Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.
A U.S. senator and a former senator traveled to the University of Georgia Friday to tout the benefits of political civility at a time extreme partisanship in Congress threatens to shut down the federal government.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and former Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., highlighted the first annual Johnny Isakson Symposium on Political Civility, held to honor the legacy of the late Georgia Republican senator Manchin called “the most civil public servant I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Isakson, who died nearly two years ago of Parkinson’s disease and other health issues, was widely respected as a voice of reason and compromise on Capitol Hill while other members of Congress were busy pushing partisan agendas that got in the way of achieving results.
Both Manchin and Blunt served with Isakson in the Senate. They, too, built reputations as moderates willing to work with members of both parties in pursuit of common ground on issues that needed addressing.
“He liked to get things done,” Blunt said of Isakson. “That takes a bipartisan approach.”
Manchin and Blunt gave the audience gathered at the UGA Chapel examples of legislation they worked to achieve that wouldn’t have happened without the bipartisanship only made possible by political civility.
For Manchin, it was the $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending bill Congress passed two years ago this month. He said he had to make deals with other lawmakers to get the measure through after 30 years without significant congressional action to improve the nation’s infrastructure.
“We had to work together,” he said. “You can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
For Blunt, it was increasing federal funding of the National Institute of Health (NIH) for the first time in…
Read the full article here