Michael Gerson warns President Obama against using reconciliation to pass health care reform:

Fourth, a reconciliation strategy would both insult House and Senate Republicans and motivate them for future fights. The minority would not only be defeated on health reform but its rights would be permanently diminished — a development that would certainly be turned against Democrats when they lose their majority. Each side would have an excuse for decades of bitterness, creating a kind of political karma in which angry spirits are reincarnated again and again, to fight the same battles and suffer the same wounds.

Michael Gerson was chief speechwriter for President Bush from 2001 to 2006. During that period, the Republican-controlled Congress used reconciliation to pass four major Bush agenda items (list taken from ThinkProgress):

– The 2001 Bush Tax Cuts [HR 1836, 3/26/01]
– The 2003 Bush Tax Cuts [HR 2, 3/23/03]
– Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 [HR 4297, 5/11/06]
– The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 [H. Con Res. 95, 12/21/05]

Now, it is entirely possible that Gerson has been a principled opponent of reconciliation since his time in the Bush administration. But given that he has no prior record of opposition to reconciliation, and given that he has been an eager defender of his former boss, I think it’s fair to say that Gerson has absolutely no problem with reconciliation when it’s used by a Republican president and a Republican Congress. Which is fair! Partisanship isn’t a crime. But if Gerson is going to be blindly partisan, then the least he could do is cut the sanctimony and wear his disingenuous bullshit with pride.