ABOUT GEORGIA RUNOFFS

Four days before Christmas in 1995, Rep. John Boehner, a member of theHouseRepublican leadership, dumped several lumps of coal into a gift boxwith Bill Clinton’s name on it. The publicity stuntwas theRepublicans’way of blaming the president for an acrimonious government shutdown.

Led by newHouse SpeakerNewt Gingrich, who had orchestrated a GOP takeover of Congress a year earlier with help froma budget-cutting “ContractWith America,” Republicanswere trying to trim the federal budget. As a sign of howmuch more rationalWashington politicswas 25 years ago, President Clinton had agreed to balance the budget. The fightwas over what to cut. …

The processwasn’t pretty, but Gingrich and Clinton revamped thewelfare system, created a new entitlement that guaranteed health care for children who didn’t qualify forMedicaid and balanced the budget. They had proved they couldwork together before Gingrich became speaker, negotiating carefully over howmany Republican votes Gingrich could deliver to passNAFTA, a treaty both of them favored. …

It could happen again, but only if the Jan. 5 runoffs for Georgia’s two Senate seats go the Republicans’way. I realize that this is counterintuitive. … But at a time when both political parties are far more polarized than theywere a generation ago, we need divided government more than ever. It’s the only check and balance remaining on two dominant political parties, forwhom the center of gravity is so far fromthe center that they’ve nearly fallen off the ends of the earth.