Love That New Bipartisanship

Speaker-to-be Pelosi is looking out for now-out-of-work Republican staffers this holiday season-

Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has drafted legislation that would grant soon-to-be-unemployed Republicans severance pay while they look for jobs after Democrats take over control of the chamber on Jan. 4, according to a senior Democratic aide.

Democratic aides have kept details of the proposed severance package secret, such as how much former Republican aides would receive and who would be eligible for compensation...

...Giving House Republican aides a uniform severance package would fall in line with Pelosi’s declared desire to create a good working relationship with Republicans and not fritter away her limited political capital by settling the score for past slights. But if she offers the severance bill, she would be acting more generously than Republicans did toward Democrats when they captured the House 12 years ago...

And what do the Democrats get in return for such generosity? A big mess to clean up-

Republicans vacating the Capitol are dumping a big spring cleaning job on Democrats moving in. GOP leaders have opted to leave behind almost a half-trillion-dollar clutter of unfinished spending bills...

...The bulging workload that a Republican-led Congress was supposed to complete this year but is instead punting to 2007 promises to consume time and energy that Democrats had hoped to devote to their own agenda upon taking control of Congress in January for the first time in a dozen years...

...It will be no small test of the incoming Democratic majority, which has yet to develop a plan to cope with the more than $460 billion in unfinished budget business. The Democrats' problem is made even more complicated because President Bush in early 2007 will send Congress a bill that could exceed $130 billion for continuing the war in Iraq, according to Capitol Hill aides....

Remember all those fake stories of Clinton staffers trashing the White House before Bush's people came in six years ago? This is the legislative equivalent of that. How nice of the GOP to get as much work done on the way out as they did over the past few years... none.

[More on the Dems' plans for ethics bills: Democrats Plan Series of Votes on Ethics Reforms (Washington Post)]