I think it was sort of a balance since Jefferson was a Democrat (in so many words I guess).

Washington disavowed parties but was a closet Federalist. Jefferson and Hamilton competed for Washington's support; Hamilton won. The Federalist Party had a distrust of popular politics which proved its undoing, but it's not that unfair to trace a party lineage of Federalist to Whig to Republican, just as Jefferson's Republicans are the forerunners of the Democrats. Of course, the issues have shifted and in some cases reversed, but someone - I don't remember whom - said this. "If Jefferson and Hamilton were resurrected today, both would be astonished at the issues the nation is debating, but it wouldn't take either one long to recognize which Party he belonged to." As a Democrat myself, I wouldn't dispute the notion that George Washington would have been a Republican, although he would be dismayed by the extreme partisanship which prevails today.

I had a much harder time with George Washington flying around in airplanes, taking out TV ads, appearing on talk shows, etc. than him being Republican.

Actually if you where to take a much better look at the issues facing our founding fathers, I think people would be more inclined to see Jefferson as a Republican and Washington as a Democrat and there is also no doubt in my mind the Lincoln would be a Democrat today.