Jane Hamsher details
the extremely aggressive tactics the White House and House leadership
used to coerce liberal environmentalist members to vote for the
cap-and-trade bill despite their belief that it helped polluters more
than it did anything else (and remember their ability to do that the
next time they claim that a bill they ostensibly support simply
couldn't pass because it lacked the necessary votes). Jane quotes from
a Politico article reporting on White House anger towards Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, due to an impassioned floor speech he gave arguing that the bill was so industry-friendly that it would do more harm than good. That article contains this quote:
The
White House is smoking mad at Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), who says
he's voting against the climate bill - despite the lobbying of the
entire First Family in the Oval Office last night.
If the bill goes down, Obama won't forget Doggett's role, Democrats say.
It's "stunning that he would ignore the wishes not just of his president, but of his constituents and the country," said an administration official.
This
has been a emerging theme among both the White House and House
leadership: that members of Congress have an obligation to carry out
"the wishes of the President" (now, apparently, it's "stunning" when
they defy his dictates). That was the same subservient mentality
that led House Democrats who admitted they opposed the war supplemental
spending and/or the foreign bank bailout to nonetheless vote for the
bill: because they President favored it. The duty of Congress is not
to obey the wishes of the President.
Note, too, that the sort of bullying tactics
that were used for the war supplemental bill and now for the
cap-and-trade bill are only directed towards the House progressives who
want legislation to be less beholden to corporate donors; those tactics
are never invoked against Blue Dogs who play a vital role in impeding
progressive legislation and thus supply the perfect excuse for
Democratic leaders as to why such legislation does not pass (let's see
if these tactics are used against Blue Dogs who impede a public option
for health care, the repeal of DOMA and Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and
various issues relating to the closing of Guantanamo. Will we hear
condemnations from Rahm Emanuel's underlings about how stunning and
outrageous it is that they are defying the wishes of the President?