Clip: Compromising Before Legislative Negotiations Begin Open Left:: Compromising Before Legislative Negotiations Begin

Clip: Compromising Before Legislative Negotiations Begin:

This pre-legislative negotiation “compromise” is a real habit for Democrats.  We have seen it on immigration reform, Iraq, FISA, the minimum wage, health care, and a whole host of other issues.  Democrats present compromised legislation, and then after actual legislative negotiations occur, those compromises are watered down even further.  By the end of the process, the proposed legislation typically ends up weighted far more toward the conservative end of the spectrum on the issue than the progressive side.  While I don't doubt that Clinton, Edwards and Obama would all like to see their proposed legislation enacted as it is proposed, it strikes me that in order to achieve their proposed legislation, they should start out by asking for even more than they want.