7 stimulus lessons for the Dems
By: Glenn Thrush
Politico
February 15, 2009
The stimulus fight is now history—but Democrats who don’t study their stimulus mistakes are doomed to repeat them.
Two weeks of highly-concentrated debate, backroom maneuvering, internecine fighting and reconciliation have taught the nation’s Democratic ruling troika – Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid—a lot about their new triangular political relationship.
The fast-track passage of the $787 billion recovery package was a huge political achievement, but one marred by a number of headline-dominating screw-ups they’ll need to avoid in the future. The legislative blitzkrieg also revealed successful new strategies to pursue—and the bracing reality of a unified, recalcitrant opposition.
Here are seven lessons the Democrats should take from the stimulus, culled from two dozen Politico interviews with the people who hammered out the deal:
1. House Republicans are furniture
Over and over, Nancy Pelosi and her allies privately delivered the same message to Barack Obama: Mr. President, you can have bipartisanship or you can have a stimulus bill, but you can’t have both.
He seems to have gotten the message. House Republicans, badly outnumbered and shorn of lets-make-a-deal moderates by their losses in the two elections, have proven remarkably immune to crossover appeals, as have most GOP Senators.
(More here.)
Politico
February 15, 2009
The stimulus fight is now history—but Democrats who don’t study their stimulus mistakes are doomed to repeat them.
Two weeks of highly-concentrated debate, backroom maneuvering, internecine fighting and reconciliation have taught the nation’s Democratic ruling troika – Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid—a lot about their new triangular political relationship.
The fast-track passage of the $787 billion recovery package was a huge political achievement, but one marred by a number of headline-dominating screw-ups they’ll need to avoid in the future. The legislative blitzkrieg also revealed successful new strategies to pursue—and the bracing reality of a unified, recalcitrant opposition.
Here are seven lessons the Democrats should take from the stimulus, culled from two dozen Politico interviews with the people who hammered out the deal:
1. House Republicans are furniture
Over and over, Nancy Pelosi and her allies privately delivered the same message to Barack Obama: Mr. President, you can have bipartisanship or you can have a stimulus bill, but you can’t have both.
He seems to have gotten the message. House Republicans, badly outnumbered and shorn of lets-make-a-deal moderates by their losses in the two elections, have proven remarkably immune to crossover appeals, as have most GOP Senators.
(More here.)
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