The Wall Street Journal published a very special guest editorial today by one of its favorite public figures, the President of the United States. In the editorial, Bush takes a stab at bipartisanship, but the knife must have accidentally slipped, because it ends up going for the throat.

He starts off dispassionately stating a fact that must still cause acute gnashing of the teeth:

“Tomorrow, members of the 110th Congress will take their oaths of office here in Washington. I will have the privilege of working with them for the next two years…”
That “privilege” has been available for the last six years. You just chose to ignore, and even disparage it.

“I believe government closest to the people is more responsive and accountable.”
You have certainly proven that by presiding over a distant White House that has been the least responsive and wholly unaccountable.

Much of the interior of this editorial is devoted to a rehashing of the President’s long-time agenda of fighting terrorism, cutting taxes, privatizing Social Security, and the rest of the Republican nonsense that he has been harping on since being put in office by the Supreme Court. There is not a whit of compromise or concession that might reflect an honest desire to work with Democrats. In fact, he takes the opposite view and issues this warning:

“The majority party in Congress gets to pass the bills it wants. The minority party, especially where the margins are close, has a strong say in the form bills take. …If the Congress chooses to pass bills that are simply political statements, they will have chosen stalemate.”

What he doesn’t say is that any bill that is contrary to his designs on power will be considered a “political statement.” And no one should find it curious that he is now championing minority rights in Congress when for the six years that the Democrats were in the minority, there was ne’er a word of support for the concept.

I hope that the Democrats are smart enough to recognize this for what it is: a thinly veiled attempt at deception coming right out of the Trojan horse’s mouth. The President has no intention of bipartisanship and the priorities enumerated in the article prove that. The American people voted overwhelming for change, and the Democratic beneficiaries of that must realize their duty to set their own agenda and fight for the changes that the people demand.

As for the press, they still haven’t learned. Despite the decidedly combatative tone and content, here’s a sampling of how the media is presenting this news:

• Associated Press: President Reaches Out in Rare Editorial.
• Reuters: Bush seeks positive tone for new U.S. Congress.
• Fox: Bush Urges Cooperation Between Democrats, New Priorities.
• ABC: Bush Seeks Cooperation From New Congress.

You have to leave the country before you start to get near the truth.

• Agence France-Presse: Bush warns Democratic Congress against ‘stalemate’.

Sigh…..