Bipartisanship a forgotten phrase in Washington

IT always happens when the sitting president's party loses seats in Congress after a bruising mid-term election campaign. Politicians on both sides of the aisle propose that the White House occupant and the lawmakers on Capitol Hill leave all the political acrimony behind them and proclaim that the American people want them to work together in the spirit of bipartisanship in order to advance common national goals.

In a way, that kind of scenario did evolve in Washington from time to time, for a simple reason: Notwithstanding their party affiliation, lawmakers have recognised that in order to deliver the goods…