Compromise -- as long as the direction is left

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/bal-md.marbella30aug30,0,6220459.story

We're likely to hear, in the coming weeks and months after Kennedy's death, about the virtue of compromise, a longing for the days when senators could battle like soldiers, yet reach an agreement, go have a few drinks and harrass waitresses. Well, maybe we won't hear about the waitresses, and if we do it will be as "female waitpersons".

I'm sure a certain many in the political class miss the days when the public wasn't so involved in politics, the divide wasn't so deep, and things could get done behind closed doors or at corner tables of the favorite DC bars, but times are different and the public is involved.

Plus, the compromises have led us left. I haven't heard of any famous Kennedy compromises which went in the direction of limiting the power of the state -- perhaps there were some, but I'm not familiar with them. All the compromises I'm familiar with merely kept the progressives from getting everything they wanted, or it was a joining of a Republican effort to increase the power of the state -- but the progressives have been satisfied with incrementalism, until now.

Now, they want major changes, a bunch of them, and the public has become involved in resisting these changes, and aren't willing to give them 85% of what they want -- so this is called fanaticism, ideological stubbornness.

Let's see how willing the Democrat's are to compomise by asking for tort reform, the ability to sell insurance across state lines, and tax breaks for individuals who purchase their own policies -- let's wrap this in to certain elements of the Democrat plans -- with perhaps a relaxation of licensing laws so that doctors aren't favored by regulations. Let's have a vodka and tonic and work this out, and this time leave the female waitpersons alone.