–MNI hosts D.C. forum on Statesmanship in American Politics

By Drew Peirson

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Statesmanship is taking a back seat to
partisanship in America’s current political climate, said panelists at
the Monday MNI forum “Can a Statesman Still Survive — and Flourish —
in American Politics?”

“(Political) cannibalism has become the norm,” said Bill Frenzel,
Brookings Institution scholar and former Republican congressman from
Minnesota.

Frenzel spoke and then participated on a panel with author Ira
Shapiro and MNI congressional correspondent John Shaw, author of the
newly published profile of the Indiana senator who faces a steep
re-election challenge Tuesday, “Richard G. Lugar: Statesman of the
Senate.” Together. Shapiro wrote, “The Last Great Senate: Courage
and Statesmanship in Times of Crisis.”

Lugar is the perfect example of the perils of new American
politics, Shaw and his fellow panelists said. The six-term senator,
first elected in 1976, is being attacked by his primary challenger
Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock for, among other things, being
too cozy with his colleagues across the aisle.

“If he (Lugar) loses, it’ll send a warning shot to the others (in
Congress) of the dangers of the consequences of working with the other
party,” Shaw said.

Among Lugar’s successes are the negotiations surrounding the 2010
New START Treaty limiting nuclear proliferation, as well as the
Nunn-Lugar bill of 1992, also aimed at limiting the spread of weapons of
mass destruction, Shaw said.

Unfortunately for Lugar, they suggested, foreign policy expertise
is in less demand these days as party leaders focus on more divisive
domestic issues. His calm demeanor and past accomplishments working with
Democrats have actually become liabilities in an era where each party
seems to be catering more to its extremes.

Shaw said he could see the tensions within the Lugar campaign in
his fight to win the Indiana primary, between Lugar and staffers who
wanted the senator to more strongly emphasize his right-wing
credentials.

Shapiro said there was a clear evolution of partisanship in the
Senate chambers, beginning with a wave of legislators who had come
together in a spirit of cooperation following World War II, like in the
rest of the country. But in the early 1980s, when many of those same
legislators were swept out by a new wave of Republicans eager to make
their mark, the rise in extreme partisanship began, Shapiro said.

Though much of the blame for the current situation in American
politics is the candidates’ own creation, speakers said, the 24-hour
news cycle fed by social media and partisan bloggers add fuel to the
fire of acrimony. Shaw acknowledged the press typically liked to focus
on stories of division.

But though the mood is currently glum for cross-aisle cooperators,
panelists said there were still developments that gave them hope.

“It’s not whether the cycle (of partisanship) will end, but when,”
Frenzel said.

Frenzel added that he thought there would gradually be a return to
the cooperation of past sessions of Congress. Like other panelists,
Frenzel cited the Senate’s Gang of Six led by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va.,
and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., as a sign that bipartisanship could still
survive even in today’s political climate.

Shapiro urged a congressional committee to be created to make
reforms to the Senate rules governing unlimited debate and unanimous
consent, “and I don’t mean just tinkering around the edges.” Shapiro
said the Senate, like the rest of Congress, needed to be able to debate
without coming to paralysis when there is disagreement.

Frenzel said it is also important to remember acrimony had always
existed and that the list of universally appealing national officials
is short in recent American history — roughly limited to Dwight
Eisenhower and Colin Powell, he said.

Frenzel also noted that hyper-partisanship, for the time being,
seems to work, noting the great many new legislators who have come to
Congress on the success of their ability to polarize voters.

So, while there is some hope for the long term, Frenzel said for
the moment it appears partisanship is still on the rise, and that it
is a worrying trend.

“Interparty warfare inhibits statesmanship; (intraparty) warfare is
much more likely to kill it,” Frenzel said. .

— Drew Pierson is a Need to Know News Reporter in Washington

** MNI Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

[TOPICS: M$U$$$,MFU$$$,MCU$$$,MGU$$$]