So much for the “Problem Solvers” caucus:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) remained unmoved after moderates in her caucus threatened to withhold their votes on the reconciliation budget resolution unless she brings the bipartisan infrastructure bill to the floor first.
“This is no time for amateur hour,” she said on a Monday leadership call, per a source familiar with the conversation. “Biden’s agenda needs to show the results that we know it can produce.”
She added that there is no way for the bills to pass unless they proceed in the order that she, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and President Biden laid out months ago.
“For the first time, America’s children have leverage,” she said on the call. “I will not surrender that leverage.”
The “Problem Solvers” caucus are going to vote in the order that Pelosi says they will, and they will go out and campaign on the money they brought to their districts, and hopefully they’ll win even if they can’t paint themselves as serious moderate centrists. Frankly, I think she’s done them a big favor.
Nicole
One of the great Speakers in our nation’s history.
PsiFighter37
Hope this gets sorted out sooner rather than later. This all needs to get done this year to avoid election-year votes no one will want to take.
burnspbesq
If I still lived in NJ-05, I would be beating the bushes looking for a viable primary challenger for Gottheimer. In 2018, he was a breath of fresh air. Now he smells to high Heaven.
Anonymous At Work
Just gonna sit back and wait for the “Passive-Voice Pelosi Porn” to roll in. You know, “Pelosi should be replaced [by whom???]” articles written as if there were a large anti-Pelosi faction with a candidate that could win an intra-party vote for Speaker.
Brendan in NC
@Nicole: Damn right. She knows how to count votes; and whip, when needed. I hope she’s mentoring someone in her image to take over for her. Whenever she decides that is.
Eunicecycle
Do not take on moms and grandmoms.
Just Chuck
Not to be gloomy, but I can’t help but feel this will all get rolled back if we don’t pass a new Voting Rights Act.
Joe Falco
The conservative dems can go ahead and move on. They put up a day or two of resistance, gave themselves the veneer they are “serious lawmakers” they can talk on and on about next year, and can vote for improving the lives of their constituents. A fine kabuki play was had by all. Enough already.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Just Chuck:
You’re being realistic, not gloomy.
Kay
The amount of money they’re pushing towards low income and working class kids (obviously thru their families) is something all Democrats can be proud of- it’s a huge investment.
It’s also a huge experiment. It’s what “having nice things” starts to look like:
She wants a chance to show it works. That we really can plow money into the next generation and it will pay off.
piratedan
@Just Chuck: I share those fears and while we’re winning in a jury-rigged game designed by our opponents, all we can do is to keep on doing what we can in spite of the flaming hoops placed between us and our goal.
There’s a lot of cans that have been kicked down the road and apparently the Biden Administration is the curb that they’ve come to rest on…
Afghanistan
Climate Change
Income Inequality
Voting Rights
White Nationalism
Public Health
All these bills are coming due NOW apparently, I watch Smilin Joe and Nancy Smash try to deal with each of them in turn and doing so in the face of the usual bad faith actors in the GOP and the 4th estate.
Just hoping that they get an opportunity to finish the job.
trollhattan
@Nicole:
+1. It’s really, really hard to ponder that she and Newt Gingrich have held the same job.
Knowing Newt (and we all do, sadly) he thinks he is the Bestest Ever. I’m at the part of “Reaganland” where he first shows up as a history “professor” and serial failed candidate for office. If only it had remained that way.
bbleh
@Joe Falco: Exactly. And if one or two of them really think they need to vote “no” for local reasons, they talk quietly to Pelosi’s office, and they get a “pass.” Happens all the time.
Uncle Cosmo
@Nicole: Anyone remember that Columbus statue that was yanked down near Baltimore’s Little Italy and deepsixed into the Inner Horrible?
That prime real estate is just begging to be occupied by a statue of former Baltimore Mayor Tommy d’Alesandro’s little girl. It may not happen in my lifetime, but I predict it will happen – she is simply the most consequent public official in the history of Charm City. (And that most definitely includes Nixon’s disgraced nolo-contendring petty-crook of a VP.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Gottheimer strikes me as a certified marble headed fuckwit– Joe Manchin’s political son. Cuellar’s been half a troll for a while. Jared Golden’s an odd duck, to say the least, who knows how to win in a trump district, so…. /shrugging emoji/. I was surprised and disappointed to see Stephanie Murphy sign her name to that claptrap.
bbleh
@trollhattan: I guess I would argue that he remained a failed candidate for office, even though he managed to get elected.
Kay
There’s a competition argument for it. Our elites will get better if there’s a scrappy, somewhat subsidized rabble pushing up trying to take their slots :)
We’re not getting the quality we need from that group and they’re acting to insulate themselves from having to compete with the bottom 90%. Knock some of them out of the top slots :)
What, is this a CARTEL? They need a monopoly on moving up? Democrats should say “you’re anti-competitive!”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@trollhattan: Newt was trying to change the Speaker of the House into the Prime Minster. Typical medicor white boi move, screwed up his job so he expects a promotion for it.
Betty Cracker
Love it!
Xavier
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: Obamacare shows that it’s hard to roll back popular programs.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
She needs all of them though, so, ugh. Hard job. They do have some leverage. Sadly.
Kelly
My Blue Dog, Problem Solver, Congressman Kurt Schrader will sign letters, issue press releases then vote the way Pelosi needs him to. This has been a Democratic seat since 1997. Cook +2 D but vote totals usually 50%+ D vs 40%+R.
oldster
My first introduction to the “Problem Solvers Caucus” was through my local rep, Tom Reed of NY-23.
His problem was that he is a rabid right-wing Trump-lover, and he wants to appear to be a moderate. The Caucus was designed to solve that problem for him, by letting him hang out and play fake-bipartisan with a bunch of fake-democrats.
And that’s all they do: they give cover to right-wingers, whichever party they may be in. They are not genuine centrists. They are not genuine pragmatists. They are not trying to make the system work better. They are not trying to solve the real problems in this country.
So I’m glad that Nancy is planning to stomp on them, and I hope they don’t leave shit on her high-heeled soles.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@oldster: Good news – they’re going to gerrymander NY-23 into a purple (at least) district and then old Tom will have a run for his money.
Benw
@piratedan: we got 99 problems but Pelosi ain’t one
JPL
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: The Supreme Court will overturn any voting rights act. Roberts has paved the way.
Uncle Cosmo
@Eunicecycle: Do not take on
moms and grandmomsItalian-American grandmothers – they’ll dice you up and dump the remnants into Mason jars faster than you medigani can learn to say bruschetta.Matt McIrvin
@Anonymous At Work: And all the anti-Democratic lefties assuming the dislike of Pelosi is about their pet issues and not about the party’s right wing revolting.
raven
(CNN)Perhaps unhappy with the soaring profile of fellow Floridian Ron DeSantis among the Trumpist base of the Republican Party, Sen. Rick Scott decided to do something about it on Monday.
“After the disastrous events in Afghanistan, we must confront a serious question: Is Joe Biden capable of discharging the duties of his office or has time come to exercise the provisions of the 25th Amendment?” he tweeted.
Which, whaaa?
Matt McIrvin
@oldster: I figure that in my sister’s Virginia district, Abigail Spanberger was about the best they could do–the place has a history of electing hard-right wingnuts. Whether that’s true going forward, who knows.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: One of the things I admire about Pelosi is her ability to know when to be conciliatory and when to swing the hammer. If she’s smacking them down in those terms, she must be pretty confident they’ll fold. Sure hope she’s right!
Tony Gerace
@burnspbesq: Yeah, I live in Gottheimer’s district. He’s terrible. The Joe Manchin of New Jersey
Another Scott
@Just Chuck: C-Span Radio is covering committee hearings on the Voting Rights Act right now. Apparently they’re getting close (one more hearing?) to the Markup stage.
They’re going to get it done.
Cheers,
Scott.
MisterForkbeard
@raven: “We have confronted this question and immediately realized it’s a stupid question.”
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Just calling themselves the “problem solvers caucus” is insufferable. Ugh. The “freedom caucus”
Pelosi should ban self congratulatory nonsense names, by decree.
Anonymous At Work
@Matt McIrvin: Nah, they are making noise to get attention, same as Problem Solvers. However, unlike the Problem Solvers, the progressive wing has solutions to offer, just not the votes to pass it. So they make noise, show their numbers, float their actual ideas (half-of-what-was-offered is not an “idea” or “solution”) and see if Pelosi and leadership will help whip votes.
Same dynamic at “Problem Solvers” but their earnestness keeps them from being hated.
cain
@Kelly:
A conversation with him is probably still in order to make sure that toeing the line is an important thing for a Democratic seat. (if he wants to keep it)
I would call him, but I’m in Suzanne Bonamici’s district and that woman is awesome.
cain
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
We should be looking to that across all the blue states. Two can play that game. We’ll make sure that we keep the House at all costs and make in-roads against the Senate.
That voting rights bill is going to be needed though – badly.
cain
@JPL: Let them try – but we should still pass it and make them try to turn it over – given the boundless evidence of tomfoolery.
cain
@raven:
lol – that moron – like the cabinet is going to do any such things. His president tried to do an insurrection and is behind the whole leave afghanistan thing. I wish our media would confront this asshole repeatedly. But DC press is right onboard with the outrage.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@JPL: It would be pretty much a blatant disregard for the Constitution’s Article 1, Sec. 4 delegation of powers to Congressional lawmaking to make or alter state’s election regs, as long as it applies equally to every state and not just some states as the preclearance rules did.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I was wondering how much of this was about SALT, which I imagine is a big deal in the McMansion-y parts of Gottheimer’s district
He’s got, as Armando from D-Kos says, a “pat on the head” from the latest spin-off of Politico, which I guess he can email blast to his donors, and he’ll make a big stink about having brought SALT deductions back, even though I gather it’s already in the Senate bill, and there’s a growing consensus that Pelosi will do a “deem and pass” strategy that passes both the bipartisan and reconciled Senate bills at the same time.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: When Abigail Spanberger won the VA 7th, she became the first Democrat to represent the district since Virginia’s party realignment in the 1970’s. The incumbent she beat was a type of right wing nut. The ones before included Eric Cantor, and were standard Chamber of Commerce/Country Club types. This Virginia Republican “establishment” used to call the shots in the party. Then an alliance of tea party “populists” and politicized evangelicals started to gain power, starting with the primary loss of Eric Cantor. Cantor lost his primary in 2014, and the new Congressman lost to Spanberger in 2018.
Spanberger’s challenger last year was of the populist wing. She won, but it took a couple days of absentee ballot counting before this was certain.
I consider Spanberger to be a very good Representative. But then, I think that the practical differences between Spanberger and say, the 15th most liberal member of Speaker Pelosi’s caucus tend to be exagerated.
A Ghost to Most
There is no centrism when one side is fascism.
Just Chuck
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): I’m sure the Strict Constitutional Originalists on SCOTUS will hew to the text of the Constitution, yeppers.
Gin & Tonic
Waiting to be hooked up to the apheresis machine for my regular red cell donation.
Just Chuck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Acronym expansion? I’m guessing you’re not talking about the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.
Gin & Tonic
@Just Chuck: State and local tax, I suspect.
Uncle Cosmo
@raven: Let’s give some deep thought instead to how we can throw the crooked “Skeletor” Scott the fuck out of the Senate.
craigie
I’m going to start using this at work.
Catherine D.
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: I thought odious Tom said he wasn’t running after his groping (IIRC) accusations.
oldster
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
Old Tom has already announced that he won’t run again.
He was just like the modal Republican in being guilty of some pretty nasty sexual misconduct, and unlike the modal Republican in deciding to own up to it and not run again. He also admitted at the time that he had a serious alcohol problem (though this admission was also intended as partial exculpation from the sexual assault –“I don’t remember anything because I was so drunk!”)
So anyhow — NY-23 may finally get a Democrat once again. But if we’re doomed to another Republican, it won’t be Tom Reed.
different-church-lady
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
Not much difference nowadays.
different-church-lady
There’s a reason they call her Nancy Smash.
sixthdoctor
@Uncle Cosmo: BTW that same evening that crooked Lurch-lookin’ dirtbag groveled to the Pres for federal disaster relief for Florida from the storm.
J R in WV
@JPL:
Actually, the Legislative body can pass an act that is NOT reviewable by the Judges/Justices. It would make the justices cry, but it’s plain language in the Constitution. If they [the Supremes] fuck up new voting rights legislation, that is exactly what needs to happen.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Just Chuck:
I mean, it’s plain as day what it means
cwmoss
@cain: I’m in Blumenauer’s district now but was in Bonamici’s until 2019. She had a town hall in Hillsboro in early 2017 where a staff person walked away from the stage with a hot mic and it was a like the bit in Naked Gun where Frank Drebin took a hot mic into the bathroom!
Yutsano
I keep saying it over and over again.
Do. Not. Fuck. With. A. Nonna.
La Nonna is probably asleep else she could confirm.