Barack Obama had hoped to have a $1 trillion economic stimulus bill on the Oval Office desk waiting for his signature on Inauguration Day. He had promised that the bill would pay only for projects that were going to stimulate recovery and create new jobs, and that it would exclude lawmakers' pet projects. But that hope has apparently foundered on the mess the Democrats find themselves in.
Rather than seizing the momentum they should have derived from the November election, the Dems are consumed by melodramas over disputed results, the Blagojevich-Burris spectacle (as well as the Coleman-Franken dispute) and ended up launching the new Congress with a show of political force and unintended farce.
President-elect Obama has kept his cards face-down, eager to conserve his political capital until January 20. He has remained aloof, not taking the time to develop the close relationship with Congress he needs. Lacking direction, the House Dems have split themselves and set a tone that will preclude the bipartisanship Obama frequently praises.
Pent-Up Liberalism
With only a week until he becomes President Obama, his hoped-for stimulus bill has already foundered because of his inexpert approach to Congress and the political equivalent of road rage that now seems to dominate the thinking of leading Democrats.
His plans for a stimulus are too vague to guide Congress, and the stronger Democratic majorities are very eager to break loose from the influence of the Bush White House.
Congressional Democrats, having spent the last eight years bashing Republicans for carrying the White House's water, have started to let loose their pent-up anger and liberal energy. Obama, they think, will sign whatever legislation they send to him. And they're probably right. For all the talk of "governing from the center," the Presidentelect isn't likely to veto any liberal policy or spending bills the Pelosi-Reid crowd send down from the Hill.
Pelosi gave a speech promising bipartisanship as she was sworn in again as speaker in the 1 1 lth Congress. But within hours of that speech, she proposed and the House quickly passed a series of rules changes that are, as one Republican House member told me, a "major change," not "the minor tweaks" that have been reported. On one key issue-tax increases-the new Pelosi rules are designed to prevent an up-or-down vote. Under the new rules, Republicans can't get such a vote on any tax decrease without proposing an equal tax increase of another kind, which they will not do.
Four or five of the so-called "Blue Dog" Democrats - who proclaim themselves strong on defense and against big government-indicated discomfort with the Pelosi rules, but all 30 of them voted with the strong-willed speaker.
The most depressing news out of the House is that the Republican leadership has no plans-or even any desire-to challenge Obama on the $ 1 trillion stimulus package that will, among with the economic damage it will cause, create jobs for another 600,000 federal bureaucrats.
Reid and Card-Check
Some House conservatives are entirely fed up with their leaders, and Obama hasn't even been sworn in yet. One remarked that it was fitting that Speaker Pelosi surrounded herself with her grandchildren when being sworn in because they will be the ones paying for the coming tidal wave of government spending. The Senate is as bad as the House.
Cantankerous Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) harrumphed to Roll Call, "I don't work for Barack Obama. I work with him." But Reid-facing three empty Democratic seats due to the messes in Illinois, Minnesota and New Yorkwants to enmesh Obama in Senate business as usual through the "stimulus" bill. Reid's eagerness to pass liberal legislation such as the "card-check" bill to end secret ballots in unionization elections and amnesty for illegal immigrants is palpable and - like Pelosi-he's confident Obama will sign anything the liberal Congress passes.
The Bush White House was infamous for its poor relationship with Congress. In George W.'s early days, the White House and Congress were linked by one of the best liaison officers ever to haunt a President's office. But when Powell Moore left, the relationship went from close to distant to almost uniformly hostile in a matter of weeks.
Last year, during the intense debates over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (and the President's so-called "wireless eavesdropping" program in the National Security Agency), one senior Republican senator told me that the Democrats' proposed limitations on NSA electronic interceptions would affect not only NSA, but probably interfere with battlefield intelligence gathering. As a former Defense Department official, I expressed my amazement that the Pentagon wasn't all over the Hill raising Cain over the problem.
His answer was a shock. The senator told me that" the Bush Administration wasn't welcome on the Hill, and that any "help" they would try to give would likely cause more harm than good. It will take a lot for Obama's team to sink that low, but they seem to be on the same path.
Obama's choice of former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta to head the Central Intelligence Agency came as a surprise to those who should have been consulted: Both incoming Senate Select Committee Chair Diane Feinstein (D. -Calif.) and ranking committee Republican Christopher Bond (Mo.) found out about the Panetta choice from the news media. Feinstein wasn't pleased, and immediately expressed skepticism about Panetta's credentials to take on the job of the nation's chief spy. (He has none except listening to security briefings at the Clinton White House.) Sen. Bond expressed openminded skepticism.
Obama's Disadvantage
Not consulting with Feinstein, Bond (and their House counterparts) is a rookie mistake Obama can't afford to repeat. But the economic stimulus bill appears to be suffering the same sort of mishandling.
Obama-by not spending the last two months cultivating Congress - has put himself at a great disadvantage in shaping the legislative agenda. Unless his leadership skills prove much better than we've seen, it may be Congress's leading the White House rather than the other way around.
© 2009 Human Events Publishing, Inc. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Source: Human Events
