A Maybe From Senator No

Today's New York Times has an editorial on our own Mitch McConnell. Here's an excerpt:

...now Senator McConnell is pronouncing President-elect Barack Obama off to a good start with an opportunity “to tackle big issues and to do them in the middle.” We have heard it before. Yet the heartening twist from the minority leader, newly re-elected after a race he found too close for comfort, is that he is quoting from Mr. Obama to make his point, retrieving a bit of prophecy from 2004, when the Democrats despaired in the minority and Senator Obama observed: “Whoever’s in power is going to have to govern with some modesty and some desire to work with the other side of the aisle. That’s certainly the approach I would advise Democrats should we regain control.”

We are not quite convinced that a golden age of bipartisanship is upon the Capitol. But Mr. McConnell’s citation could help as leaders talk about putting the next Congress to work early so it can deliver an economic stimulus package in sync with the Jan. 20 inauguration.

The calendar part of the plan is easy; the hard part will be putting aside politics to really work together. If not, there is little chance that a recovery plan will gain traction. Mr. Obama’s usually sharp-elbowed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is handing out his private cellphone number to the other side of the aisle. “We’re not lip-synching bipartisanship,” Mr. Emanuel insists. The nation must hope Senator McConnell isn’t either.