Associated Press

You might as well get used to expensive gas. Lawmakers in Congress talk a lot about the issue, but the presidential campaign has the parties divided, stifling solutions.

By Lisa Mascaro

Sun, Jun 15, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Washington — Congress is so paralyzed with partisan warfare that even public fury over $4 a gallon gas has been unable to bring a truce — a situation unlikely to get any better because standoffs like this tend only to intensify in presidential election years.

Lawmakers from both parties spent much of last week bemoaning the high price of gas.

But they can’t, or won’t, do anything about it, because that would require them to get along with one another — and President Bush.

And that just seems impossible right now.

Election season has unleashed its political force on the Capitol in a particularly divisive way, in an era that is one of the most partisan in modern history.

With two senators running for the White House, the battle lines are drawn across the floors of Congress.

“What you’re seeing is the leadership of both parties in Congress trying to fit their agendas with the presidential candidates,” said Ross Baker, a Rutgers University professor who has written extensively on Congress. “This ratchets up the contentiousness.”

For example, consider last week’s votes for a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits.

Democrats have been pushing the issue for months, but a “perfect storm” catapulted it to the House floor, as one aide put it. Days after Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois delivered an economic policy speech, the monthly labor report showed the largest one-month spike in joblessness in 20 years.

Hardly any coordination between House Democrats and the Obama campaign was needed. They were essentially on the same page to raise jobless benefits.

Republicans have a tougher task. Although Republicans have had months to engineer talking points with Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the party remains deeply divided over its image.

Despite morning conference calls to coordinate messages between the McCain campaign and congressional Republican leadership staff, on this issue they had to agree to disagree.

McCain supports extending unemployment benefits, while House Republican leadership criticizes the extension as too generous. President Bush has promised a veto.

Sensing the gravity of economic issues back home, 49 House Republicans, including Nevada’s Republican Reps. Jon Porter and Dean Heller, broke rank with party leadership, joining a majority of Democrats, including Rep. Shelley Berkley, in voting for the more robust extension.

But there may not be enough Republican crossovers to override a Bush veto.

A Republican leadership aide downplayed the differences within their ranks, saying the nominee and members of Congress may not agree all the time, but “House Republicans and John McCain, on the issues that matter, I would say we are in lock step.”

Compromise is always hesitant in partisan Washington, but the presidential contest ensures neither side will give an inch.

And so gas continues to rise above $4 a gallon.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tried three times last week to start a debate on energy legislation. And three times, Republicans, including Sen. John Ensign, voted to stop the debate from proceeding.

Republicans say the energy bills are flawed — relying too much on the hope of renewable energy and not enough on drilling domestically for new supplies.

Republicans complain that Reid relies too heavily on parliamentary tactics to prevent amendments to controversial bills, something conservative columnist Robert Novak wrote last week that the masterful onetime Senate majority leader, Lyndon B. Johnson, didn’t resort to when he had a similarly slim one-vote majority.

But Baker, who spent the last academic semester trailing Reid for research, said the two eras can’t be compared.

Johnson, Baker reminds, faced Dwight Eisenhower in the White House — “a much more accommodating man” than President Bush.

“Eisenhower was willing to work with Johnson, and Johnson was willing to work with Eisenhower,” Baker said. “Bush has been much more combative.”

Gas prices are rousing voters like no other issue, leaving both parties on the defensive in explaining why nothing is getting done.

Even if the two parties can find common ground, as they did in passing enhanced educational benefits for post-9/11 veterans, they still face Bush, who may not want to seal the deal on a congressional victory.

“Even a weakened president,” Baker reminds, “has a veto.”