The New Bailout

[TheMercenary]

Did Reid roll Pelosi?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid played a little high-stakes chicken with each other at the tail end of Wednesday’s shotgun stimulus talks.

It’s not clear who won – or who blinked.

According to a half dozen Congressional aides and members, Reid went before the cameras Wednesday to announce a stimulus deal before Pelosi had agreed on all the details of school construction financing.

“It’s ruffled feathers, big time,” said a House Democrat speaking on condition of anonymity. “The speaker went through the roof.”

Added one House Democratic aide: “He tried to roll her and she knew it.”

A few minutes after Reid announced the deal, Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) convened a public meeting of the House-Senate conference committee.

It was supposed to be a glorified photo op. But there were no House Democrats in the room – and Inouye hastily announced the meeting would be scrapped pending a Pelosi “briefing” of members on the details.

The problem, according to people familiar with the situation, was that Pelosi hadn’t completely signed off on the Senate’s approach to restoring some of the $21 billion in school construction funding. House Democrats are pushing to have school-repair funding listed as a recurring expense; Senate Republicans want such an allocation to be a one-time-only deal.

The approach adopted by the Senate still infuriates many members of her caucus, and Pelosi had yet to fully make her case to dissenters, a source told Politico.

The result: Pelosi summoned Reid to her office – her turf – to hash out unspecified modifications to the package prior to a 5:15 re-convening of the conference committee.

People close to Pelosi painted a different picture – one that portrays Reid as the one being rolled. Pelosi, they say, strategically permitted Reid to make his announcement – and then held up her approval to extract a slightly better deal.

Contradicting other sources who said that Pelosi had been blindsided, a House Democratic aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Reid had placed a “head’s up” phone call to Pelosi before announcing the deal.

A Senate aide concurred, saying that Pelosi "wasn't blindsided" and "didn't say no" when Reid announced he was going public. The staffer added that Pelosi spent much of the day trying -- unsuccessfully -- to convince the three Senate Republicans to make changes.

Pelosi told reporters late Wednesday that she had some success selling the Senate on unspecified legislative language "that spoke to the purpose of school construction."

Whatever the real story, Pelosi’s members were more than a little bewildered and headed into Wednesday’s night’s negotiation singing their Kumbayas through gritted teeth.

“[Senate Democrats] don’t know everything that’s in the bill,” said a laughing Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Ways and Committee. “So I’m afraid to go to that damned conference.”

Even Senate Democrats seemed a little flummoxed. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), briefing reporters after the Reid presser, stopped short of actually saying he was 100 percent sure a deal had been cut.

"There was general agreement," he said. "It doesn't mean everything is locked in yet. But if we didn't have an agreement, then there wouldn't have been a news conference."


http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennt...d.html?showall

[TGRR]

There is no honor among dumbasses.

[TheMercenary]

Bipartisan...

Republicans Shut Out of Stimulus Conference Negotiations
by Connie Hair

02/11/2009


Republicans have caught the Democrats in a midnight “stimulus” power play that seeks to cut Republican conferees out of the House-Senate negotiations to resolve a final version of the Obama “stimulus” package. Staff members from the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) met last night to put together the “stimulus” conference report.

They intend to attempt to shove this $1.3 trillion spending bill through in the dead of the night without Republican input so floor action can take place in both chambers on Thursday.

I spoke with House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) moments ago about this latest version of Democratic “bipartisanship.” Pence told me, “I think the American people deserve to know that legislation that would comprise an amount equal to the entire discretionary budget of the United States of America is being crafted without a single House Republican in the room.”


Some Republicans reportedly were in the late-night conference. But -- at least from the Senate -- the official Republican conferees were excluded. HUMAN EVENTS has received e-mail confirmations from the staffs of both Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and John Thune (R-S.D.) saying that they had no participation in the conference.

Today, the House-Senate deal was announced in a press conference held by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Reid especially praised Susan Collins for her tireless work in developing the $789 billion deal.

UPDATED: The deal was Snowe's and Collins's, according to a Senate source. Sen. Specter, who had been in Harry Reid's office for an earlier meeting on the compromise, left at about 7 p.m. At 8:45 p.m., there was another meeting at which Sens. Snowe and Collins were the only Republicans present. They made the deal, and Specter signed on to it later. He had given an indication of the deal earlier that evening in an MSNBC interview.

No House Republicans were at either meeting.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30667

...Republicans have caught the Democrats in a midnight “stimulus” power play that seeks to cut Republican conferees out of the House-Senate negotiations to resolve a final version of the Obama “stimulus” package. Staff members from the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) met last night to put together the “stimulus” conference report. ...

What a bogus charge.

First draft of House/Senate conference committee bills to work out the differences in language between the two bills is nearly always done by the staffs of the majority, often working late into the night..and then presented to the full conference committee for review and discussion.

The purpose of the first draft is NOT to provide new proposals but to address the differences in the House and Senate versions as passed by their respective majorities.

Since nearly all Republicans voted against the bills in the House and Senate, by the very nature of their vote, they had little, if any, input into the first draft of a conference bill.

[TheMercenary]

So you are saying that Pelosi and Reid have not shut out the Republickins from the process and the people on the inside say otherwise. Ok.

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

So you are saying that Pelosi and Reid have not shut out the Republickins from the process and the people on the inside say otherwise. Ok.

No..please reread your article and my response carefully. Your conservative publication, at the urgiing of the Republicans in Congress, is making an issue out of nothng.

Add it obviously worked, since you are so concerned!

I said the Democratic staff developed the FIRST DRAFT. Your article implies that this uncommon, when in fact, it is not.

The Republicans were involved in the discusisons and development of the final draft that was or will be voted on the House/Senate today.

[TheMercenary]

I do believe that would be Three Repubs. Anyway it will be interesting to see how they reconcile the House and Senate versions. I just want them to get it done so we can see if it really is going to make any difference at all. There is plenty of evidence out there to suggest the the Republickins have had very little influence if any on the House bill.

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I do believe that would be Three Repubs....

How many Repubilcans are on the Conference Committee....that would be Four (and Six Democrats, reflecthing their majority status).

[TheMercenary]

But you do understand that they are now just dealing with the left-overs. Essentially the meat of the day was put on the table by the Dems. The Conf Comm is juggling around the last few pieces and tweaking it, since the Dems are 6-4 it really does not matter what the Repubs want. I do believe it is set up that way for a reason. Maybe you assume there will be a lot of compromise, I do not.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

But you do understand that they are now just dealing with the left-overs. Essentially the meat of the day was put on the table by the Dems. The Conf Comm is juggling around the last few pieces and tweaking it, since the Dems are 6-4 it really does not matter what the Repubs want. I do believe it is set up that way for a reason. Maybe you assume there will be a lot of compromise, I do not.

Welcome to life in the minority. The R's were real kind to the D's when the shoe was on the other foot. Don't like it now do you/they? Too late to cry about it.

Perhaps both sides will learn from the experience and start doing what is best for the country instead of themselves. I don't think so, but I still have hope.

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

But you do understand that they are now just dealing with the left-overs. Essentially the meat of the day was put on the table by the Dems. The Conf Comm is juggling around the last few pieces and tweaking it, since the Dems are 6-4 it really does not matter what the Repubs want. I do believe it is set up that way for a reason. Maybe you assume there will be a lot of compromise, I do not.

Of course it is set up that way for a reason...it always has and always will. The majoirty party has a majority on the conference committee. In this case, 3Ds and 2Rs from the Senate and 3Ds and 2Rs from the House. Why is that so shocking?

Compromise doesnt mean an equal voice or the same number of seats at the table when you are the minority party.

I thought Obama and the Democratic leadership went the extra mile by ensuring that a significant portion of the stimulus bill (1/3 of total) met the Republican demands for tax cuts and against the wishes of the more liberal wing of the Democratic party who wanted nearly all spending.

I dont think the Republicans would have been satisfied until it was the other way around: 2/3 tax cuts and 1/3 spenidng. .

So lets not pretend that the Republicans were willing to compromise and the Democrats were not.

The Democrats are the majority in part because the voters did not want the same old policies and solutions.

In the end, you are right...the Democrats have more ownship of this bill. If it works, they get the credit. If it fails, they get the blame.

Repubilcans are already suggesting it will be a 2010 campaign issue. IMO, its a little too soon for that and a risky strategy for Republicans, giving the preception to some thay they prefer being obstructionists rather than contributing to consens building.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Redux

In the end, you are right...the Democrats have more ownship of this bill. If it works, they get the credit. If it fails, they get to blame the R's.

Fixed that for ya

[TheMercenary]

So we are in agreement after all.

Originally Posted by classicman

Fixed that for ya

Please dont change the context of my post when it appears in a quote box..as you did in the above post (#12).

I dont know if it was an attempt at humor, but in any case, I assume you have no right to change my words unless I am violating some rules or protocals of the Cellar.

If you do have that right to edit the meaning of a member's post, please let me know and I will take my participation elsewhere.

Thanks!

[classicman]

Yes it was an attempt at humor - something I have been failing at quite well lately.
You made some very good points and I am sorry if I diminished them with what I did.