WASHINGTON--White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel set the Obama administration's "test of bipartisanship" on Thursday morning, arguing the final vote tally alone on a bill is not the only factor.
"The test of bipartisanship is not just how many Republican votes you have," Emanuel said at the breakfast, sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. "If I can get one thing across to this esteemed group of Washington journalists," Emanuel said, it would be there are a "number of ways of grading bipartisanship."
The Rahm Emanuel tests:
• Does a bill contains bipartisan ideas?
"That is a test the president laid out, and he has said it repeatedly: This will be bipartisan. There will be ideas from both parties and individuals from both parties in the final product," Emanuel said. "Whether Republicans decide to vote for things that they've promoted will be up to them. So one test of bipartisanship is, did you include ideas advocated by the other side."
• "For (legislation) to be bipartisan, or appreciated for its bipartisanship, the president has to try," Emanuel said.
• Of course, there is the final vote count
Lynn Sweet is a columnist and the Washington Bureau Chief for the 
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