Is Obama Redefining Bipartisanship? - The Plank

Do congressional Republicans today share Obama's goals, and simply disagree with Democrats on some details of implementation? With a very few exceptions, no, they don't. On climate change, the range of opinion among congressional Republicans and conservative interest groups ranges from outright denial of global warming, to rejection of climate change as the top energy priority (viz. Sarah Palin's recent op-ed refusing to acknowledge any issue other than "energy independence"), to rejection of any immediate action as impossible under current conditions. This refusal to cooperate is all the more remarkable since Democrats have themselves unilaterally compromised by embracing a market-oriented approach to regulating carbon emissions--the same approach once championed by the GOP's 2008 presidential nominee--called "cap-and-trade," which Republicans have now branded "cap-and-tax."