Bipartisanship and the quixotic quest for an olive branch

At the end of January, the lost remains of Miguel de Cervantes, best known to many as the author of Don Quixote, were found.

In that great novel, Quixote is the self-imagined knight who sets out to restore chivalry to a modern world. The novel inspired the phrases “tilting at windmills” and “quixotic” for the knight’s seemingly impossible quests to make things better.

{mosads}So in a bow to Cervantes, here is a charge at a windmill in the form of returning bipartisanship to Capitol Hill. Two seemingly disparate phrases will serve as the steed and lance in the gallop towards this quest: “Peter Franchot” and “infrastructure.”

Yes, they are connected and yes, they are guides to creating a limited yet effective renewal of at least a smidgen of bipartisanship.

Franchot is the long-serving comptroller of Maryland, a wily Democrat with a keen political instinct and a smart mind. How has he reacted to the surprise election of Republican Larry Hogan to the governorship of Maryland? By going shopping with Hogan — in a bipartisan effort to promote Maryland small business — and volunteering with the then-governor-elect and his family at a shelter, where they donated clothing and helped serve lunch to local residents.

Although he is a Republican and Franchot is a Democrat, Hogan told local newspapers, “The comptroller and I are going to work together to do everything we can to help small business.”

Franchot agreed. “We’re a great state,” he said in the same articles. “Time to put the swords down, let’s all be Marylanders together.”

Okay, he said “swords,” and not “lance.” But it still works. Because if Franchot can be bipartisan, anyone can.

My first brush with Franchot came when he was the point person for then-Democratic Rep. (and now Sen.) Edward Markey of Massachusetts, hardly a shrinking violet in the rough-and-tumble politics of Capitol Hill. Franchot left Markey’s staff, got elected to the statehouse in Maryland and then won his first of three terms as comptroller. Now he and Hogan, who is in his first public office, are finding where they agree and making sure everyone knows about it. For example, Hogan showed up at a Franchot news conference to show his support of the Democrat’s effort to move the start date of Maryland’s public schools to after Labor Day.

Are these crucial issues to the state of Maryland? Not likely. But the effort to cooperate on some items can lead to a better working relationship — even as opponents — on larger issues and sends a message of tone and compromise.

Perhaps they are offering each other an olive branch, to quote House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Thus, take note, Capitol Hill. A state — one of those laboratories of democracy — is indeed showing the way. And it is right next door to you.

One day before they found Cervantes’s remains, Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) appeared on the CBS News show “60 Minutes.” Among other things, they said President Obama should have used the State of the Union message to offer Republicans an olive branch since the result of November’s votes puts the GOP firmly in charge of Capitol Hill. Instead, the president teased Republicans when they applauded after he said he was not running any more, observing that he had won those two elections. The next morning, Boehner invited Israeli Prime Minister (and Obama foe) Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress. “We gave him a heads up,” Boehner said on “60 Minutes,” regarding Obama being told of the invite a few hours before it was proffered.

I know there are many kinds of olives, but did not realize there are equally a number of various olive branches.

So that leads to infrastructure.

My tryout for a job in Washington included writing a story off a congressional report about the alarming deterioration of the nation’s infrastructure. That was in 1979. I knew the topic somewhat firsthand, since I had driven on old bridges and crumbling roadways in western Pennsylvania. Thus, like many Americans, I grasped the imperative to fix the infrastructure then — and still do, 35 years later.

Fixing infrastructure is something both the GOP and president agree needs attention, Boehner said. That is a good start. A good infrastructure bill will become better with Democratic input and a bipartisan bill is not likely to be vetoed by the president. Let’s see that olive branch. Perhaps “A Road Map to Road Repairs” or “A Bridge to Better Bridges” or “It’s Not A Democratic or Republican Grid, It’s an American Grid.” Or maybe the “Hogan-Franchot Model to Move Forward.”

When Mitch McConnell ran his first Senate campaign against Democratic incumbent Dee Huddleston, he implored Kentucky voters to “Switch to Mitch” to see action on Capitol Hill. They listened and narrowly sent him to the Senate. Some may say they did again last November, making him Senate majority leader. So now GOP, it is your mount and your lance. As Don Quixote said at one point, “Thou hast seen nothing yet.”

Indeed.

Take a look to Maryland and see what is happening there and perhaps emulate a quixotic charge to bipartisanship. Let’s see if you can make Cervantes roll over in his newly discovered grave.

Squitieri is an award-winning reporter and communications veteran and an adjunct professor at Washington and Jefferson College.