The myth of Washington bipartisanship and the art of true compromise

[Commentary] The president, key lawmakers and even the press have begun to focus on the dysfunctionality of the political process that now threatens all incumbents, irrespective of party and ideology.

People have begun to talk to one another -- Obama with House Republicans, Jon Stewart with Bill O'Reilly -- and the tone has gotten noticeably more civil. In the 12-step program for overcoming our partisan addiction, we're now somewhere between Step 1 (acknowledging the problem) and Step 2 (accepting personal responsibility for doing something about it). One thing that is already obvious is that most people in Washington have forgotten what bipartisanship means in practice, if indeed they ever knew it.

The only way a democratic system like ours can work is if the majority party acknowledges that winning an election means winning the right to set the agenda and put the first proposal on the table, though not the right to get everything it wants. By the same logic, if members of the minority party want to influence that policy, they have to understand that it will require them to accept some things they don't like to get some things they do.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the loss of a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate does not doom health-care reform or financial regulatory reform, or even a new stimulus bill. It is not the filibuster, per se, that is likely to prevent passage of important legislation, so much as its use in combination with other parliamentary tactics to prevent the Senate from even taking up legislation.

And that's where Joe Biden comes in. The vice president needs to step up to his constitutional duty as presiding officer of the Senate and begin overturning those age-old parliamentary precedents that now allow partisan obstructionists to eviscerate all semblance of majority rule. Until that's done, Republicans will have no incentive to agree to any real compromises, Democrats will continue trying to pass legislation without them, and everyone will come out a loser.