WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Days after the enactment of a contentious health-care overhaul, Democrats and Republicans blamed each other for a breakdown in civility that is characterizing the growingly partisan debate in Washington.
"We're really cheapening and denigrating ourselves," Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D., Md.) said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. Mikulski blamed Republicans for part of the problem.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) defended the Republicans and noted that Democrats had held up his nomination as education secretary in the early 1990s. "The anger today is more visible," he said on the same program. "It used to be beneath the surface. It's on top now."
Sens. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," offered similar sentiments. Graham said personal attacks on President Barack Obama were sometimes out of line. "He is an American just like anybody else," Graham said. The focus should be on policy issues instead of name calling, he added.
Schumer criticized the "lies" peddled by opponents of the health-care overhaul, and said Democrats were looking forward to a substantive debate on the measure in the run-up to the November mid-term elections. "There are some people way off the deep end. But you don't condemn a whole group for the outliers," Schumer said.
Comity between the two parties could take another hit with the Obama administration's announcement on Saturday said it would use recess appointments to fill 15 administration posts, bypassing the Senate confirmation process. The appointments, which include union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board, had stalled due to opposition by business groups and Republicans.
White House adviser David Axelrod told CNN that the recess appointments were necessary because Republicans were engaged in an "exercise in obstructionism."
"We are in a position where the Republican Party has taken a position where they're going to try and slow and block progress on all fronts, whether it's legislation or appointments," Axelrod said.
Copyright 2009 Dow Jones Newswires
UPDATE: White House: Obama To Sign Health-Care Bill TuesdayWall Street bill sent to full Senate
