Complaining about partisanship from your own party?

“I’m shocked, shocked, to hear that gambling is going on in this establishment.” That quote from “Casablanca” comes to mind every time I hear a politician bemoaning the plague of partisanship. Normally, whining about partisanship is done by someone like Sen. Olympia Snowe who is in the minority party and doesn’t really believe that fighting the battle of ideas is worthwhile in the first place.

But, the case of the latest New Mexico politician to cry “partisanship” is far more interesting: Sen. Cynthia Nava will not be running again despite the fact that she was the Chair of the Education Committee and her party, the Democrats, have been in firm control of the Legislature for decades. How is “partisanship” a problem when you are in control of the process and will have a healthy majority for the foreseeable future (at least in your own body, the Senate)?

Honestly, while Nava is nowhere near the reformer I’d want her to be in terms of leading the charge for school choice, she was a supporter of some of the Gov.’s modest reforms like the 3rd grade reading initiative. It would seem that the “partisanship” Nava is concerned about isn’t coming from Gov. Martinez and the Republicans, but rather from those in her own party who are being partisan in blocking much-needed education reforms just because they are proposed by a Republican Governor.

Am I reading too much into this? Tell me what I’m missing or why I’m wrong.