Washington – Lawmakers stood side by side on the steps of the Capitol and belted out an impromptu rendition of “God Bless America” after the terrorist attacks five years ago.
Democrats and Republicans pulled together, as did the country. “We had an astonishing moment of unity,” former President Clinton said Monday.
But now, the two political parties couldn’t be farther apart.
On the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks, Democrats and Republicans struggled for the upper hand on what has become the main issue of the midterm campaigns – the war in Iraq and its relationship with the broader battle against terrorism.
Both sides insist they aren’t politicizing the anniversary. And numerous commemorative events were held at which political harmony was emphasized. Lawmakers even held a scripted encore singing and speaking session on the Capitol steps.
But then things got back to business as usual.
With control of the House and Senate hanging in the balance, the political rhetoric from the two parties is often 180 degrees apart.
Republicans assert that President Bush’s leadership has made the nation safer from terrorist attack.
“America did not ask for this war, and every American wishes it were over,” Bush said Monday night during a prime-time Oval Office address.
“But the war is not over – and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious.”
Democrats argue America is less safe. They accuse Republicans of failed policies that have cost thousands of U.S. lives, and they depict Iraq as a diversion from the war on terror – not the main front Bush claims.
“It’s a problem of lack of will, of lack of technology and, particularly, lack of focus,” Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the head of the Senate Democrats’ campaign efforts, said Monday.
Partisanship has rarely been more in-your-face. Old saws like “politics stops at the water’s edge” have been discarded.
Yet overpoliticizing the 9/11 attacks and the war on terror “is a danger both parties face,” said Tom Rath, a Republican National Committee member from New Hampshire.
Rath said that many people in his largely conservative state accept Bush’s argument that the war in Iraq and the war on terror are linked, but don’t like to see too much partisanship injected.
The fifth anniversary itself helped “sober people up for a day,” Rath said. “Despite how either side might want to spin it, the fact is that people remember where they were, what they were doing, how they felt. And I think that’s going to make it harder to use it in a partisan sense for either side.”
What happened to that spirit of bipartisanship?
“What happened to the spirit is life returned to normal in many ways, and people ended up having political disputes,” suggested White House spokesman Tony Snow. “It’s human nature.”
And no matter who wins in November, congressional margins seem likely to be thin. That could make it even harder to reach bipartisan accord on anything.
