So complicated

David Broder, wrong again.

"The Dean," Mr. Class Act, opens his latest tom-foolery with an insult of Al Franken ("the loud-mouthed former comedian"). Then he gets really stupid. For Broder, the tune is always the same.

Scholars will also make the point that when such complex legislation is being shaped, the substance is likely to be improved when both sides of the aisle contribute ideas. And they will argue that public acceptance of the mandated changes in such programs will be greater if the law comes with the imprimatur of both parties.

Which scholars, David? Because in both of your examples - the stimulus package and the climate change bill - the substance of complex legislation was clearly undermined and weakened by the need for (or perceived give-away for) bipartisanship.

As for public acceptance, that comes from success, not from process.

But substance isn't actually relevant to David Broder.

Matt Yglesias, quoting Scott Lemieux, nails it right on the head:

Scott Lemieux, meanwhile, reminds us of Broder’s classic attack on Al Gore for being too interested in public policy:

I have to confess, my attention wandered as he went on through page after page of other swell ideas, and somewhere between hate crimes legislation and a crime victim’s constitutional amendment, I almost nodded off.

My guess is that that’s the nub of the matter. It’s somewhat difficult to try to understand policy proposals on the merits. It’s easy, by contrast, to just look at who’s supporting legislation. You can just say, “good bills are bipartisan bills, partisan bills are bad” and then look at whether or not a proposal has bipartisan support. It’s simple if you’re the kind of person inclined to nodd off if forced to listen to a discussion of policy. Personally, I’m not sure why so many people who find policy so dull are in the field of political journalism. I find it perfectly understandable that it’s not something everyone’s interested in, but it seems to me that people who aren’t interested in policy debates should be in some other line of work rather than writing columns for David Broder.