Senate deals bipartisanship early setback

Bipartisanship. It's a word that has been thrown around a lot at the state and federal levels in recent months. Federal lawmakers, increasingly aware of the negative effects of Capitol Hill partisanship on voters, seemed to be in love with the word during last fall's campaign season.

It gained an even higher profile after the election, when the balance of power tipped, and the old majority party suddenly found itself on the outside looking in. In the weeks between that election and the gaveling in of the new Congress earlier this month, barely a

sentence could be heard from a lawmaker about the agenda for the new Congress that didn't mention bipartisanship.

Such hope springs eternal, it seems, after every election. Yet how quickly that hope that gets gut-punched.

On Wednesday, partisan lines appeared to be drawn in the sand of the U.S. Senate. With the first bill of the young session ready for a roll call vote, senators failed to pass major ethics legislation that would have addressed some long-festering deficiencies in the

system.

There appeared to be widespread bipartisan support for the measure, which seeks to reduce the influence of lobbyists and force lawmakers to be more open about pet projects, known as &#8220earmarks,” they slip into legislation. But when it came time to actually act instead of just talk, minority senators tossed a monkey wrench into the mix.

Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., attempted to attach a proposal to the bill giving the president, with the approval of Congress, line-item veto authority over the budget. It's a notion his caucus has favored, but was unable to get the majority to act on promptly. So rather than hash it out after the ethics debate, Republicans filibustered a vote on the ethics bill.

The relative merit of the line-item veto proposal aside, it had no place being discussed along with the original legislation.

The result? Senators, for the most part, moved to their respective partisan corners.

An eventual 51-46 vote in favor of ending the filibuster was far short of the two-thirds vote needed to end debate on the matter and vote on the original proposal. Alaskans should take note that both of their senators - Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski - joined their Republican colleagues in, essentially, deeming the ethics bill not worthy of a floor vote.

On Thursday, efforts began anew to get beyond the impasse. It remains to be seen if a compromise is possible. But this early setback to bipartisanship - and the public good - does not bode well for politics-weary voters.