Obama meets with GOP to spur cooperation on variety of issues

February 10, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Appealing for bipartisanship in a town where it’s hard to find, President Barack Obama sat down with Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday to spur cooperation on job creation, deficit reduction and health-care overhaul. He promised to do his part — but warned he would take Republicans to task if they don’t do the same.

“The people who sent us here expect a seriousness of purpose that transcends petty politics,” Obama said after the meeting, as he made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room.

Obama’s appeal was his latest effort to reach out to Republicans after GOP Sen. Scott Brown’s surprise election last month to replace the late Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy in Massachusetts. Brown’s win deprived Democrats of the votes they need to keep the Republican minority in the Senate from blocking Obama’s legislative agenda, including his plan to overhaul the nation’s health-care system.

Obama started his remarks to reporters by engaging in a bit of wishful thinking: joking about Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and Republican leader Mitch McConnell “out doing snow angels together on the South Lawn” after the meeting.

But the friendly rhetoric quickly gave way to tougher talk.

“We can’t afford grandstanding at the expense of actually getting something done,” Obama said. “What I won’t consider is doing nothing.”

McConnell told reporters that “there are some areas of potential agreement” on a jobs package.

He cited Republicans’ and Obama’s shared interests in nuclear power, clean-coal technology, offshore drilling and the completion of languishing trade deals. He cautioned, though, that most of the members of his Republican caucus hadn’t yet seen the Democrats’ planned jobs legislation.

Obama, too, ticked off several areas where he said cooperation should be easy. But, like McConnell, most of the ideas on which he called for bipartisanship were ones he favors. In Obama’s case, that means job creation (money for infrastructure repairs, small- business tax cuts and lending, and tax breaks for energy-efficiency improvements), health care (extending coverage and making it more affordable) or deficit cutting (a bipartisan commission).

“I won’t hesitate to embrace a good idea from my friends in the minority party, but I also won’t hesitate to condemn ... what I consider to be obstinacy,” Obama said.

He also threatened to act unilaterally to install his choices for several government vacancies that normally would require Senate confirmation, if his nominees continue to be held up. Presidents have the ability to make what are called recess appointments in such cases, though people installed that way can stay in the job only until the end of the current Congress.

Most recently, the White House had highlighted blocking action by Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, who had placed a hold on about 70 of Obama’s nominees.

The president said bipartisanship doesn’t mean majority Democrats should give up everything they believe in and only work on a handful of things the Republicans want.

Obama met earlier Tuesday in the White House’s Cabinet Room with the top House and Senate leaders of both parties, plus numerous aides. It was the first time in two months that GOP leaders met with him in the White House.