The Hill News

Thanks to the constant bickering between Congress and the White House, “he started it” â€" the classic phrase uttered by every 3-year-old child with an older sibling â€" is now common Washington parlance. As with children, it is almost never a legitimate gripe or excuse for poor behavior. Moms expect more, and so should we. The nastiness, the requisite cheap shot, the inability to have a civil discussion do not move the country forward.

The latest dustup â€" booking a date for President Obama’s important speech on job creation â€" underscores that there are a lot of small people holding big offices these days. Having worked behind the scenes in Congress for about a decade, I know scheduling snafus can happen. Many a time, the members will pass it off on sloppy staff work, allowing both sides to save face and move on. Sadly â€" and I do mean sadly â€" no such luck here. This perfunctory matter became a public battlefield upon which the Speaker had a Pyrrhi! c victory, if a victory at all. He got the date he wanted. But he trivialized the Office of the Speaker by not differentiating between fights worth winning or, more fundamentally, fights worth having.

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