Shelby Shakedown Shakeout Shows Squat

As Steve Benen notes, of the 5 Sunday shows, 3 ignored the Shelby Shakedown, Candy Crowley gave it a passing mention, but Jake Tapper at least pointed out there was a problem in the This Week roundtable.  But that's as far as it got with Dancing Jake, Al Hunt, George Will, and Peggy Noonan (emphasis mine):

TAPPER: So, Al, that speech came one day after the White House attacked Senator Shelby for the very thing John was just talking about. He had put blanket holds on all nominees because he was concerned, he says, about some national security issues. What's going on here?

HUNT: Well, first of all, Senator Shelby is totally fraudulent on this to begin with. He was concerned about pork for his home state of Alabama. This is as bad as the Nebraska carve-out. It's outrageous what he did. It's, I think, an abuse of senatorial prerogative.

But I also, Jake, think that it's nice to give speeches. We have to have a more civil dialogue in this town. We have to have more bipartisanship. For a whole lot of reasons, it's not going to happen. It might selectively be able to -- you might have a few areas. You'll have some jobs bills where Orrin Hatch and Chuck Schumer might agree.

But in a -- in a broader sense, this is -- these are divisive political times, and that's not going to change, at least until after the November election.

TAPPER: George, the administration and the president has said specifically that he was hoping for some bipartisanship support for some of the small-business tax cuts and credits he's pushing. There's an elimination of a capital gains tax for investments in small businesses, a tax credit for hiring, hoping for Republican support. I have yet to hear one Republican voice, one level of support for any of that.

If there's not bipartisan support for tax cuts, is there support -- is there possibility for any support for anything bipartisan? 

WILL: Well, I'll volunteer. I subscribe to Milton Friedman's view that any tax cut of any shape at any time for any reason is to be supported. So I think probably they'll get some support on this.

But he has a very aggressive agenda from which he has retreated not one bit. I think you'd agree with that.

And so when he extends his hand, he says, "I ask only one thing of Republicans, and that is that you quit being Republicans," and they respectfully decline.

If you have an aggressive agenda, you're going to have to push it aggressively in a partisan manner. 

NOONAN: I'd add, sometimes timing is everything. If the president had spoken like that or acted in a manner reflective of his comments last year, when he first became president, instead of presenting some bills that want to actually know Republican support, he might be in better shape now. It's very convenient for him to be saying, "We're all in this together," when his numbers are going down. 

TAPPER: You wrote recently rather approvingly of the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts. He has -- is that unfair?

NOONAN: Sure. No, no, good.

TAPPER: OK. OK. And -- and he came here talking a lot about wanting to work in a bipartisan fashion. One of the first things he did, as you saw in the interview with Geithner, we ran a clip of Brown, was say that the stimulus bill has not created one job. Now, you can criticize with the stimulus bill, but it is -- you can -- you can disagree with whether or not it's created 2 million jobs, but certainly it has created one job.

HUNT: Scott Brown's.

And everyone has a good laugh after that.

In other words, Shelby's hold isn't as big of a problem as Obama's aggressive agenda being all mean to Republicans who should be allowed to control Washington.  The Village sees Shelby's play a a bad one, but a necessary one to disabuse the President of the notion that 59 Senate votes constitutes a majority in any way.  You see, Shelby's crime was simply as being as bad as that arch-liberal Democrat, Ben Nelson. Shame on them both.  Net foul?  None.  And the Shelby Shakedown is swept under the rug.  Obama's hubris however is eternal for thinking he has a mandate.

This will be corrected after the November elections, Hunt points out.  Once again bipartisanship is code for "doing what the Republicans want because it's what we think is best for America."  And Shelby gets all but a free pass as a result.

Scott Brown, whose idea of bipartisanship is being from a blue state while opposing the entire Obama agenda, is held up as the shining example for Obama to follow.

What mandate?  41 is more than 59.