Baldwin champions bipartisanship

Although she won election as an unabashed progressive, Sen. Tammy Baldwin took a conciliatory tone in an interview aired Wednesday on "The PBS NewsHour."

In fact, on all issues host Judy Woodruff asked her to address, the freshman senator voiced optimism that Congress would find a bipartisan compromise. But she declined to predict specific policy outcomes and she was hesitant to specify what policies she hopes emerge from the coming session.

On budget matters, Baldwin said only that Congress seems to be making "headway" in averting the type of debt crisis that nearly led to a credit default in summer of 2011.

She said she was encouraged by bipartisan dialogue on immigration, for instance, but declined to respond to Woodruff's specific question about the president's position on border security.

"Well, I have to take a moment and really applaud what we have seen in terms of an agreed-upon statement of key principles for immigration reform that emerged from the Senate on a bipartisan basis," she said.

"We haven't seen this for quite some time. So I think it's worth taking a moment to recognize that and build upon that, rather than immediately going to our differences. Certainly, this is going to be a complicated and time-consuming debate that I think will play out over the next several months. But I think we're off to a good start."

She was more specific on gun control, saying she was hopeful Congress would approve a universal background check for gun purchases.