Jay Newton-Small really knows how to concern troll. Let me tell you something. Nancy Pelosi can take care of herself and protect her majority without a lot of help from the White House, thank you. She’s twice as tough as anyone in the White House, and that’s includes Rahmbo (who’s half an idiot half the time). Personally, I think a lot of House members overreacted to Robert Gibbs’s admission that the Democrats could lose control of the House of Representatives in the fall. As I said in a previous post, the most forgivable sin is telling the truth when you shouldn’t have, and really, where’s the harm? I think donors and activists needed the wake-up call. Besides, Pelosi got Gibbs to back down in a New York minute and extracted promises for the campaign from the administration in the bargain. The whole thing was much ado about nothing. But not for Newton-Small.
Still, in a week that should have otherwise been good for the Democrats – the Senate passed financial regulatory reform, BP capped the well gushing oil into the Gulf, and Goldman Sachs paid a record fine to settle SEC charges – the episode lingers like a bad hangover.
Perhaps part of it is that Dems truly are worried about losing the House and giving the GOP video footage of their weakness from the White House podium really smarted. Part of it, too, though is a simmering rawness beneath the big tent as legislation gets bogged down and polls slump with three months to go till the elections; people often take out their frustrations on those closest to them. Everyone keeps poking their heads out, hoping the rain has stopped and it’s starting to get rather warm under there.
This isn’t Pelosi’s first spat with the White House, nor is it likely to be the last. But it was the most visible. Notably, Pelosi won this round: not only did Gibbs change his tune but she gained pledges from the White House to fight to retain the House. All siblings squabble: It’s mine! She hit me! I’m telling! Just doing it on the national stage right at the hour everyone’s expecting you to clasp hands and sing kumbaya risks putting off donors and depressing the base.
Newton-Small needs to do some research on what depresses the base. The prospect of losing the House does not depress the base. Fining the crap out of Goldman-Sachs, passing historic anti-bankster legislation, capping the oil well in the Gulf, and (coming soon) confirming an Upper West Side liberal to the Supreme Court are not actions that depress the base. Even seeing the Speaker treat the press secretary like a dog toy doesn’t depress the base. What depresses the base is eating shit from Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Evan Bayh, and Mary Landrieu. What depresses the base is having to get permission from Scott Brown or Olympia Snowe to pass any legislation. Not being able to close Guantanamo Bay because our elected officials in Congress are a bunch of pussies is depressing to the base. Escalating our efforts in Afghanistan is depressing to the base. Failing to criminally prosecute war criminals and torturers is depressing to the base. Ongoing use of Bush-era legal arguments for covering up government activity is depressing to the base.
So, let’s get real. The Democratic base isn’t all that happy, but they know Obama had a great week and they know the Gibbs-Pelosi flap was a sideshow barely noticeable in the historic context of what has been and will shortly be accomplished by the president.
