INAPPROPRIATE CONDUCT
While President Obama and his White House staff have taken a
drubbing in the media for their lack of initiative in proposing
or heavily influencing Congressional legislation, their
fingerprints are all over one bill that should come into focus in
the very near future: the Defense Department appropriations bill,
which has cleared committee and is awaiting passage by the
Senate.
The White House is keen to have the DOD appropriations bill
passed, ideally before Obama makes a decision on the Defense
Department’s recommendations on military strategy in Afghanistan,
but it is also pressing for passage of an increase of the
national debt ceiling to more than $13 trillion. The House has
already passed a debt-ceiling bill and is awaiting the Senate’s
version.
But Democrats, particularly less liberal Democrats in the Senate,
are nervous about a debt-ceiling vote that they are certain
Republicans will make political hay with. Which is why, according
to Senate Appropriations Committee staff and Senate Democrat
leadership staff, White House legislative director Phil
Schiliro, and his deputy in charge of the
Senate, Shawn Maher, supported the
idea of attaching the debt limit increase as an amendment to the
DOD bill, one that will garner far greater bipartisan support
than a stand alone deficit increase bill would.
“We need the DOD bill passed and we need the debt ceiling
increased,” says a Democrat leadership aide. “I don’t think
Republicans want to be seen not supporting our troops and at the
same time potentially destroying the economic recovery we see
emerging.”
That is exactly what Democrats see as what another Senate staffer
called a “win-win” for them. “Maybe we are exposed for playing
politics with our troops by attaching the debt ceiling to the DOD
approps, but right now, no one in our caucus is necessarily ready
for that kind of fight, revisiting the debt debate. If we can
avoid it, we’re going to do it. And the White House supports us
all the way on this one. They have been very active on this.”
Some Democrats and Republicans in the Senate want some kind of
trigger inserted in the debt-increase bill that would require
reductions in spending and the national debt. But because the
House has already approved its debt bill, it would have to go
back for another vote on the trigger amendment, one that House
leadership does not want, particularly with the 2010 election
cycle approaching quickly.
DEDE’S DESPERATION
Dede Scozzafava’s
financial support to fund her collapsing Republican bid for the
New York 23rd Congressional District is now almost exclusively
being drawn from the Republican National Committee and the
National Republican Congressional Committee, and according to
NRCC sources, her staff is, essentially, “four paid staff and her
family,” adding ruefully, “and I’m not so sure about the
family.”
Scozzafava’s campaign hasn’t had a good week, taking hits almost
daily from conservative grassroots organizations and websites and
in the media. Last week, just about every major conservative
political website and organization called on Scozzafava to step
aside after it was revealed that her husband called the cops on a
Weekly Standard reporter who was politely asking
the candidate tough questions about her support for card check
legislation. Scozzafava’s husband also approached local Democrat
party leaders earlier this year about the possibility of her
running on the Democrat party line should the Republican
nomination not take shape.
Now, recent polling by the NRCC indicates she is running behind
Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman,
who is raising, according to campaign sources, about $50,000 a
day online to fund an aggressive media campaign across the
district. And in response to those bad polling numbers, the NRCC
is attempting to organize a petition demanding that Hoffman end
his campaign so that a Republican can win the race. NRCC staff
deny that they are behind the phone calls and petition for
Hoffman to step aside.
