Common Sense Caucus (Caucus of Common Sense)

A “common sense caucus” is where politicians abandon hardline views and join together for common sense solutions, despite different party affiliations. “Common sense caucus” has been cited in print since at least 1994, when it was used in Minnesota.
 
President Barack Obama, in March 2013, sought to find a “common sense caucus” of Republicans and Democrats on certain issues. “Common sense caucus” and “caucus of common sense” quickly became White House political buzzwords.
 
 
24 April 1994, St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press “Legislature shifting to center,” pg. 1B:
Charles Berg, DFL-Chokio, predicts there will soon be a “common sense caucus”  to compete with the DFL and IR caucuses.
   
New York (NY) Sun
Schumer v. Clinton
Editorial of The New York Sun | February 11, 2005
(...)
Plenty of Democrats joined Republicans yesterday in approving the Class Action Fairness Act in the Senate. Mrs. Clinton’s New York colleague, Senator Schumer, voted the right way. He had even co-sponsored the legislation. Senators Dodd and Lieberman of Connecticut, Bayh of Indiana, Feinstein of California, Landrieu of Louisiana, Nelson of Nebraska, Obama of Illinois, and Salazar of Colorado were among the Democrats who joined Mr. Schumer to support the bill. They amount to a common-sense caucus among the Democrats.
 
Fits News
By fitsnews – June 24, 2007
ECHO CHAMBER – THE YOUNG GUNS
SOUTH CAROLINA’S EMERGING “COMMON SENSE” CAUCUS
FITSNews – June 24, 2007 – With a preponderance of ominous storm clouds darkening South Carolina’s political horizon, it’s often impossible to see anything resembling a silver lining. And while we’ll be the first to admit we’re not terribly adept at recognizing the “brighter side” of things, our state leaders have consistently disappointed us on taxes, spending, school choice, government restructuring and a host of other pro-business, pro-conservative (not to mention “pro-Republican”) reforms.
 
Los Angeles (CA) Times
Obama dials up senators in search of ‘common sense’ caucus
March 04, 2013|By Lisa Mascaro
WASHINGTON—President Obama has been phoning Republican senators in recent days in search of what he called a “common sense” caucus on budget issues, even as House Republicans unveiled legislation Monday to lock in the “sequester” cuts for the remainder of the fiscal year.
 
Politico
The ‘Common Sense Caucus’
By DONOVAN SLACK | 3/6/13 9:41 PM EST
The White House has repeatedly said that President Obama is reaching out to prospective members of the “common sense caucus,” Republicans who might buck party leadership and back his plan to reduce the deficit with a mix of revenues and spending cuts.
 
But until Wednesday, the White House refused to identify whom Obama was courting. Now, thanks to a list of dinner guests released by the White House, it’s clear who he’s trying to recruit to the caucus: ...
   
Washington (DC) Post
At a moment of optimism, Obama plays dinner host for Republicans once again
Posted by Juliet Eilperin on April 10, 2013 at 3:44 pm
On a day in Washington where legislative compromise suddenly seemed possible once again, President Obama will be hosting another dozen Senate Republicans for dinner Wednesday night.
(...)
White House spokesman Jay Carney struck a similar tone Tuesday during his daily press briefing. “This will be, hopefully, in the president’s view, the same kind of constructive conversation that he had the first time with a different group of senators,” Carney said. “And he believes that there is a common-sense caucus in Washington that embraces the idea that compromise requires moving off of your absolutist positions, accepting that you don’t get everything you want; that ideological purity is not achievable legislatively when you have a divided government as we do in Washington.”
   
Dallas (TX) Morning News
By WAYNE SLATER Senior Political Writer .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Published: 09 May 2013 12:40 PM
Updated: 09 May 2013 11:30 PM
(...)
High school visit
Speaking to students, teachers and parents at Manor New Technology High School, the president called on Texans to press their elected officials to work across the aisle on creating jobs, boosting education and raising the minimum wage as part of “a caucus of common sense.”