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.)
No comments:
Post a Comment