Some US lawmakers try to bridge partisan split
By KEN THOMAS, Associated Press
Jan 14, 2013 7:17 AM CST
FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, pauses while announcing he is ending his campaign in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Huntsman is joining about a dozen members of Congress on Monday to band together under the "No Labels" alliance...   (Associated Press)

With sharp divisions in Washington entering President Barack Obama's second term, lawmakers from both parties are seeking the political middle as voters increasingly view government as bitter and paralyzed.

About a dozen members of Congress were meeting on Monday in New York under the "No Labels" alliance that aims to put governing over political orthodoxy, with hopes of attracting new members from the incoming Congress, from both major political parties.

No Labels, which formed in 2010, is promoting a series of reforms in Congress to attempt to break the partisan divide that left the outgoing Congress the least effective one since World War II. For the new Congress, major debates are coming over fiscal issues, gun control and immigration.

Washington has become a place where any politician faces "guilt by conversation," in which merely raising the need to address fundamental problems can imperil their political career, said Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat representing conservative West Virginia. Manchin was the first from Congress to speak out on reconsidering his gun control views after last month's Connecticut school shooting.

For former ambassador to China and Utah governor Jon Huntsman, whose Republican presidential campaign fizzled early, Washington's dysfunction has seeped into the corporate boardroom and onto the factory floor, hampering the economy and preventing hiring and investing.

"We have the politics of right, left and center in America. But we've forgotten the most important one of all and that's the politics of problem solving," Huntsman said.

Mark McKinnon, a No Labels co-founder and former adviser to President George W. Bush, said the organization is no longer simply seeking out moderates in their respective parties but looking for lawmakers of all political stripes. Instead of pushing long-term reforms like redistricting and campaign finance, he said No Labels is pushing for changes to the process that could put the "grease back in the engine" of governing.

Among the proposed reforms: Requiring Congress to work five days a week instead of the typical late Monday-Thursday schedule; withholding congressional pay if lawmakers fail to pass a budget; and forcing an up-or-down vote on presidential appointments within 90 days of a nomination.

Manchin, who was elected to the Senate in 2010, said the group could be a catalyst for lawmakers of differing ideologies to talk, something he said rarely happens.

Manchin said in an interview on MSNBC on Monday that he has found Congress to be "so divisive" that it has discouraged him.

Huntsman said, "When the dysfunction of Congress becomes the dysfunction of the nation, that's when we know we've got a problem."

Huntsman said a "coalition of problem-solvers" could be the first step in brokering compromise on some of the most pressing policy items this year, such as reforms to the tax code, deficit reduction and immigration.

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Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed.

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