According to Representative Lynn Woolsey, the White House is applying extensive pressure to freshman progressives who oppose either funding for Afghanistan or the funding for the IMF attached the Afghanistan supplemental funding bill.
The White House is playing hardball with Democrats who intend to vote against the supplemental war spending bill, threatening freshmen who oppose it that they won't get help with reelection and will be cut off from the White House, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) said Friday.
"We're not going to help you. You'll never hear from us again," Woolsey said the White House is telling freshmen. She wouldn't say who is issuing the threats, and the White House didn't immediately return a call. Woolsey said she herself had not been pressured because the White House and leadership know she's a firm no vote. But she had heard from other members about the White House pressure.
I don't think that progressives should rail against the White House applying this extreme level of pressure in the event of the supplemental bill. Really, if you fight against the White House, you should expect serious pushback from the White House.
However, what we should be demanding is an equivalent level of pressure to be placed on conservative Democrats when they cross the White House as well. What Progressives are doing in this instance is exactly what many conservative Democrats have done time and time again: holding up and / or significantly altering Democratic legislation by joining with Republicans. So far, despite many instances of conservative Democratic blocking legislation that the White House publicly endorsed, nothing approaching equivalent pressure has been demonstrated. It is almost enough to make a progressive think that the White House is taking sides in the party.
Compared to the one example of progressives blcking the administration on the Afghanistan supplemental, here are five examples in 2009 of conservative Democrats either defeating, watering down, or holding up Obama administration supported policy:
Passage of the full Employee Free Choice Act was prevented earlier this year by six conservative Democrats who flipped their votes from 2007. What pressure has the White House placed on Tom Carper (DE), Blanche Lincoln (AR), Ben Nelson (NE), Mark Pryor (AR), Arlen Sepcter (PA), Jim Webb (VA) in response?
Bankruptcy foreclosure reform, known as "cramdown," was defeated in the Senate back in late April. Eleven Democratic Senators voted against it. What pressure have they received?
The House Agricultural Committee is currently holding up climate change legislation, and demanding a $3.4 billion payout to agribusiness in order to pass it. This is even though that legislation has already been watered down below the targets set by President Obama during his campaign. Many of the Democrats on this committee are electorally vulnerable, and thus potentially susceptible to pressure from the White House. What pressure are they receiving?
The White House has repeatedly reiterated its support for a public option in health care reform. However, Kent Conrad has all but declared that effort dead in the Senate because it lacks the votes. Where is the pressure against Democrats like Mary Landrieu, who have backtracked their earlier support and now stated their opposition to a public plan?
It is difficult to complain about this, or any other, White House playing hardball with members of Congress that oppose their agenda.
However, there is a good reason for progressives to complain about a Democratic White House placing a huge amount of pressure on progressive Democrats in Congress when the White House does not seem to be applying anywhere near the same amount of pressure on conservative Democrats in Congress. This is especially the case given how this is the first time congressional progressives have made such a stand against the Obama administration's agenda, while conservative Democrats have done so repeatedly over the last five months.
Lacking equivalent pressure against Blue Dogs and Senate conservodems, the message from the Obama White House could easily be read as siding with Blue Dogs and Senate conservodems. If the Obama White House wants to avoid this perception, it should start applying equal pressure to all Democrats who oppose one or more of their major agenda items.
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