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Dems, Republicans join to fight state `Lexus lanes'

Bipartisanship can come in two forms, the good and the bad. Good bipartisanship is when parties put their differences aside to work for the public interest. Bad bipartisanship is when they put their differences aside to work against it.

And in the drive to create "Lexus lanes" on California's freeways, we're seeing plenty of the bad kind of partisanship.

Democratic Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Bush administration all want to turn a few state HOV lanes into toll roads. They would, in effect, charge the public to use roads that the public itself paid to build.

Fortunately, in response to this outrageous proposal, we've seen a flourishing of some good bipartisanship.

A coalition of California members of Congress is pushing legislation that would ban conversion of taxpayer-built roadways into toll lanes. The group includes Democrats Grace Napolitano, Hilda Solis and Diane Watson, as well as Republicans Gary Miller and David Dreier   Read Full Article...