Washington Negotiates With Terrorists-Why Can\'t Obama Talk to the GOP?

As the shutdown drags on, the most popular meme among Democrats is to portray the House Republicans as political terrorists with whom one cannot bargain as a matter of principle. The Republicans, the president said, were demanding "Ransom just for doing their jobs" and "Don't get to hold the entire government hostage." As White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer put it on CNN, Obama is not going to negotiate "With people with a bomb strapped to their chest." So between now and then, the administration needs to quietly reach out to wavering House Republicans, just as it often covertly does with actual terrorists. As my colleagues Ron Brownstein and Charlie Cook write, many House districts are far more safely "Red" or "Republican" than in the past.

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