http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/obamas-left-wing-headache/article/2557353?utm_content=buffere6195&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=bufferObama's left wing headache
BY BRIAN HUGHES | DECEMBER 13, 2014 | 5:00 AM
The White House is hardly celebrating after narrowly avoiding another government shutdown, as the federal funding fight has given way to a progressive revolt that is forcing President Obama to somehow appease liberals while not sacrificing prospects for bipartisan compromise in a Republican Congress.
This is uncharted territory for Obama, facing open rebellion from the same lawmakers who have backed the White House throughout his six years in office.
That so many Democrats were willing to risk being blamed for a government shutdown rather than bend to White House lobbying on the omnibus spending bill shows the degree to which Obama’s political clout has diminished — and how much he will struggle to contain progressive frustrations during the lame-duck phase of his presidency.
“This isn’t a one-time thing. This isn’t something the White House can just gloss over,” said a senior aide for a House Democratic lawmaker. “They gave away too much [in the spending battle], and this will embolden members to challenge them if they do so again. You wait and see.”
The president cannot pursue the types of reforms he wants in his final two years if Democrats abandon him. As the so-called "cromnibus" showdown proved, Obama is unlikely to ever secure enough Republican support alone for passage of big-ticket items.
But Obama is in a tough spot politically. He is being accused by his own party of sacrificing liberal values to secure badly flawed legislation, while facing accusations from the Right of overstepping his constitutional authority with unprecedented regularity.
In other words, the president risks turning off the bases of two political parties, leaving him to win over a shrinking pool of more centrist lawmakers to give the White House political cover on Capitol Hill.
“It’s something that has been there all along but is now surfacing,” said Charles Walcott, a Virginia Tech political scientist and an expert on the presidency. “It may not be as important to Obama now to keep the entire Democratic coalition together. What would he get — a united minority that loses?”
The White House moved swiftly into damage control after twisting enough arms to ensure passage of the spending bill in the House Thursday night.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the fight was over “tactics, not principles,” and scoffed at suggestions that Obama would pursue policies not widely backed by Democrats.
“Many of you have written or observed and quoted Republicans saying that in the aftermath of the midterm elections, that the president was running to embrace the progressive wing of his party,” he told reporters on Friday. “That by making announcements — bold announcements on climate change and moving forward with immigration reform proposals using his executive authority, that declaring a clear position when it comes to net neutrality, that this was all evidence that the president was only interested in working closely with the left wing of his party.”
Yet, progressives argue the rare split between Obama and the party faithful is about more than tactics.
By allowing a dramatic increase in the amount individuals can donate to national political parties and tweaking the Dodd-Frank Act, Obama left many of his supporters wondering about his commitment to the ideals he championed in two presidential campaigns.
The president has wielded his veto pen just twice since entering the Oval Office, a record Republicans soon will test.
And as questions raged about the direction of the Democratic Party, 300 former Obama campaign staffers signed a letter urging Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to run for president, demonstrating the challenge of reconciling a president’s plans for his legacy with activists' hopes for a more progressive standard bearer.
Despite the acrimony with the White House, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, at least publicly, attempted to present a united front.
“I appreciate members leaving in doubt the number of Democrats prepared to vote for final passage, enabling us to maintain leverage in the last day’s negotiations hoping to remove the two most egregious riders,” she wrote in a letter to colleagues.
Pelosi added that Democrats “stand ready to sustain the president’s veto when necessary.”
Yet, other Democrats said that Obama’s posture in the spending fight proved he was open to taking a more conciliatory position with Republicans. And some warned allies against adopting the same maximalist approach progressives have ascribed to the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party.
“A lot of the rhetoric you heard from Warren wasn’t all that different from what you'd hear from Ted Cruz, at least in terms of strategy,” said a veteran Democratic consultant with close ties to the White House. “You can’t act like the Republican majority doesn’t exist.”
