I think Atrios is missing the point here. Sen. Bradley is talking about how the political system has become dysfunctional, how it can't accomplish anything, because it encourages polarization. Bipartisanship and compromise, which have become dirty words in the lefty blogosphere and with its evil twin, the Bush Administration, aren't simply an expedient way to get what you want enacted into law; they are the only ways to create permanent, lasting solutions to whatever afflicts society without bloodshed.

As we are now seeing in Washington, the only lasting thing that an ideologically polarized government produces is massive discontent, a backlash that undoes whatever temporary partisan advantage that accrued (it also helps that the Bushies went about systematically remaking government in as incompetent a way as possible). If Atrios wants the Democrats to pursue the same rovian tactics after the 2008 election, then he will be fated to see his party become as discredited as the Republicans are today.