In June I put up a post entitled "Integrity and Compromise" in which I talked about how the Beltway system defeats most politicians who enter into it, and how compromise has become a word that basically describes that defeat. At the end I wrote:
The point I want to make here is that when people think about bi-partisanship and compromise, they usually have in mind the ideal situation in which reasonable people with high integrity sit down and have a principled argument about a particular issue. In reality that hardly ever happens within the Beltway system because the people having the conversation are rarely people of high integrity or principle. They are hacks serving interests that have nothing to do with their high-minded rhetoric. Most of them are not worth listening to because their public statements are designed to obscure rather than to reveal their true motives. So I'm interested in identifying the people who are worth listening to no matter whether you agree with them or not. I'd be interested in a debate between Ron Paul and Russ Feingold, but not in one between Dick Cheney and Nancy Pelosi.
A couple of readers wrote in with some suggestions, and among the Republicans Charles Grassley and Richard Lugar were suggested. But I'm wondering if there's anybody among the Republicans like former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards, a conservative in the Ron Paul mode. I was impressed with him in his interview on Bill Moyers last week. The whole interview is worth watching--although I have to say I found Ross Douthat, who is also part of the interview kind of creepy--but for a shorter clip to get a sense of where Edwards is coming from, take a few moments to view this one. Skip, if you can, to the 1:10 minute mark:
Yesterday I wrote that I have two expectations from an Obama presidency, the restoration of the American idea and a shift of the framework of political discourse from hard right to center left. Republicans like Mickey Edwards would probably resist the second objective, but they are totally on board with the first, and their speaking out will be essential for achieving it. He illustrates the point I've been making repeatedly that there is no left or right when it comes to basic constitutional principles, and that there is no room for compromise on constitutional principle. But we have a Congress that comprises most Republicans and too many Democrats who have abandoned their constitutional responsibilities to check the power of the executive branch. How can we take anything they say or do seriously when they have so little respect for the American idea?
P.S. By way of Balloon Juice another conservative comes out for Obama.