I'm sure the media won't report on the conciliatory move by Senate Republicans to give President Obama an up or down vote on his Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel.
But it's worth highlighting the olive branch extended to the president by the GOP. After all, then-Senators Obama, Biden, Kerry and Reid failed to make the same gesture when President Bush's nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, had the majority of votes needed to be confirmed in 2005. Instead, Democrats forced a filibuster on a nominee that had roughly the same support as Hagel did.
It seemed awfully brazen and incredibly hypocritical for President Obama to decry a Senate move on Hagel that he used against Bolton. Nevertheless, in the same way he once derided Gitmo and enhanced interrogations, Obama is the 'Do-As-I-Say-Not-As-I-Do' president. President Obama's policies and positions consistently conflict with candidate Obama's. But the media hasn't noticed. While the duplicitous Democrats seemed to forget their schemes, the Republicans took the higher ground and allowed the president to have an up or down vote on his nominee.
I hope the next time the media complains about the Republicans being the party of "No" they remember that the GOP said, "No" to the Democrats' maneuverings, too.