McCain: We Will Not Work With Obama or Dems On Anything

Not sure how this is any different from what has been happening in Washington, but I'll post it anyway because I think it gives some insight into what can happen on education deform for the rest of the year:

Democrats shouldn't expect much cooperation from Republicans the rest of this year, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned Monday.

McCain and another Republican senator decried the effect health reform legislation has had on the Senate, a day after the House passed the upper chamber's bill.

GOP senators emerged Monday to warn that the health debate had taken a toll on the institution, and warning of little work between parties the rest of this year.

"There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year," McCain said during an interview Monday on an Arizona radio affiliate. "They have poisoned the well in what they've done and how they've done it."

The Senate is set to take up a bill under budget reconciliation rules that would make a series of changes to its larger health bill, which the House passed Sunday night and President Barack Obama expects to sign into law on Tuesday.

During the months of debate, Republicans have claimed they have been shut out of the process. Democrats, for their part, had invited some GOP participation in the debate, but said that many of the Republican ideas on the bill were meant to be dilatory, if not outright "obstructionist."

Cooperation between parties usually isn't paramount in election years like 2010, with senators jockeying for campaign positioning. But some GOP members said the character of the Senate had changed by virtue of the process used on the health bill.

So maybe we have the answer to the question I asked in this post, which was: Now that HCR has passed, will Repubs feel pressure to help pass something else Obama wants so as not to be tarred as the "Do Nothing Party" in '10, and if so, does this mean they'll work with Obama and pro-deform eduwankers on NCLB Jr.

Sounds like they're pissed and not ready to do anything with Dems and Obama.

If Repubs vote en masse against every Obama/Dem measure leading up to the November midterms, Democrats would have to win over nearly member of the caucus on ed deform.

In my estimation, that makes Obama's NCLB Jr. blueprint more difficult to pass before the November midterms.

There is enough in there to scare just enough Dems away - the anti-teacher/anti-union stuff which will scare off some Dems who need union support, the additional federalizing of policy and mandates which will scare off some Dems in purple districts, the huge price tag ($4 billion - but only if you do "reform" your state policies to the liking of Obama and Duncan) - that I think "reform" will be put off until after the November 2010 election.

And then what? Hard to know, but if the economy tanks again, as is expected after the Federal reserve raises interest rates and the stimulus money fades away, there isn't going to be a whole lot of support to put $4 billion into public education. And I have a hard time seeing Dems in Congress pass unfunded mandates (though you never know.)

Plus we may be talking about Speaker Boehner running the joint by next January. That surely would change the reform equation, though to what it is hard to know. Obviously Repubs are pro-charter, pro-privatization and anti-union, but if they're pushing the measures, will Dems go along (right now, Dems go along because Obama is pushing them)?

We'll see.