President Obama is the only grown-up in Washington Part of being a wise politician -- and an adult -- is compromising with your ideological rivals sometimes, especially when it's for the greater good of a divided government and recovering nation. Lately, it seems President Obama is the only grown-up in the room. Self-righteous indignation The Democrats are ticked at their party's leader, Mr. Obama, for working out a compromise with the party of small government and big tax cuts. Never mind that the deal may just keep the economy from slowing to a standstill. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that everyone was talking about the sluggish economy as the reason that Democrats lost so many seats? I've heard that the Obama administration has been terrible at communicating with Democrats on Capitol Hill , and I know that liberals have had to settle for a good bit of moderate legislation, but do they really think they could have gotten something better? Of course, the liberals aren't alone in this theater of the bizarre. Confusing hypocrisy Right when I think that shared governance has brought the Republicans back to the land of responsibility and compromise, they go and vote against a bill that would grant federal aid to 9/11 workers and victims who are sick because of the time they spent at ground zero. When I first read that headline, I thought surely there must be a logical explanation for an otherwise monstrous-sounding move. Sure enough, there was a reason;