As president, Obama will step into an ideal political situation, at least on the surface. He’ll be dealing with a Congress with solid Democratic majorities in the Senate and House. What more could a Democratic president ask for? What’s the problem?
Obama and Democrats agree on the big issues, but on power-sharing, process, and priorities they part ways. Senate majority leader Harry Reid has declared that once Joe Biden becomes vice president, he won’t be invited to the weekly meetings of the Democratic caucus. This had to be a bitter pill for Biden. He was a senator himself for 36 years and, as veep, actually has a constitutional role in the Senate. But, as a White House man, the senators don’t want him butting in. They prefer to decide things on their own.
If Reid’s message wasn’t clear to the Obama team, House speaker Nancy Pelosi removed any doubt. She told Rahm Emanuel, her former House colleague and now Obama’s choice to be White House chief of staff, to stay out of internal House Democratic matters. According to John Bresnahan of Politico, she was clear about what she expects from Obama and his aides, a wish list including “no surprises, and no backdoor efforts to go around her and other Democratic leaders by cutting deals with moderate New Democrats or conservative Blue Dogs.”
The subtext is that Reid and Pelosi fear Obama may be more willing to compromise on liberal issues than they are. And they don’t want a repeat of President Clinton’s so-called “triangulation” with Republicans, despite Obama’s promise to pursue bipartisanship. Bottom line: The relationship between Obama and congressional Democrats will be tense. It is already.
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I think Fred Barnes hit this right on the nose! The democrats in congress along with the republicans will not give Barack alot of slack and he will have to tip-toe every so slowly as if he’s walking on red hot rocks! There are about 30 or so democrats that will stay near the center and when ever Obama slips toward the far left those democrats will let him know quickly! Some of the democrats has their seats to worry about two years from now and they’re not going to allow Barack to lose them!
Yep. That’s about the way of it. America would be better off if we just “removed” Reid and Pelosi, but of course that would be wrong because it would set a bad precedent.
You can’t exterminate the vermin until you’re absolutely sure that you’re not electing any yourself.
Good article. I don’t think Barnes mentions that the transparency problem and the czar problem are both attributable to O’s lack of executive experience. As for the Congressional Dems, I suspect they’re all wondering whether 2008 was a one-shot deal. Those in marginal seats — the ones who have to pretend they’re conservatives every two years — will flinch at the more radical administration proposals, figuring that whatever good will Obama has to draw on at the moment may well be used up long before 2010 rolls around. Those in leadership positions, who are often in safely liberal seats (Reid is an exception), understand that they have to pass the “transform America” agenda very quickly or they won’t be able to pass it at all, O’s support counting for less as time goes on. At the moment, and for the next few months, Pelosi and Reid need Obama more than he needs them. The hard leftoids running the show in the Capitol will appeal to Obama’s radicalism and to his radical vanity in order to speed things up. The less committed Dems will appeal to O’s political timidity (and to his vanity, ever needy) in order to slow things down. Should be fun to watch.
Great article , cant help but be very afraid whenever I see Reid and Pelosi together . And then The Big O presiding . Hope its fun and not something worse .
Maybe I will put one of their pics at the top of page and the other one at the bottom tarheeltalker. Don’t be afraid you and I have the gators to protect us.