Barack Obama: I'll play nice with these Republicans

*sigh*

You want to know why I'm not on Team Obama?

This is why:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama often says he will be a candidate that will bring both parties together and Saturday he named a few of the Republicans he would reach out to if elected.

"There are some very capable Republicans who I have a great deal of respect for," Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press. "The opportunities are there to create a more effective relationship between parties."

Among the Republicans he would seek help from are Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana, John Warner of Virginia and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Obama said.

"On foreign policy I've worked very closely with Dick Lugar," Obama said. "I consider him one of my best friends in the Senate. He's someone I would actively seek counsel and advice from when it came to foreign policy."

"Senator Warner is another example of somebody with great wisdom, although I don't always agree with him on every issue," Obama said. "I would also seek out people like Tom Coburn, who is probably the most conservative member of the U.S. Senate. He has become a friend of mine."

Here's what John Edwards has to say about the politics of compromise:

"My view is that if you give them a seat at the table, they eat all the food."

For the last six years, we have seen Republicans, including John Warner and Dick Lugar and Tom Coburn, vote in lockstep with their party's president no matter how much they may have protested beforehand. The Republican way is "Do it our way. Period." You simply cannot compromise with these people, because the Republican Party does not believe in compromise. The Republican Party does not believe in "reaching across the aisle." The Republican Party has been about destroying its opposition by any means possible -- and then spitting on and stomping on the corpse.

And Barack Obama wants to do business with these people? Barack Obama thinks that by being a "nice guy" he'll be ABLE to do business with these people? How's he going to do that? We need to know just how much he plans to "compromise" with a guy like Tom Coburn.

Tom Coburn, on the network television airing of Schindler's List, 1997:

``the fact that it aired on public television on a Sunday evening during a family time should outrage parents and decent-minded individuals everywhere...I cringe when I realize that there were children all across this nation watching this program. They were exposed to the violence of multiple gunshot head wounds, vile language, full frontal nudity and irresponsible sexual activity. It simply should not have been allowed on public television.''

Tom Coburn, July 2003:

"I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life,"

Tom Coburn, Spring 2004:

"The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power ... That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That's a gay agenda."

Tom Coburn, Medicaid Fraudster.

And this is one of Barack Obama's "good friends"?

Sorry, Barack, but the days of Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy going at each other on the floor of the Senate and then going out for dinner are over. Republicans decided what their rules are going to be, and they do not include reaching across the aisle to you. And do you know what you call candidates who continue to believe that they can work with these people?

Losers.

Ask John Kerry.

UPDATE: Saje Williams at the John Edwards blog has it exactly right:

We'll make peace with the Republicans. On OUR terms. As soon as they surrender their racist, sexist, homophobic, holier than thou certainty that THEY are right and WE are wrong. As soon as they apologize for calling us traitors, or allowing others who claim to represent them to do it. As soon as they apologize for branding people like Natalie Maines, Dick Durbin, Tom Dashle, and others as "traitors" or "terrorist sympathizers" for disagreeing with President George W. Bush on the way to handle the so-called "War On Terror."

We'll bury the hatchet as soon as they repudiate the self-centered, self-aggrandizing, and inflexible "conservative" notion of "voodoo economics." As soon as they recognize that not everyone in America gets an even shot at success, and as soon as they join us in fighting to change that. As soon as they step up to defend the middle class, and the helping hand the middle class extends downward to those in need. As soon as they realize that the ultra-rich shouldn't be able to decide for the rest of us what our priorities should be.

We'll shake hands with the Republicans as soon as they admit that their religion, and their religious book, should NOT be the answer to all arguments about the nature of the cosmos, the history of the human race, and whether gays have the right to live in peace. We wouldn't put up with the Taliban here in the United States, and we will NOT put up with similar inflexibility from them either.

We'll kiss and make up when they recognize that we have a duty to this planet, to all the other forms of life that live here, and that we are both responsible for the damage we've caused and for striving to fix as much of it as we can. When they roll up their sleeves and stand beside us, working to make this world a better place again. When they too decide that the long-term fate of their children and grandchildren are more important than short-term profits.

We'll play nice as soon as they stop insulting us, insulting our intelligence, treating us like second-class citizens, and tell people like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and their ilk that they DO NOT speak for them. As soon as they make it clear they DON'T want us jailed, or killed, for the crime of disagreeing with them or the Bush administration. As soon as they stand up and say to their representatives that they respect the Constitution and don't respect anyone who refuses to abide by it.