Dana Milbank is now complaining that Obama is being just too darn mean and rude to the poor little GOP:

…Arguably, Obama’s no-more-Mr.-Nice-Guy approach is good politics. His first-term experience made clear that he gained nothing from Republicans when he took a passive approach. When it comes to getting things done in Washington, there’s no substitute for forceful presidential leadership. Teddy Roosevelt, whose oil-on-canvas likeness gazed at Obama from an East Room wall, probably would have approved..
[But]It’s tempting to wonder whether Obama could achieve more if he could establish personal connections with Republicans on Capitol Hill…until recent years, sharp disagreements were smoothed by personal ties. On Monday, by contrast, Obama showed unrelenting hostility toward the opposition, accompanying his remarks with dismissive shrugs and skeptical frowns.

Now Milbank knows perfectly well that the Republicans in today’s extremist GOP are an entirely different breed than the more collegial Republicans of previous decades. He knows that they are threatening to severely damage the United States of America by forcing the nation to default on its obligations and he freely admits that Obama “gained nothing” from his previous attempts at compromise.
But the iron fist of beltway journalism still requires him to pretend to be suffering from amnesia and to innocently wonder if Obama couldn’t solve all this nasty squabbling by just being nicer.
In journalism schools there is a technical term for this: it’s called garbage.