool the partisan environment that has plagued the Senate over the past several years. Essentially, here's a chance for all of the Senators to get together and reach out to each other, rather than divide up by parties.

So you'd think, in an era, where bipartisan gestures are praised by the mainstream media, this effort by Reid would be viewed as a positive step to change the poisonous partisanship environment, right? After all, this is what David Broder writes about every other week and Tim Russert praises every Sunday.

Nope. Babington quotes some "open government" advocate who essentially says this is another attempt to close government to the people and anytime you lose transparency, it's a bad thing. Then Babington goes on to note that Democrats promised more transparency during the fall campaign, implying that this action by Reid is inconsistent with that position. There's no quote from any outside groups about the importance of cooling the partisan bickering. Babington's take seems to equate Reid's magnanimous gesture with the prior Republican Congress having lobbyists write legislation in secret.

Wow. Sometimes you just can't win. The mainstream media acts they crave more bipartisanship, because they go crazy everytime McCain offers a kleenex to a Democrat, but when a Democrat tries offer an olive branch to help repair the partisan divide in Washington, he gets accused of being a hypocrite and adding to the problem in Washington. Glad there's a liberal media.
- posted by Joshua @ 8:36 PM