News Flash: President Obama is Reaching Out to Republicans

President Obama has begun a charm offensive with Republicans in search of a big budget deal. Will it help? Who knows, but it surely won't hurt. And while he's at it, he can include some of their Democratic colleagues, too.




From Ezra Klein:

“After more than two years of failed negotiations with GOP leaders,” report Lori Montgomery and Rosalind Helderman, “President Obama is for the first time reaching out directly to rank-and-file Republicans who have expressed a willingness to strike a far-reaching budget deal that includes higher taxes.”

And that’s not all! “President Barack Obama has invited a group of Republican senators to the White House for dinner Wednesday evening, a source familiar with the event confirmed.” And he’ll be joining Senate Republicans at their next lunch. 
......
I spoke recently with a liberal senator who fondly remembered that former President Bush repeatedly invited him up to the White House even as the senator spent every single day investigating and opposing Bush in the Senate — Obama, he said, has spent less time with him than Bush did. 

Click here to read the entire column

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/06/obamas-just-now-starting-to-call-rank-and-file-republicans/