Minority leader urged to foster cooperation

Senate Democratic leaders have
penned a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urging him
to work with Democrats to alleviate the nation’s economic woes and accusing
Republicans of “political calculation.”

The letter, from Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Senate
Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate
Conference Secretary Patty Murray (D-Wash.), is the latest salvo in an
escalating war of words over each party’s calls for bipartisanship.

{mosads}”Both sides can agree that the
economic challenges facing our nation are the most severe in generations, but
we would be gravely concerned if you and your party decide you are unwilling to
work with President Obama to effectively address them,” the Democratic
leaders wrote. “While our caucus agrees with the president that we must
act quickly and boldly, many in your conference have chosen not to act at
all.”

Democrats pointed out that just
three Republicans — Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and
Susan Collins (R-Maine) — voted for the economic stimulus plan even after
Democrats included a number of Republican-offered amendments targeting housing,
transparency and tax cuts.

“We sincerely hope that congressional Republicans’ resistance to the economic recovery package is not a
preview of things to come. Turning this economy around will demand all hands on
deck,” the Democrats wrote to McConnell. “The mortgage crisis, the
financial crisis and the broader economic crisis are all interconnected, and we
cannot successfully address any one of them without bipartisan support.

“We ask you and your conference
to put prosperity ahead of political calculations, and join with President
Obama and congressional Democrats on the road to recovery,” the letter
concludes.

Republican opposition to the
economic stimulus plan was “politics, pure and simple,” said Rodell
Mollineau, a Reid spokesman.

The letter comes after both sides
have increasingly accused their opponents of bad faith when it comes to
bipartisanship. Republican leaders have accused Democrats of writing the
stimulus bill and other economy-centric legislation without GOP input, while
Democrats have pointed to several amendments they have let come to floor votes
and accused Republicans of opposing a bill on which they were allowed input.