|
Politico...
Debt
deal complicates liberals’
support
By Glenn Thrush & Carrie Budoff
Brown
8/1/11
President
Barack Obama’s road to debt
ceiling compromise runs right through the left wing of the Democratic
Party.
Much
of the focus Sunday centered on
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who must wrestle conservatives
into line
to pass the deal before Tuesday’s default deadline. Yet team Obama
quickly
found out it is confronting an equally daunting sales jobs with a
Democratic base
embittered by compromise, ditched policy priorities and what many
liberals view
as an endless series of Obama capitulations.
“If
I were a Republican, this is a
night to party,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat who chairs
the
Congressional Black Caucus, told MSNBC Sunday night.
If
Obama thought he had problems with
liberals before this, he’ll have even more now, no matter how hard the
White
House spins it as a “victory for bipartisan compromise, for the economy
and for
the American people,” as the administration’s official talking points
claimed.
Obama
himself, appearing Sunday night
in the White House briefing room, seemed more disgusted than delighted.
“Is
this the deal I would have
preferred?” No,” Obama said. “We could have made the tough choices
required on
entitlement reform and tax reform right now rather than through a
special
congressional committee process. But this compromise does make a
serious down
payment on the deficit reduction we need . and ensures also that will
we not
face this same kind of crisis in six months or eight months or twelve
months.”
Democratic
leaders, in general, seem
willing to back their leader. But it’s not clear whether House Minority
Leader
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will be able to rally her divided caucus to
deliver the
hundred or more votes necessary to compensate for the loss of GOP
backing.
“I
look forward to reviewing the
legislation with my caucus to see what level of support we can
provide,” a
noncommittal Pelosi said Sunday after details of the deal were released.
Even
if the measure passes, senior
administration officials said the president will hit the road to make
his case
for the compromise. Unlike his previous jobs-centered events, he’ll
have to
court the base that delivered him to the Oval Office in 2008, not just
the
independents he covets for 2012, many fellow Democrats say.
Read
the rest of the story at Politico
|
