Each year when Congress returns to Washington, and the president prepares to deliver his State of the Union message, it is an occasion for a new round of denunciations of partisan rancor. These denunciations are now frequently coupled with reminders that President Bush came to town promising to be a “uniter, not a divider.”
So, right on schedule in mid-January, the National Journal ran a cover story on what it described as the increasing partisanship in our political culture. On the same day the Senate voted to confirm Samuel Alito as Supreme Court justice, Bush delivered his State of the Union address. Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., could not resist exclaiming: “I must say that I wish the president was in a position to do more than claim a partisan victory tonight.”
