GOP Tries to Split Obama from the Democratic Herd
Much like a pack of wolves tries to isolate a weak caribou from the herd, are the Republicans trying to split President Obama away from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic House leadership? At the New York Times, Carl Hulse certainly seems to think so.
But that will not stop Republicans from trying. On Friday, the leadership sent Mr. Obama a letter urging him to use his first veto on the $410 billion spending bill and the 9,000 earmarks it includes if it clears Congress in its present form.
“Republicans want to work with you to bring spending-as-usual to a halt in Washington and to impose a new standard of bipartisan fiscal discipline that reflects the sacrifices being made by families and small businesses across America,” the letter said.
There was no specific mention of Ms. Pelosi, but Republicans clearly implied her hand was at work with the letter’s reference to “business-as-usual in Washington” and the stimulus “rushed through Congress without any member having read it.”
On the campaign trail, President Obama was pushed into a new position on pork barrel spending, claiming that he was going to work on decreasing, if not eliminating wasteful pet projects and increasing transparency and sunshine in the federal budget process. I have zero expectation that he will force a showdown with his own party leadership by vetoing the spending bills currently under consideration. But this does beg the question, who is really running the show here? Yes, Congress controls the purse and they have the final say on the budget, but the President is the de facto head of his party and should be able to influence the process.
President Obama actually drew some hesitant support from Republicans on his Iraq plan moving forward. Will the differences between the more-centrist White House and definitely left-leaning House majority leadership eventually force some sort of alliance of foes between the President and the Republicans? I wouldn’t bet the ranch on it, but stranger things have happened in politics.
7 Responses to “GOP Tries to Split Obama from the Democratic Herd”
Given that Obama's approval rating in the 60's% and Congressional Dems in the 30's%, it is logical for Republican to target Pelosi/Reid at this stage. Look at what happend to Bobby Jindal tried to do in response to Obama's address. I do hope Obama will remain pragmatic and continue to work with both sides, soon or later they have to compromise something or lose their seats.
It is Pelosi and Reid who are the problems. NOT OBAMA.
Its obvious who is in charge on Capitol Hill.
I think you're right GS. One thing I was concerned about during the campaign was whether Obama would have the stones to stand up to Pelosi and govern like the centrist he ran as. Time will tell I guess. I think there is a danger that with all his charisma Obama may actually be a fairly weak president who will mainly reflect his advisors and the Democratic Congress.
It is my fervent hope that egos and suppressed agendas don't get in the way of the progress we need as a nation to survive. In short, though my heart goes out to Pelosi and Reid, since a lot of their agendas are my very own, we need to put things we wanted so badly..and feel apprehension about never getting for our objectives, on the back-burner and roll up our sleeves for now.
There will be time later to enact new legislation. The GOP will not win 2012, nor will they win 2010 if you keep marching out prosecutions of the Bush Administration and tie them effectively to the GOP itself…as properly they should be since the whole gang knew what was up and was on the same page.. Just keep doing that and put your “wish-list” on hold until next year or so. People are getting sicker of the GOP by the day. And if you just keep this momentum up over the next year, 2010 will produce favorable results at the polls.
They dominated for six years or so and now, as much as they squirm and hate the inevitable, the pendulum will swing in the other direction to establish balance in their perverse extremism. But we as thinking, sentient beings must not let that balance go to our heads and cause similar extremism on our end…not in these troubled times. We should catch that damn pendulum in mid-flight and hold it in the middle until we can swing it again at a much gentler and slower arc.
That is true, for 2 years Pelosi and Reid were so frustrated with Bush's veto tactics and now they have to wait for more time to push their agenda. But they are not going anywhere really so they can wait alittle longer, I don't see Dems getting wiped out in 2010 even if the economy is not recovered yet, as long as it is not worsen.
Actually, Pelosi and Congressional Dems are not so unpopular.
http://www.dailykos.com/weeklytrends
Remember that one reason the Congressional Dems were so low before was that Democrats thought their own leaders were ineffective. Most Democrats no longer feel that way after passage of the stimulus package. And a goodly chunk of Independents (those who don't lean right) feel more confident in Pelosi and the Congressional Dems too.
Remember the golden rule about politics: nothing fails like failure and nothing succeeds like success. In other words, the successful passage of the stimulus bill – even with all the criticism it's taken – gives the Democrats a big advantage. Had the Dems listened to the critics and delayed, or even scrapped the whole thing, their approval numbers would be in the toilet and we'd be looking at 1994 again. It was, after all, not Clinton's health care PLAN that killed the Dems in 1994. It was the failure to get ANY plan out of Congress that killed them.
We forget that the job of Congress is to make laws (which typically is a huge temptation to spend). With spending increases congress as a group will always be unpopular–and a good target. The Republican strgeategy is correct. A test of Obama's leadership is to reign these people in. He could not veto the stimulus bill but must soon show his ability to reform. Does Congress pull down Obama, or does Obama elevate Democrat popularity? Now we have Republican watchdogs representing national sentiment. Its a pity they could not do it when they were in power. Overall, I see today's situation as a possible constructive return to some checks and balances.