The Leader Board

A Growing Chorus Says Dems Are 'Becoming So Combative And Rigid That Good Faith Negotiations Become Almost Impossible'

 

Dems 'Rigid' & 'Over-Playing Their Hands,' 'Obama Flirts With Failure,' 'Short-Sighted'

DAVID GERGEN: "Why has a grand bargain become so much harder than it should be? …frankly, it is the president and the Democrats who are over-playing their hands now. Instead of turning the GOP willingness to deal on taxes into a win-win, the White House seemingly wants to humiliate them…" (David Gergen, "Will President Obama Push Us Over The Cliff?" CNN, 11/30/12)

  • "What we are seeing, I regret to say, looks very much like a movie we have seen before: The side that wins an election thinks the public has given them permission to steamroll the other side… We saw that back in the early '90s, when first the Clinton White House overreached, going too far left, and then after winning the midterms, the Gingrich Republicans overreached to the right." (David Gergen, "Will President Obama Push Us Over The Cliff?" CNN, 11/30/12)

ROBERT SAMUELSON: "Now it is time for President Obama and congressional Democrats to do the same. As long as they don't, they aren't bargaining in good faith, or in the national interest." (Robert Samuelson, "Who's Not Bargaining In Good Faith?" The Washington Post, 12/3/12)

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (ID-CT): "They were frustrated so somebody's got to come in, probably the president and sit everybody down at the same table and start working off the same sheets of paper soon." ("Sen. Lieberman Calls For Obama To Be More Involved In Deficit Negotiations," The Hill, 12/2/12)

 

###
SENATE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS CENTER