Collins and Manchin hear McCain’s call to service

When Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) returned to the Senate floor last July after his cancer was diagnosed, his colleagues greeted him with a rousing and heartfelt round of applause. The senior senator from Arizona epitomizes the best of American leadership. Independently minded. Fiercely patriotic. Unrelentingly focused on bridging the divides that separate members of both political parties from each other and citizens from their representatives in Washington. He is, in many respects, exactly what the Founders had in mind when envisioning the profile of future senators.

That evening, John was worried—and rightly so. The health care reform package the Senate was considering at the time—like the bill that had carried the Affordable Care Act to President Obama’s desk—had not been crafted in the spirit of bipartisan cooperation, but instead pushed forward by a single party. And so, when he rose to speak, he gave voice to his fear that the Senate had abandoned the institutional norms that had long made it the beating heart of American democracy.

{mosads}“The most revered members of this institution accepted the necessity of compromise in order to make incremental progress on solving America’s problems and to defend her from her adversaries,” John argued as his colleagues listened. “That principled mindset, and the service of our predecessors who possessed it, come to mind when I hear the Senate referred to as the world’s greatest deliberative body. I’m not sure we can claim that distinction with a straight face today.”

In the months that followed, some wondered whether John’s colleagues had really heard his speech and taken his message to heart. But this week, as a group of senators led by Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) negotiated an end to the shutdown, it became clear that bipartisanship isn’t dead in Washington. Things may finally be turning around. John’s words are finally being acted upon. In No Labels, we are proud that Susan Collins and Joe Manchin are our honorary co-chairs.

We should be clear, the members of the Senate who met in Sen. Collins’ office—called “Switzerland” by some of her colleagues to denote that it was a safe, neutral space for bipartisan negotiations—did not see eye-to-eye on all of the issues that spurred the shutdown in the first place. Indeed, the compromise they worked through collaboratively was not what any individual member of the Senate would have written if given a free hand.

But the negotiated agreement produced what the Senate is designed to do: steer Washington in the direction of the country’s broader interest, rather than the parochial concerns of any given faction.

It’s important that we take note of Sens. Collins, Manchin and the group who crafted the legislation that ended the shutdown. They are breathing new life into a political tradition that was once standard practice in national politics. And they’re doing so despite the political headwinds that lead so many representatives in Washington to lash themselves to the masts of their respective parties.

Although independent thinking, bipartisan collaboration, and agreements that put the country’s interests before those of partisan ideologues are popular throughout the country, they’re too often seen as poison inside the Washington Beltway. The safe play is always to stick with your base, attack the other side, and turn your head when someone reaches out to you from across the aisle. But Collins, Manchin and their colleagues crafted a bipartisan agreement anyway. That is the definition of political courage.

Our country can’t afford for this latest success to be a rarity. Already, leaders on the political margins are making stubborn demands that could disrupt efforts to craft a negotiated solution on immigration and border security. That’s why Congress should always operate as it did during the long hours that senators batted ideas around in Sen. Collins’ office. That should be the approach legislators take to every big problem, whether it’s infrastructure, health care, or nearly anything else. But rather than wait until the 11th hour, Washington needs to make these kinds of conversations part of the everyday routine, especially as it faces a Feb. 8 deadline to pass a long-term spending plan.

Fortunately, the approach Sens. Collins, Manchin and their colleagues employed earlier this week is being mirrored in the House as well. The House Problem Solvers Caucus, co-chaired by Reps. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) is working to find bipartisan solutions to a range of problems. If the Senate and House both embrace Sen. McCain’s call for bipartisanship, Washington can steer itself away from perpetual gridlock to problem solving. Congress then would be able to return to the tradition of governing rationally and productively, just as our Founders hoped it would.

Joe Lieberman, a former U.S. senator from Connecticut, is national co-chairman of No Labels, a political organization composed of Republicans, Democrats, and independents, whose mission is to combat partisan dysfunction in politics.