I found the contents of yesterday's Senate speech by Lamar Alexander commendable. After warning Obama to avoid a pitfall which hurt his own party three decades ago (Nixon's famous "enemies list"), he pledges, in warm and complementary terms, his cooperation and dedication to work with the White House on win/win subjects:

This administration is only ten months old. It's not too late to take a different approach — both at the White House and here in the Congress.

Here is one opportunity. At the beginning of this year, shortly after the President's inauguration, the Republican leader, Sen. McConnell, addressed the National Press Club. He proposed that he and the President work together to make social security solvent. He said that he would make sure the President got more support in that effort from Republicans than President George W. Bush got from Democrats when he tried to solve the same problem. President Obama held a summit on the dangers of the runaway costs of entitlements which I attended. Every expert there said making social security solvent was essential to our country's fiscal stability. There is still time to get that done.

On clean energy, Republicans have put forward four ideas: build 100 nuclear plants in 20 years, electrify half our cars and trucks in 20 years, explore offshore for low-carbon natural gas and for oil, and double energy research and development for alternative fuels. The administration agrees with this on electric cars and research and development. We may not be far apart on offshore exploration. And, at his town meeting in New Orleans last week, the President said the United States would be "stupid" not to use nuclear power. He is right, since nuclear reactors produce 70% of our carbon free electricity. So why don't we work together on this lower-cost way to address clean energy and climate change instead of enacting a national energy tax?

On health care [....] why should the White House not work with Republicans step by step to reduce health care costs, and then, as we can afford it, reduce the number of Americans who don't have access to health care?

The President and his Education Secretary Arne Duncan have been courageous — there is no better word for it — in advocating paying teachers more for teaching well and expanding the number of charter schools. These ideas are the Holy Grail for school reform. They are also ideas that are anathema to the labor unions who support the President. President Obama's advocacy of master teachers and charter schools could be the domestic of equivalent of President Nixon going to China. I, among others, admire his advocacy and have been doing all I can to help him.

Lamar closes with a nice, Reaganesque anecdote about Lincoln which is well worth reading.

Lamar's speech stands in stark contrast to the Democrats under Bush's second term: major Democratic players had noted that Social Security was insolvent — Al Gore even made the claim a centerpiece of his 2000 campaign. (They were right, I'd add, and still are.) And yet when Bush suggested spending all his political capital reforming Social Security, and opened the floor to any and all suggestions, what did we hear? We were told he was "lying" to us and "scaring" us — why, Social Security isn't in trouble at all!

Will Obama take Lamar, and other Republicans of good will, up on any of these offers? I hope so, but I fear he won't. And if not, why not? In the case of healthcare, Democrats don't simply want to reduce costs. (Indeed, none of the plans produced seem to have such an effect.) Regardless of motive (much of it good, I expect), the desire is to remake the system from the top down, to pull it up by the roots ("radical") and replace with something which many believe will be far, far superior.

On nuclear power and school reform there are strong constituencies on the left who Obama must fight. And, forgive me, but I still have some concerns about his own sincerity: just as Obama seems to oppose sensible incremental heath-care reforms because they undermine the case for a more radical and complete revolution, so I fear that Obama gives lip-service to nuclear power, but opposes it because it would alleviate an energy / CO2 "crisis" which would surely present opportunities "too good to waste."

But regardless of my own concerns, it's good to see Lamar and others offering to work with the President on mutually agreeable issues, actions would benefit all of us. Now that the olive branch has been extended, we'll see where it goes.