Obama’s Pelosi Problem

The president has laid out a paradigm-shifting agenda. There will be pushback from the GOP—but less, perhaps, were it not for the House Speaker.

Holly Bailey
NEWSWEEK, Mar 9, 2009

Charlie Dent wanted to vote for Barack Obama's stimulus package. Obama really wanted Dent to vote for it. Nancy Pelosi? Not so much. Dent is a Republican congressman from Allentown, Pa., an old steel town that was in bad shape even before the recession. Most of the people Dent represents are Democrats who voted for Obama; the GOP congressman has held on to their support in part by positioning himself as the kind of guy who listens to his conscience, and his constituents, not his party's bosses. Throughout the years, he's irritated GOPleaders by siding with Democrats on issues like stem cells and education funding.

So when the president went looking for Republicans who might be persuaded to back his trillion-dollar economic-rescue package, Dent was at the top of his list. The week after the inauguration, Obama invited Dent, along with his wife and children, to the White House to watch the Super Bowl. A half dozen other Republicans Obama hoped to convert were also there. Over a dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs, the president and first lady put the full Obama charm offensive to work on the Dents. Michelle chatted up Dent's wife. Barack walked around serving hot oatmeal-raisin cookies. Sasha and Malia played Wii with the Dent children. For a journeyman lawmaker like Dent, being fussed over by the president of the United States was a heady experience. "I'll tell you," he says, "it's something you don't forget."

But in the end, it wasn't enough to win Dent's support. Along with every other Republican in the House, he voted no on the stimulus. He thought the plan was too expensive and weighed down with pet projects. But still, he might have been persuaded to go along—if it weren't for Nancy Pelosi.

(More here.)