Botero's Looking at You, Bush

An interesting perspective on the incoming class of Senators and Congressmen in today’s New York Times, Bush. Unlike the “Contract with America” bunch that took Washington by storm in 1994, these “New Direction” Democrats seem interested in crafting policies that are palatable on both sides of the aisle.

Yes, this is only rhetoric at the moment, and you may be right to be suspicious, Bush. After all, Democrats are Democrats for a reason, and these Freshmen may have all kinds of tricks up their sleeves. Each emerged from a bitter campaign and probably are wont to shore up the Democratic majority (by any means necessary?) in order to ensure their own job security. Certainly, each sees him/herself as the next Robert Byrd or Ted Kennedy, standing righteously at their antique Congressional desk, hurling gracefully-worded epithets at rogue conservatives for decades to come.

But fear not, Bush, because the Tom Delay-style partisanship intended to result in a “permanent majority” was just roundly rejected by voters. Democrats are in a good position to learn this lesson and reach across the aisle toward solutions to the many, many pressing issues that have collectively forged America’s current image in the world, nicely encapsulated by Colombian painter, Fernando Botero.

Two or four years from now, what will Botero see when he peers into our borders? What will Hugo Chavez see? The British public? Muslim-Americans? The every day citizens of Iraq or Afghanistan? I know you well enough by now, Bush, to know that your grasp on power and your convictions about public policy have become inseparable – a very strange brew that has warped your ability to function as a statesman in times of crisis. Now it’s up to the Democratic rank-and-file to decide whether or not to force your hand toward compromise, for the good of the world.