Arizona's First Political Blog

E-mail Anonymous Mike at zonitics4-at-yahoo.com

By Anonymous Mike, pseudonymously.

 
Dropping the Hammer

Around the time of the election, I posited that in any future battles between an Obama White House and a Democratic Congress it would be the latter that would win. After all the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress before Obama even launched his campaign and they could claim they made him rather than the other way around.

At first I wondered a bit if I made the right call. Right after the election, Obama selected Congressman Rahm Emmanuel to be his chief-of-staff. Emmanuel not noly was a congressional critter, but he was the brains behind the Democrats taking the House in 2006. Combine that with his past experience in the Clinto White House and I thought that he might be the man to help Obama control Congress.

I guess not.

First indication of what was going to happen was when Obama allowed Congress to write his administration-defining legislation, the stimulus bill. Between his inaguration and the bill's passage, the man who got elected to the world's most powerful office on the platform of hope and change basically acted as the chief majority whip on a bill essentially written by David Obey.

Now you have Obama's presser on earmarks and the omnibus bill.

Keep in mind the omnibus bill everyone is so worked up on is this year's budget bill, not next year's. Pelosi and the gang has kept government going on continuing resolutions for the past 5 1/2 months so they could get bypass the Bush Administration and land this sucker on Obama's desk. So for the past 4 1/2 months, since his election, Obama has known the day would come when he would be tested on this bill regarding his earmark pledge.

So what did he do?

He called the bill old business left over from the previous administration, despite knowing that the bill was designed for his signature, and promised to work on earmark reform after he signed it. If you remember after he signed the travesty of a "stimulus" bill he promised the country a future of fiscal restraint.

Less than 2 months into office and he's already getting pushed around by the likes of Pelosi and Obey. How embarassing. I cannot wait until years from now when the stories come out of how the critters up on Capitol Hill dropped the hammer on the Obama team and told them how things were going to work.
posted by Anonymous Mike at 1:31 PM