obama's bipartisanship: a complete waste of time

Via Ian Welsh at FDL:

Well, it passed [244-188]. After taking out family planning money and ditching bankruptcy reform, plus including significant tax cuts, not a single Republican voted for it. It's like Democrats are negotiating with themselves. They give things up and get no votes in exchange.

Obama talked a lot of game about hope and change and bipartisanship. But you can't negotiate with someone who doesn't do so in good faith. In the Senate the Republicans will not be able to stay so disciplined, but the point stands. Obama is popular. The stimulus bill is popular. The republicans are as unpopular as Bush, who is about as popular as stepping in dogshit. The Democrats are in the majority. So why is Obama making concessions to "win Republican support"?

Does he just want to be part of the club that badly? I'd prefer it if he stayed lonely instead, and just got shit done without watering down badly needed infrastructure spending with ineffectual tax cuts.

Update: Rachel Maddow says it better than I could: