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House Minority leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., answers questions during a press conference May 9, 2014 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee, Getty Images

Last Updated May 9, 2014 2:46 PM EDT

House Democrats are still weighing whether to participate in the recently-formed House select committee to investigate the 2012 attack in Benghazi, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced Friday, saying she'd raised several concerns about the new probe with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and was still waiting on a response.

"What we've asked for is as much bipartisanship as possible," Pelosi said. "The question is what are the terms under which Democrats could participate."

Pelosi said Democrats would need "to concur in the issuance of subpoenas, decisions to depose witnesses, and the decision to interview witnesses, and with the decision to release any report, document, or information by the committee."

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Democrats are threatening to boycott the new committee that aims to investigate the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi. Republicans accuse the Obama...

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House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, explains his decision to convene a select House committee to probe the Benghazi attack.

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Democrats still weighing participation in new Benghazi investigation

SAN JOSE, Calif. On the West Coast to raise millions of dollars for his party, President Obama spent the second half of this week preaching to rich supporters about why Democrats are better than Republicans. It sounded like a conventional stump speech in the windup to the midterm battle including a rote apology to the first lady for running another campaign.

Listen closely, however, and you could hear the president making a much more dramatic statement about the importance of this years elections.

As he toured a series of mansions, Obama made the case that should Democrats fail to keep their hold on the Senate and win back the House, both his second-term priorities and the countrys future could be imperiled.

He described the publics dissatisfaction with Washington as nearly at a tipping point, where working-class Americans see leaders as unresponsive to their most basic concerns. If that were to continue, he said, more middle-class Americans could dismiss the political process completely.

Youve got a self-fulfilling prophecy, Obama said Wednesday evening in Los Angeles at the home of Disney chief executive Alan Horn and his wife, Cindy. People who have the most at stake in a government that works opt out of the system. Those who dont believe that government can do anything are empowered. Gridlock reigns, and we get this downward spiral of even more cynicism and more dysfunction.

In this appearance and others, he warned that such apathy would show up primarily among young, minority and working-class voters precisely the groups that Democrats need to head to the polls to win the midterms.

And if Democrats fail to win, he said, America could be at risk of losing the luster that has defined it for so many years.

Theres no other country that looks like us. Its a huge gift, he said Thursday night in San Jose at an event hosted by Marissa Mayer, chief executive of Yahoo, and Sam Altman, president of YCombinator. The problem is that well waste that gift if we dont make the right choices.

The president rejected the idea that America was in decline, but he said it could happen if the right steps werent taken to invest in the economy.

What is absolutely true is if we dont make good choices, we could decline, Obama said.

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Obama warns Democrats that midterms could imperil his agenda and America

Republicans in the House approved a special investigative panel into the Benghazi affair Thursday night. Democrats will decide Friday morning whether they will participate.

The House approved the creation of a special Benghazi investigative panel Thursday on a largely party-line vote, leaving Democrats with a big question: To boycott? Or not to boycott?

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House Democrats will meet Friday morning to decide. Boycotting would be an unusual, though not unprecedented, move. But don't be surprised if they do boycott, experts say. Doing so would have little downside and could possibly even gain Democrats an upward blip with their base ahead of the midterm elections.

For most Americans, Benghazi has long been in the rearview mirror, says John Pitney, a congressional expert at Claremont McKenna College in California. They didnt care that much about it in the fall of 2012, and they care even less about it today.

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D) of California and other Democrats are furious over the creation of the Select Committee on Benghazi, which they consider to be a partisan witch hunt. They note that Republican campaign fundraising has already begun based on the new investigation.

Seven congressional committees and a review board have found poor management and errors on the part of the Obama administration relating to the 2012 attack on a US mission in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans, including the US ambassador. But they did not find a coverup.

The issue has been revived by White House e-mails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by a conservative watchdog group e-mails that had not been delivered to congressional investigators. That has angered Republicans, as has the content of one of the e-mails. Three days after the attack, White House adviser Ben Rhodes wrote that it was important to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader policy failure. Later, the administration said the Benghazi attack was not connected to the video.

The Democrats not only consider this case closed, but they also find the makeup of the new committee to be unfair seven Republicans and five Democrats, rather than an equal number from each side. Moreover, there are no rules over subpoena power, no time limit as to duration, and no cost estimate. Thursday's vote was 232 to 186, with seven Democrats joining the Republicans and no Republicans joining the Democrats.

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Democrats' dilemma: Do they boycott Benghazi panel, or not? (+video)

The Senate Banking Committee is preparing to vote next week on a plan to replace government-owned mortgage firms Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) as fading Democratic backing for the measure dims its chances of becoming law.

Six Democrats whose support is crucial agreed in a private meeting yesterday that they wouldnt vote for the bipartisan proposal to replace the finance companies with a government re-insurer, according to three people familiar with the meeting.

The six senators -- Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Charles Schumer of New York, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Jack Reed of Rhode Island -- agreed that the measure needed major revisions: The structure of the re-insurer seemed unworkable and the bill lacked sufficient support for affordable housing goals. Changing the bill to address those concerns could weaken Republican support for the bill.

The overhaul is effectively dead until 2015, said Isaac Boltansky, a policy analyst at Compass Point Research and Trading LLC in Washington.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat, and Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho, the top Republican on the panel, have the backing of six Democrats and six Republicans on the 22-member committee. However Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the bill needs to attract more support from Democrats, who hold a slim majority in the chamber, before he will bring it to the floor for a vote.

The Johnson-Crapo package will still likely clear the committee, but without any of the six targeted Democrats signing on it is highly doubtful that the measure will get a floor vote, Boltansky said.

Shares of Fannie Mae rose to $4.24 at 10:30 a.m. in New York, up 2 percent from $4.16 at Thursdays close and 41 percent from $3.01 on Dec. 31. Freddie Mac was trading at $4.15, a gain of 1 percent from Mondays close and 43 percent for the year.

A delay in winding down the companies could benefit stockholders including Bruce Berkowitzs Fairholme Capital Management, hedge fund Perry Capital LLC, and Bill Ackmans Pershing Square Capital Management LP. Ackman, whose firm holds about 11 percent of Fannie Mae and Freddie Macs outstanding common shares, said May 5 that the stock could be worth $23 to $47 a share over time.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy loans and package them into securities, were taken into U.S. conservatorship in 2008 and received a $187.5 billion taxpayer bailout. Theyve since returned to profitability. Fannie Mae on Thursday reported net income of $5.3 billion for the three months ended March 31. Freddie Mac reported earnings of $4 billion for the period.

Sean Oblack, a spokesman for Johnson, said yesterday that the senator would continue to seek more support for the bill.

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Key Democrats Join to Say No to Housing Finance Overhaul

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The Summit County Progressive Democrats offer campaign support. More info at SummitProgDems.org. Co-created by Frank and Ingrid Kunstel and Josh Gippin. Prod...

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