From the "Eyes on the prize" file.

Joe Sudbay…

It's mind-boggling that Democratic Senators still worry about bi-partisanship. They act like bi-partisanship is the ultimate goal. That's so wrong. It may come in handy sometimes as a tactic, but, the goal is good legislation.

Sometimes it may be better to do nothing than the wrong thing. Best always, of course, is to do the right thing. Remember that the seeds of failure were written into some Great Society programs through compromise. AFDC was critically flawed in its execution, for instance, to satisfy conservative (including conservative Democratic) demands that welfare not be used to support "able-bodied men." This forced the dispruption, at best, or destruction of the poor families who applied for aid. Having the "man of the house" ducking out the back door when the welfare worker knocked on the front became fodder for sketch comedy, but the real destruction to families (which were disproportionately black, since black families were disproportionately poor) by the attempt to carve out a program acceptable to conservatives continues to haunt our society.

Better, perhaps, as I said, to have done nothing until the right thing could be done, and the right thing is never compromise with the right wing.