"...this is just what Democrats do whenever any idea is put on the table — they start complaining."

[babylonsister]

Posted with permission.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_09/with_friends_like_these032214.php


With friends like these…

By Steve Benen


When it comes to advancing a jobs agenda, the White House seemed to be doing nearly everything right. President Obama delivered a very effective speech to a joint session of Congress; the DNC got involved with a coordinated message; and the president hit the road and was well received in key battleground states. Polls show the American Jobs Act is off to a fairly strong start and congressional Republicans have not yet formed an opposition strategy.

So what’s the problem? Near the top of the list, apparently, is congressional Democrats.

President Obama anticipated Republican resistance to his jobs program, but he is now meeting increasing pushback from his own party. Many Congressional Democrats, smarting from the fallout over the 2009 stimulus bill, say there is little chance they will be able to support the bill as a single entity, citing an array of elements they cannot abide.

Some Democratic lawmakers think the bill is too big; some think it’s too small. Some don’t like the financing; some don’t like the spending. Some are afraid of the word “stimulus,” and some are upset the plan includes tax cuts.

I don’t want to overstate the intensity of the Democratic hand-wringing. At a certain level, this is just what Democrats do whenever any idea is put on the table — they start complaining. This has happened before, even under this president, as something akin to a throat-clearing exercise. Democratic lawmakers responded quite well to Obama’s speech last week, and it’d be a mistake to assume Dems “oppose” the Americans Jobs Act.

That said, there are three things congressional Democrats should keep in mind.

First, party unity matters. Obama is tackling the single most important issue on the minds of the American mainstream, and Republicans are feeling a little antsy. For Dems on the Hill to give the GOP cover by whining about an ambitious White House jobs bill, undermining the president on the issue voters care about most, is political suicide.

Second, Republican lawmakers hardly ever treat Republican presidents this way.

And third, whether congressional Dems realize this or not, their fate is tied to Obama’s fate. He remains the most popular elected official in Washington — by a wide margin — and the better he does, the better his party will do. The more Obama falters, the more congressional Democrats will suffer, too.

Especially after this week’s special elections in New York and Nevada, plenty of Dems are feeling nervous. That’s understandable. But undermining their own leader and helping defeat a popular jobs bill in the midst of a jobs crisis will not improve their odds of electoral survival.

As for the left in general, let this be the latest in a series of reminders — it’s easy to get frustrated with President Obama at times, but he’d be in a far better position if he had more reliable congressional allies to partner with.

AMEN to that last sentence!

[Pirate Smile]

1. People want to know why Pres Obama didn't just give Congress a HCR bill to pass - this is why.

Congressional Dems would just start bitching and picking it apart.

That is why he let Congress have more ownership of it and many other Bills - writing it themselves - because, otherwise, they do this shit.

This makes his fighting against "Congress" instead of just "Republicans" make a lot more sense.

Congressional Dems just destroyed the argument against Republicans for obstructing the Jobs Bill.

Even when we controlled both the House and the Senate, Congressional Dems - especially in the Senate - made passing almost everything very difficult.

Chronic complaining and an inability to stick together seem to be constant traits of a lot of Dems - both in office and outside of it. meh.

Oh, yeah, Will Rodger's quote and all that .... :eyes:

Edit to add - these Dem Chicken Shits in Congress are why we didn't get the Bush Tax cuts for the rich repealed when we controlled Congress. They wouldn't vote to do it before the '10 campaign. That was NOT Pres. Obama. That was Congress.

Edit to add again - Does that mean I'm not going to vote or work to elect Democrats to Congress? Hell, No. That is just stupid which is why when I see that crap about the President it just drives the point of how completely self-destructive a certain segment of Democrats can be and are - frequently.

[Vicar In A Tutu]

5. And that's why more or less none of them are Presidential material.

And never will be.

[GOTV]

13. Note that after the HCR fiasco, Obama is now wisely giving the bill to congress rather ...

... than use the failed HCR approach.

[Pirate Smile]

14. Well, unlike HCR, the jobs bill probably isn't going to get passed.

Clinton gave Congress a Health Care Bill AND that was a Democratic House and Senate too.

They killed it. Dem Committee Chairs wouldn't even bring it up in their committees, etc.

Obama went a different way based on that experience and he got it passed. I don't agree that his method was wrong. It worked when the others hadn't.

People have created a fantasy of Pres. Obama giving a progressive HCR Bill to Congress and them rallying around it. That would never happen. Dems can't even rally around a jobs bill and force the Republicans to be the ones to block it. That's crazy foolish but that is what they always do.

[GOTV]

18. THIS jobs bill also wouldn't have passed if he let congress write it. But if the only goal is ...

... to pass *something* then the HCR approach would have been better. Of course after the HCR bill we took a great "shellacking".

With this approach it's clearer what Obama stands for like it or not. If it doesn't pass we'll see which groups stood in its way. This is better than the HCR approach that involved a lot of closed door meetings and presidential concessions ending with Obama praising all involved and failing to paint a clear difference between Democratic approaches and Republican approaches - which helped produce the shellacking.

If you like the way things have been going keep advocating for stay the course. I'm more of a change the course kind of guy.

[Pirate Smile]

26. The HCR was all between Democrats since the Republicans weren't going to play ball and

Dems controlled everything.

Things are very different with a Republican-controlled House. The Senate is pretty much controlled by Republicans in that nothing can pass without 7 of them supporting it so... Congress is just a disaster area right now.

I'm glad the WH wrote it and dropped it on them. The Dems in Congress need to let the Republicans take the blame for blocking it instead of providing them cover.

[SidDithers]

2. K&R. THanks for posting...nt

Sid

[young but wise]

3. K&R

They love to shoot themselves in the foot.

[FrenchieCat]

15. and us in the head!

[ProSense]

4. Senator Casey's

comment was bizarre.

Greg Sargent

* Dem Senators want to break up Obama’s jobs bill? Senator Bob Casey joins other Dems who are now balking at supporting Obama’s jobs bill in its entirety:

“I think the American people are very skeptical of big pieces of legislation. For that reason alone I think we should break it up.”

Putting aside that this is a terrible way for a public official to talk about legislation, what we’re probably seeing here is a skittishness setting in among Dems over Obama’s poll numbers. This will step on Obama’s public campaign to pressure on Republicans to pass his whole plan, at a time when the politics of the fight over the plan favor Democrats.. It’s also entirely unnecessary: No one expected the plan to pass as is in the first place.

Why even say this? It has nothing to do with policy.

One month after it passed, 61 percent of Americans approved of Wall Street Reform

Americans were skeptical of health care reform, and even then it was split. Yesterday's Bloomberg poll showed its support at 60 percent.

Gallup: Americans Favor Obama Jobs Plan by 45% to 32%

<...>

Independents Tilt in Favor of Bill

The Gallup survey describes the bill as "similar to the one President Obama has proposed," making it not surprising that Democrats strongly support it, while Republicans oppose it. Still, Democrats' support is more widespread than Republicans' opposition. This -- combined with independents' greater likelihood to favor than to oppose the bill -- results in the overall 45% to 32% tilt in support among all Americans.



<...>

Jobs fight gives Obama major opportunity with independents

[Pirate Smile]

6. Just idiotic. He could just make some noncommittal comment. So stupid.

[Inuca]

22. Bizarre and disappointing

Sen. Casey should be careful not to adopt the Herman Cain approach to governing (no bill should be longer than one page, I think he said, rememeber that one?)

[TwilightGardener]

24. I hope he's not as dumb as he sounds here. He sounds like he needs to hire

someone to tie his shoes for him.

[OHdem10]

7. This is exactly what gives the impression espectially to Media

that Democrats are not capable of governing.

Much can be attributed to the fact that you have almost
two parties in one. Conservadems and Liberals.

[Tarheel_Dem]

17. I think this snippet speaks to your point......

"Liberals are also notoriously diverse in ideology and are often seen as ineffective in governing — even by friends and allies. As H.L. Mencken noted last century: “The Liberals have many tails, and chase them all.”

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/03/news/la-pn-obama-liberals-gallup-poll-20110803

It's a real dilemma.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

20. I think that Democrats want to govern

and can govern much better than the Republicans. But there is still a contingent of them, particularly in the Senate, that will hand wring themselves (and the rest of the country) to death. Surely, they agree that something needs to be done about jobs, so if they any of them have some different ideas about what to do, they should be putting those on the table for discussion. The way they're acting is sniping at it without really offering alternative proposals/ideas.

[Enrique]

8. Congress has been pretty reliable for Obama

they've gone along with a number of things they weren't at all happy with, including the Bush tax cuts and the health reform without public option.

And they've passed tough legislation that Obama dropped off his agenda, such as cap and trade.

[young but wise]

9. Reliable?

What about Gitmo?

[Pirate Smile]

10. That might work for the House but it doesn't for the Senate. Cap & Trade couldn't pass the Senate.

Passing legislation that repealed the Bush tax cuts for the rich wasn't done before the 2010 election because of Dems in Congress, not the President. But Congressional Dems are very happy to have people blame the President instead of them.

[treestar]

11. And why are they not admitting that the Republicans won't

agree, or trying to convince the Republicans to agree? Those are their colleagues. Anyone who calls Obama a wimp needs to call these Democrats wimps, too. Congressmen are not powerless. They could do something to lean on the Republicans.

[ProSense]

12. Senator Carper

is trying to walk back his comment

[Mass]

16. If even Kerry is not ready to say it will not pass in one piece,

there is a serious malaise. He has been one of the strongest supporters of Obama in the Senate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/obama-jobs-proposal-wont-pass-in-one-piece-kerry-says/2011/09/13/gIQATCrAQK_blog.html

“I don’t think anybody expects it to pass en bloc,” Kerry told reporters Tuesday afternoon after the Senate Democrats’s weekly policy luncheon. “So, the issue is going to be what, if any, parts of it might be cherry-picked. And really that depends a lot on the overall mix of the negotiation.”

[creon]

19. yes

The problem has never been Obama.
The problem is, and always has been, the Democrats in Congress.

[totodeinhere]

21. Yes it's true. Unlike the mindless robots in that other party, Democrats like to think for

themselves and come to their own informed conclusions. Naturally there will be some disagreement over a major proposal like this.

[Phx_Dem]

23. Ain't that the sad truth. I sick and fucking tired of House/Senate Dems.

[WI_DEM]

25. that has always been the problem with the democratic party

it is why Will Rogers said, 'I don't belong to any organized political party--I'm a democrat." That is why they can't stay on message either.