Dissension in the ranks amongst Democrats?
This is another one from Captain Ed and I'm going to lift his description for readers because he's describing an interview Liberadio had with Jim Cooper. (If there wass a transcript, I'd put that up here, but I can't find one.) Rep. Cooper claims that he received word from President Obama urged him to vote against the pork bill:
Did Barack Obama encourage Blue Dog Democrats to abandon the stimulus bill in the House? That’s the claim of Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper, who told Liberadio Sunday that Obama encouraged him to vote against the bill. Cooper says that Obama knows it’s a “messy bill”, and wants a purer stimulus package. Cooper also says that Democratic leadership has treated its members like “mushrooms” ...
The joke Cooper references says that people should treat a particular group of people — I’ve heard reporters and management among them — like mushrooms: feed them BS and keep them in the dark. Cooper accuses Pelosi and his party’s leadership of doing just that in this interview. At one point, he says that Pelosi and her clique “live in fear” that their members will actually start reading the bills Pelosi & Co shove down their throats.
But that’s not the big news in this interview. Some have speculated that Barack Obama would have to go to war with Nancy Pelosi if he really wanted to push for bipartisanship on Capitol Hill. The stimulus package was the first and most critical piece of Obama’s domestic agenda, and Pelosi not only blocked Republicans from negotiating its terms, she filled it with non-stimulus spending that turned it into an omnibus appropriation bill, full of objectionable projects and embarrassing components, like contraceptive spending.
Small wonder that Obama might have taken offense to Pelosi’s ham-handed tactics and decided to respond in kind. If Cooper’s on the level, and I’m not sure why he’d lie about this, Obama might become a factor in a growing rebellion against the imperious Speaker and could help push her out – if enough Democratic House members get tired of the mushroom treatment.
The "rebellion" Captain Ed refers to is the one I picked on yesterday. The Blue Dogs -- 50 of them -- sent a letter to Steny Hoyer asking for his help in reigning in Pelosi because she's not treating them with any respect whatsoever. In fact, they elude to the fact that they're basically being treated the way she treats the Republicans. Nancy Pelosi and her group of cronies are drunk on power, and it's time to take her out.
Consider that if the Republicans could work a deal with the Blue Dogs, and add them to their numbers, it would give the GOP a total of 228 votes. (Right now the numbers are 255 Democrats, 178 Republicans, and 2 vacancies.) They could assemble a new stimulus bill, one with the necessary propositions to actually stimulate the economy, and ram it through without any interference from Pelosi. Even better, if the GOP in the House could reach an agreement with the Blue Dogs, they could get rid of Pelosi as Speaker and put a more sensible and willing person in her place. We have long thought that Steny Hoyer should have been the Speaker over Pelosi because she was already showing signs of being drunk on power before she was elected to the position back in 2006.
She's not abiding by the rule of the House. She's alienating a key bloc of her caucus. The time is coming where she'll have to pay the piper, and that fall isn't going to be short nor will it be painless.
Publius II
Did Barack Obama encourage Blue Dog Democrats to abandon the stimulus bill in the House? That’s the claim of Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper, who told Liberadio Sunday that Obama encouraged him to vote against the bill. Cooper says that Obama knows it’s a “messy bill”, and wants a purer stimulus package. Cooper also says that Democratic leadership has treated its members like “mushrooms” ...
The joke Cooper references says that people should treat a particular group of people — I’ve heard reporters and management among them — like mushrooms: feed them BS and keep them in the dark. Cooper accuses Pelosi and his party’s leadership of doing just that in this interview. At one point, he says that Pelosi and her clique “live in fear” that their members will actually start reading the bills Pelosi & Co shove down their throats.
But that’s not the big news in this interview. Some have speculated that Barack Obama would have to go to war with Nancy Pelosi if he really wanted to push for bipartisanship on Capitol Hill. The stimulus package was the first and most critical piece of Obama’s domestic agenda, and Pelosi not only blocked Republicans from negotiating its terms, she filled it with non-stimulus spending that turned it into an omnibus appropriation bill, full of objectionable projects and embarrassing components, like contraceptive spending.
Small wonder that Obama might have taken offense to Pelosi’s ham-handed tactics and decided to respond in kind. If Cooper’s on the level, and I’m not sure why he’d lie about this, Obama might become a factor in a growing rebellion against the imperious Speaker and could help push her out – if enough Democratic House members get tired of the mushroom treatment.
The "rebellion" Captain Ed refers to is the one I picked on yesterday. The Blue Dogs -- 50 of them -- sent a letter to Steny Hoyer asking for his help in reigning in Pelosi because she's not treating them with any respect whatsoever. In fact, they elude to the fact that they're basically being treated the way she treats the Republicans. Nancy Pelosi and her group of cronies are drunk on power, and it's time to take her out.
Consider that if the Republicans could work a deal with the Blue Dogs, and add them to their numbers, it would give the GOP a total of 228 votes. (Right now the numbers are 255 Democrats, 178 Republicans, and 2 vacancies.) They could assemble a new stimulus bill, one with the necessary propositions to actually stimulate the economy, and ram it through without any interference from Pelosi. Even better, if the GOP in the House could reach an agreement with the Blue Dogs, they could get rid of Pelosi as Speaker and put a more sensible and willing person in her place. We have long thought that Steny Hoyer should have been the Speaker over Pelosi because she was already showing signs of being drunk on power before she was elected to the position back in 2006.
She's not abiding by the rule of the House. She's alienating a key bloc of her caucus. The time is coming where she'll have to pay the piper, and that fall isn't going to be short nor will it be painless.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 9:55 AM
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