The Sunday morning talk shows were abuzz with chatter about Mitt Romney’s debate performance this past week.

One of the talking heads – a Republican “strategist,” I believe – spoke of Romney’s promise to work across the aisle with Democrats in Congress, just as he did when he was governor of Massachusetts. The talker also noted that the Bay State legislature comprised 85 percent Democrats.

Which brings up a fascinating lesson, brought to us by none other than the current GOP pariah, former President George W. Bush, whom no Republican mentions in the context of the 2012 race against President Obama.

Dubya brought a similar skill to the White House when he became president in 2001. He, too, worked well with Democrats in Austin when he was governor. He had no choice. The Legislature was controlled by Democrats; the Senate was run by a Democratic lieutenant governor, Bob Bullock, who was proud of his cantankerous nature; the House speaker was a cotton farmer from the Panhandle, Democrat Pete Laney of Hale Center.

Dubya had to learn quickly that to get things done in Austin he needed to enlist lawmakers from both parties, not just his own Republican brethren.

Then a strange thing happened. He got elected president in 2000 in that bizarre contest featuring a contested recount of ballots in Florida and a one-vote U.S. Supreme Court victory that stopped the recount, granting Bush the electoral votes he needed to take office. His electoral vote margin was 271-266, which is as narrow a margin as it gets.

How did Bush govern once he took the presidential oath? Well, kind of like his dad when when he won the office in 1988 in a virtual landslide. Dubya didn’t quite take the same spirit of bipartisanship with him to Washington. He had Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, so he could push through whatever he wanted without the help of them stinkin’ Democrats.

Of course, the problem was worsened by the anger many Capitol Hill Democrats harbored against Bush for being elected in the first place – and in the manner in which the election was decided. (For the record, I have believed all along in the legitimacy of Bush’s first election, as it was done precisely as the Constitution dictates.)

But now, a dozen years later, another Republican is trying to persuade Americans he’ll be a bipartisan president. Barack Obama said the same thing four years ago, only to hear from his Republican foes that their No. 1 goal is to deny the president a second term.

Politics is a contact sport, as the late, great Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas used to say. My guess is that if Romney pulls of the unexpected victory next month, his Democratic foes will ensure continued gridlock, just as Republicans have done with Obama, and as Dubya and the Democrats did with each other.