Divided Government Redux? Sen. Mitch McConnell's plan to turn Obama into Bill Clinton

[babylonsister]

http://www.slate.com/id/2262937/

Divided Government Redux?
Sen. Mitch McConnell's plan to turn Obama into Bill Clinton.
By John Dickerson


Who would have guessed that the Republican leader of the Senate would be calling for the return of Bill Clinton? That's what Mitch McConnell of Kentucky did Thursday when talking about the political evolution he expects from Barack Obama. The midterm election is likely to shrink (and perhaps erase) the Democratic majorities in Congress. McConnell, who voted guilty on both of Clinton's impeachment charges, held him up as a model for the way a president can come back after his party loses a congressional election. Clinton's declaration after the 1994 GOP victory that "the era of big government is over," said McConnell, "showed an incredible amount of flexibility."

A chastened president who works with an emboldened opposition: That's just one of the post-election fantasies being shopped to voters. McConnell was pushing that narrative in response to another one in which he's an unblinking fanatic. For months, Democrats have been trying to argue that the GOP is indistinguishable from the Tea Party. In a recent ad, McConnell is included in a collage with Rand Paul, the Tea Party favorite who hopes to become the other Kentucky senator.

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McConnell won't jump on the red-meat issues, because he wants voters to look to the GOP congressional leaders and see them focused on the issue they care about the most—the economy—and he knows that the GOP base, which might be excited by hot rhetoric on these sideline issues, is already energized enough in this election.

Finally, McConnell was also disciplined enough to stay vague about what the GOP will actually do if it gets more power. Why get specific now and give Democrats items they can attack? Republicans would like to make this election a referendum on the current president. I asked McConnell how the policies the Republicans are putting forward now would be different than George Bush's policies. Democrats say they'll be identical. "The Bush administration ended two years ago. We're moving forward, not reliving the past," he said before promising that the GOP would be offering an agenda in late September. The hope is that unveiling an agenda that late will show that the GOP has ideas but won't expose them to too much scrutiny. If Barack Obama is going to meet Republicans halfway after the election he's going to have to wait almost that long to find out where he's supposed to go.