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It used to be that Democrats would mutter under their breath about President Barack Obama and the White House.

Now, with the midterm elections behind them, some leading members of the president's own party are airing their frustrations with little restraint and charting their own course.

In speeches, negotiations and congressional hearings, several high-profile Democrats are disregarding the White House in ways large and small. The White House has responded with an extraordinary veto threat while Obama has made a round of calls to liberal Democrats urging them to stand up against their own leadership.

Consider that in just a week's time:

?Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate's Democratic leader, was on the verge of cutting a deal with Republicans with a 10-year price tag of more than $400 billion in tax breaks without White House input.

?Sen. Chuck Schumer, a prominent member of the Senate Democratic leadership, raised new doubts about the timing of Obama's 2010 health care law.

?Sen. Robert Menendez, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, began work with Republicans against the Obama administration's wishes on new penalties against Iran.

"There is always going to be some friction between somebody who's never going to run again and a bunch of people who are," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. "There's going to be a natural rub there ? the president never has to worry about his approval rating again."

Put differently, many senators have served a long time; presidents come and go. With two years left in his two-term presidency, Obama's time is running out.

That doesn't mean Obama necessarily wields a weaker hand. The deal by Reid, D-Nev., to permanently extend certain tax breaks failed after the White House rallied liberals and issued a veto threat. Menendez, D-N.J., has yet to put together a veto-proof majority on his Iran plan.

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Obama, Congressional Dems Show Cracks in Unity

House Democratic LeaderNancy Pelosiof California may run the minority party in the House, but the current maneuvering over a must-pass spending bill could serve as an example of how she still holds some power.

The Republican-controlled House faces a Dec. 11 deadline to pass a spending bill or risk a repeat of the government shutdown that occurred last year. To pass the measure, GOP leaders may need some Democratic votes, partly because a bloc of conservative Republicans is unhappy that the spending bill does not do enough to stop President Barack Obama from shielding millions of illegal immigrants from deportations.

Democrats have said their support depends on the contents of the spending measure, which is expected to be released next week. That gives Mrs. Pelosi some leverage, but at a news briefing Friday she did not show her cards as to how, if at all, she plans to wield it.

Withholding Democratic votes could risk another government shutdown an outcome that Democrats have worked to avoid out of a belief that such brinkmanship is irresponsible. The same thinking is also the reason Democrats supplied the votes to raise the U.S. borrowing limit in February, even though the vote subject members of the caucus to attacks on the campaign trail.

As it relates to shutting down the government, call us responsible, Mrs. Pelosi told reporters.

A vote next week on the spending bill will provide a new test. Mrs. Pelosi cited concerns that the measure would include provisions that she feared might weaken school-lunch and clean water standards. She said that there are some very destructive riders in it that would be unacceptable to us and I think unacceptable to the American people.

Some of those provisions, she said, would bepolicies Democrats would not support. But she stopped short of threatening to take down the legislation over any particular provision. Im not saying any one of them is a deal breaker, but Im saying these are an array of concerns that we have.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) also said in a statement Friday that he is encouraged by his recent conversations with Republicans and that he looks for the House to send the Senate a clean funding bill meaning one free of policy riders.

A spokeswoman for House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R., Ky.) suggested that Republicans wouldnt advance anything that would alienate the entire Democratic caucus. We expect to have a bill ready to file on Monday, the spokeswoman said on Friday. Our intention is to craft a bipartisan product that members on both sides can support.

That was the same message that House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) delivered a day earlier. I expect that well have bipartisan support to pass the omnibus appropriation bill, Mr. Boehner said.

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Democrats Arent Showing Their Cards Yet in Spending Bill Strategy

Democrats Sell "Hate" Instead of "Hope" For Holidays
The DNC is selling some strongly worded gifts for the holidays. One is a tumbler that promotes hate! Plus, Russell Brand gets called out by a reporter and NATO #39;s new task force!

By: PJ Media

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Democrats Sell "Hate" Instead of "Hope" For Holidays - Video

Published December 04, 2014

Democrats are turning to Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt and others to lead a task force to address problems in recent midterm elections.

The Democratic National Committee on Thursday named a 10-person panel to examine the party's struggles during the 2014 and 2010 elections and recommend solutions. It aims to figure out why Democrats have struggled to turn out core voters in nonpresidential races and will examine its tactics, messaging and get-out-the-vote operations.

DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman, said Democrats hope to "build on what we've done that works, identify and prioritize challenges and ultimately improve our party's performance in future elections."

President Barack Obama's party suffered massive losses in the November elections, giving up control of the Senate, losing seats in the House and ceding control in several states.

The post-mortem will feature a cross-section of party loyalists and activists, including Beshear, who was first elected in 2007 in GOP-leaning Kentucky; Schmidt, Google's former CEO and an informal adviser to Obama's team; Donna Brazile, the DNC's vice chair and a veteran of presidential campaigns; Colorado party chairman Rick Palacio and Lee Saunders, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union.

Other panelists will offer expertise in fundraising, legal issues, digital efforts and other issues. The task force plans to release preliminary findings at the DNC's winter meeting in February and finish its work by mid-2015.

Originally posted here:
Democrats launch task force to review partys midterm struggles

Proposition 13, the landmark 1978 ballot measure that sharply reduced property taxes paid by California homeowners, has long been criticized for starving state municipalities, reducing fiscal flexibility and, most recently and by members of both political parties, opening a loophole for big business that sticks individual homeowners with the bill that used to be paid by major corporations.

You might think the fact that California schools have plunged in national rankings since the passage of Proposition 13 would make a second look a priority for lawmakers, but you would be wrong. They don't call 13 the third rail of California politics for nothing.

It's true that this year a reform bill was introduced in the Legislature when state Democrats had the supermajority required to make changes in taxes. But state Democrats dithered, then lost their supermajority, a loss that was cemented in the 2014 midterm elections.

"The Democrats had their chance with the bulletproof, absolute two-thirds majorities last year, but they were unwilling to pull the trigger," Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State, told The Times' Patrick McGreevy and Melanie Mason. "That window is now shut."

Even the Chamber of Commerce is in favor of Proposition 13 reform. Heck, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. announced it wouldn't object. But what Gerston is saying is that not enough Republicans will join forces with Democrats to touch the third rail, and Democrats didn't do it when they had the chance.

A lot of voters cling to 13; they don't like to hear about it changing. It therefore takes leadership to reform it. And the corporations who could be on the losing end of closing the loophole surely won't go quietly.

Still, what did we elect representatives to do but deal with all this? Yet, as in today's cartoon, too many politicians seem to live their lives in far too insulated a way, removed from the damage created by their decisions and indecision. What's the rush? It's hard to wrangle reform. And besides, the system is only broken a little bit we can afford to wait, even if everyone else can't.

Follow Ted Rall on Twitter @tedrall

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Democrats shouldn't have dithered on Proposition 13 reform