After the Supreme Court intervened in the 2000 election there was some talk of the incoming Bush presidency being more bi-partisan, more inclusive of Democrats, given the horrible way the election was decided. I forget how the Bush people communicated this, but their response was basically forget it. We're going to govern as if we won in a landslide. 

If you were reading Scripting News at the time you would remember that I was a supporter of Mr. Bush. One of my many mistakes.  

Katrina vanden Heubel, writing in the Washington Post today, said something I've been thinking. The current president, supposedly a Democrat, should invoke the 14th Amendment, now. Instruct the Secretary of the Treasury to continue borrowing. He should probably give a speech, maybe something of a campaign rally, where he says the Republican Party isn't participating in government, they've lost their way, trying to harm the United States, and there comes a point where you say enough is enough. His first job as President is to protect the country from terrorism. He can cite any number of Republican presidents.  

The Republicans go home with nothing but their vote to kill Medicare on the record. Then, if I were his campaign manager, I'd send him to Nantucket for a vacation with the family, while the Republicans fume. I don't think there's any doubt that the American people would back the President. And there's really nothing the Republicans can do about it but complain. Powerlessly.  

We're getting the worst of both worlds with President Obama. Every day he acts more like a Republican, but he does so without their resolve. If there were a Republican in the White House and the Democrats in the House pulling a stunt like this, do you have any doubt that the President would invoke the 14th Amendment and then go on vacation? Of course he would! 

Frankly: We'd like a President who was a little less compromising.