via Obama Reaches Out for McCain’s Counsel – NYTimes.com.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R) SC
Over the last three months, Mr. Obama has quietly consulted Mr. McCain about many of the new administration’s potential nominees to top national security jobs and about other issues — in one case relaying back a contender’s answers to questions Mr. McCain had suggested.
Mr. McCain, meanwhile, has told colleagues “that many of theseappointments he would have made himself,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and a close McCain friend.
Get off my lawn!
Mr. McCain, meanwhile, has been lying to bolster his image. He would not have appointed Hillary Clinton as Sec. of State. He would not have appointed Eric Holder as Attorney General. He would not have appointed Tom Daschle as head of Health and Human Services. How can anyone, at this point in the game, trust anything any of these neo-nut-jobs say? Why are the MSM even asking them questions? Republicanism is dead, dead, dead.
It is “trademark Obama,” Professor Greenstein said, noting that Mr. Obama’s impulse to win over even ideological opposites appeared to date at least to his friendships with conservatives on The Harvard Law Review when he was president.
For Mr. Obama, cooperation with his defeated opponent could also provide a useful ally in the Senate, where Mr. McCain has parlayed his national popularity and go-his-own-way reputation into a role as a pivotal dealmaker over the last eight years. But on the subject of Iraq, in particular, their collaboration could also raise questions among Mr. Obama’s liberal supporters, many of whom demonized Mr. McCain as a dangerous warmonger because of his staunch opposition to a pullout.
Keep your friends close, then make friends with your enemies. Keep them close, too. This is how you get things done in Washington. You can filibuster the opposition if you have the votes, but when it comes time to get your intrests served, there’s no cooperation a’la “you scratch my back”. The Republicans deserve to be reminded that elections matter and this is a diplomatic way of doing that. Barack wants a strong coalition and it looks like he has the savvy to build it.
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