Panic!

Michael Hirsh sounds the alarm:

Obama’s desire to begin a "post-partisan" era may have backfired. In his eagerness to accommodate Republicans and listen to their ideas over the past week, he has allowed the GOP to turn the haggling over the stimulus package into a decidedly stale, Republican-style debate over pork, waste and overspending.

Theda Skocpol says the same:

[Obama] spent the last two weeks empowering Republicans — including negotiating with them to get more into Senate and his administration and giving them virtual veto-power over his agenda

I hope I’m not being blithe but I don’t see it this way. Obama still has majorities in both Houses. The GOP surely won’t filibuster the bill in the Senate. What matters is the end-result, for which the president will ultimately be accountable. He should retain his focus on the substance, and keep bringing in as many Republicans as he can. He shouldn’t support a bill he doesn’t believe will work. But neither should he reprise the partisanship of the last twenty years. 

That’s the strategy. The GOP only knows tactics.