By Staff
The midterm elections were about more than the war in Iraq and corruption.
They were also about repudiating the slash-and-burn style of politics practiced by a generation of media consultants in both parties.
Politicians were sent a message loud and clear: knock off the mudslinging and get serious about solving the nation's many problems.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, struck the right tone when he said, "It's not a time to get even with the Republicans; it's a time to treat them the way they didn't treat us."
Reid and his House counterpart, Nancy Pelosi, D-California, who will be the first female Speaker, announced that they decided to open House-Senate conference committees to the press. That may not sound like much, but it's a huge symbolic gesture.
The conferences are where important legislative action takes place. The conferences are where compromises are ironed out between House and Senate versions of legislation.
Lately, the conferences are where lobbyists slip their pork into funding bills absent public scrutiny or legislative accountability. Used to be, the conferences were public.
They've been closed for at least a decade, and during that time is when earmarks multiplied exponentially.
We hope this wee adjustment will help restore some semblance of bipartisan compromise to its necessary place in a functioning democracy.
"And I want to be clear, bipartisanship doesn't mean hugs and kisses," Reid continued. "It's not going to be touch football; it's going to be a free-for-all. We're going to come out of that chamber covered in mud and with plenty of bruises, but that's the only way to get anything accomplished."
Congress accomplishing something would be a good place to start.