Profanity, Anger Spill Over in House Democratic Caucus Meeting

[cali]

The frustration with President Barack Obama over his tax cut compromise was palpable and even profane at Thursday’s House Democratic Caucus meeting.

One unidentified lawmaker went so far as to mutter “f--- the president” while Rep. Shelley Berkley was defending the package the president negotiated with Republicans. Berkley confirmed the incident, although she declined to name the specific lawmaker.

“It wasn’t loud,” the Nevada Democrat said. “It was just expressing frustration from a very frustrated Member.”

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) was also overheard saying that “we can’t trust him” not to cave to Republicans and extend the tax cuts again in two years, according to a Democratic source.

The anger aimed at the bill was widespread. As Democrats moved to block the bill from coming up on the floor, chants of “Just say no!” could be heard by reporters outside the room.

<snip>

http://www.rollcall.com/news/-201347-1.html

[ibegurpard]

1. I hope they hold the line.

[MoonRiver]

18. Same here.

We have to prove that somewhere in the Democratic Party are those who stand for their principles.

[Autumn]

2. Good to see a little bit of fight left in the Democrats,

it's just a damn shame it has to be against the Democratic President.

[Dinger]

28. That's it in a nutshell.

[Eric J in MN]

3. It would be an OK deal if we knew that Obama would veto any attempt...

...to extend those tax cuts in two years.

We don't.

[somone]

7. But the pugnacious fighter has agreed to FIGHT it

so I have every confidence the Republicans will succeed

[Liberalynn]

50. Or we would guarentee that he wouldn't extend the payroll tax holiday

that he would positively pay SS back, and that he would not cut or further try to undermine SS, but we have no way of being certain of any of those things. Unfortunately promises are not enough for me anymore.

[Foo Fighter]

51. The only bill that Obama would veto would be one that contained his campaign

promises. He's marching to a different drummer now.

Since this bill is the first step to dismantling Social Security, not to mention extending the Bush tax cuts, I don't consider it an "OK deal" by any means. If Bush had been pushing this shit-crap of a bill, most people here would have been railing against it. The fact that the current president has a "D" behind his name doesn't change the fact that this is a horsehit bill that needs to be shot down.

[texshelters]

4. Could more of the Dems now yell at the Republicans too?

Peace,
Tex Shelters

[WillyT]

5. HUGE K & R !!!

:kick:

[patrice]

6. I just don't GET this, what with their vote in support of MC Tax Cuts. HOW IN HELL did they think

that was going to work.

They didn't.

It was CYA.

It gave the Republicans a big fucking lever in the deal with the President.

WHILE THE SENATE STALLED ON UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS BECAUSE THEY WERE AFRAID TO LOOK LIKE SOCIALISTS.

[Windy]

15. + 1000!! nt

[Recursion]

41. +1000

Let's ignore our responsibilities for a year and hand Obama this bag of shit and then complain when he actually moves something forward.

[True_Blue]

55. + 1000

[Andy823]

8. What I wonder is

How many of those who are "angry" now were among those who did NOT want to vote on the tax cut bill "BEFORE" the elections this year? Congress really screwed up when they let it go by without a vote before the elections and any of the "angry" crowd now who also fought to make sure it did NOT get a vote before the elections are hypocrites!

[patrice]

11. The frakkers also supported on absolutely PIE IN THE SKY Middle Class Tax Cuts a couple of weeks ago

There's nothing quite like telling the Republicans what cards you DON'T have in your hand, i.e. NO tax increases on the MC. Sunsetting those Bush Tax Cuts was impossible at that point, so the President did what he could. Fuck the House.

[tyne]

13. No kiddin...

and they're probably going to blame the president for not forcing them to do it. Plus, they're probably the same ones who ran away from the president during the election...refusing to talk about health care.

[patrice]

17. It's been like a bad marriage ever since HCR passed & like a bad marriage from day1 with the Senate

[patrice]

19. Thom Hartmann was saying that Dems in the House don't get together for a vote and

decide all together what to do. The various caucuses do, but there's no unifying strategy. He said the Republicans ALWAYS do this and we NEVER do it.

[StarsInHerHair]

56. why didn't Obama become a unifier of the various Dem caususes? That's his job

so I believed

[myrna minx]

34. It boggles the mid - it was the perfect campaign issue and we just blew it and now we

are suppose to suck it up and capitulate to the Republicans and destroy Social Security while we're at it!? GAH!

[rhett o rick]

9. Little K&R

[Marr]

10. So sad.

House Democrats have to fight against a president who claims to be a Democrat, but works out his agenda in private meetings with Republicans, and no Democrats are invited.

[WillyT]

16. + 1,000,000,000... What You Said !!!

Yep !!!

:mad:

:banghead:

[kath]

22. EXACTLY.

[bigtree]

25. sad that there was NOTHING preventing them from doing whatever they wanted on this

. . . since last year. They'll do the same closed-door negotiating with republicans the President did. That's their JOB. The shame is they let the President get ahead of them on what is constitutionally their prerogative. Even at that, his is just a proposal. It's there's to do what they want with it. Watch as they just piggyback whatever they do on the compromise they're busy posturing against.

[patrice]

30. I don't understand why that happened. What's your guess? Did both he and Nancy think they

already knew what the other was going to do?

Or was it just one of them who assumes s/he already knows what the other one is going to do?

Maybe he wants Republicans to talk in a way that they wouldn't with Dems around?

Or that the House should decide without his influence on their decision, since it IS the House afterall, and then he's just supposed to deal with whatever THEIR decision is?

I do not accept that the man is a Republican. He MUST deal with Republicans; they aren't all just going to die and go away to convenience the rest of us. But there's something wrong with the relationship between him and the Democrats and no one seems to want to identify what that is.

[Art_from_Ark]

36. He might not be a Republican, but

he does seem to confuse the two

Praising Reagan for being the "right man at the right time" :puke:
while criticizing FDR for "sitting on his laurels" for the first 6 months of his presidency, even though FDR hit the ground running as soon as he was inaugurated and pushed through a ton of legislation and work programs in his first 100 days.

[femrap]

42. Beyond sad....

pathetic, disgusting....actually I find it traitorous to the Democratic Party.

(that is if he ever was a dem.) Actions speak much louder than words.

[struggle4progress]

12. Should have had a demo vote on some of this BEFORE the election

[Cali_Democrat]

14. Yikes!

Me thinks Obama should have probably consulted with the house Dems before making this "deal"

[CreekDog]

27. He probably thought he didn't have time

he should've been doing this last summer!

[NorthCarolina]

20. Keep that anger up. Stay strong, and don't fold.

[bigtree]

21. then they'll end up about where the President is, with a few tweaks

It's not as if they're intending to take a radically different stand.

[Ramulux]

23. The house is all we have left

I'm glad they are not taking this shit and putting up a fight. The president could learn a lesson or two from this.

[hulka38]

38. It turns out that it's all we ever had to begin with.

The party leadership in the WH and the Senate has been toxic to House members.

[emulatorloo]

24. Sadly the Senate did not have the votes to pass the House's "Middle Class Only" bill

Glad to see they are giving Obama a little hell over this. But if there were votes in the Senate to get "Middle Class Only" done I am sure that is what Obama would have preferred to do.

[patrice]

31. THOSE frakkers were playing politics with UI!!! and it made him angry.

[Laelth]

46. How can you be sure of that?

Personally, I am not so sure of that. In fact, my suspicion is that the deal Obama struck with the R leadership is exactly the deal he wanted.

It appears that Obama is just mad that some Democrats in Congress don't like his deal and won't support him on it (like they did with the disastrous health insurance company enrichment act).

-Laelth

[bobbolink]

26. In retrospect, its too bad Obama didn't pull this 2 years ago.... maybe then the DEMS would have had

the spines to stand up for more of what the voters put them in office for, and maybe 2010 would have gone differently!

[patrice]

32. +1~

[Lifelong Protester]

40. You make an unfortunately good point, bobbolink.

Are the house dems finding their voice now? I know they have passed more legislation than the senate. Could we see more of Sanders and Franken-types emboldened in the senate, please?

[bobbolink]

44. Yes, but it is more than unfortunate... it is tragic. Of Shakespearean proportions.

:cry:

[awoke_in_2003]

49. +1000. nt

[Bryn]

54. I agree with you here.

What a shame. Now we're in trouble! It looks like democrats woke up maybe too late. They were supposed to be more for the People, not the corporate, not for the rich, Ruling Class. Now it's a mess.

[Dappleganger]

29. They're angry and frustrated.

They have a right to be as do we. We need to keep the pressure on them by not letting up the complaints to their office switchboards and emails.

[otohara]

33. So True...He Can't Be Trusted

and he doesn't care what the majority of American's think or want.

It's Bush all over again...nothing to see here, move along!

[Poboy]

35. recommend.

[Individualist]

37. chants of "Just say no!". Bravo!

[chill_wind]

39. Yes, well, they didn't like the Bush Paulson Bailout much better and appeared to rebel

and two days later they passed it anyway and with very little revision.
This feels much the same. For our public consumption, full of sound and fury...

[Matariki]

43. Oh, they couldn't do this for Bush - and war, and the patriot act, etc?

[asdjrocky]

45. Man, when they talk like that they almost sound like the American People.

Too bad it will be all talk, and no action.

[Liberalynn]

47. Stand your ground house

your a little late to the party but keep fighting against this travesty now that you've arrived.

[HuckleB]

48. Pfffffffft.

I am very unhappy with Obama's "compromise," and with the way he got to it.

I am also very unhappy that Congressional Democrats hadn't been working on this matter in the first place. Blame goes to Obama, but he is not alone. Even those who rightly oppose the "compromise" share the blame for their own prior inaction.

[TheKentuckian]

52. There was no action to take, the Blue Dogs were ducking and/or wanting to vote with

the TeaPubliKlans outright and so there was no deal unless you want something like what we have from Obama-GOP.

Well, except it wouldn't be this bad. The payroll cut is strictly suicidal and the cuts overall are the product of a deranged mind stuck in a failed ideology.

Pretty much worse than getting rolled. The thing is only even pretend defensible because of the bizarre inclusion of U/I in a deficit busting tax bill.

[HuckleB]

57. Excuses don't wash.

When you do nothing, you have no excuses, and your whining means almost nothing.

[TheKentuckian]

58. Do what? Something stupid for the sake of action?

[TheKentuckian]

53. There was no action to take, the Blue Dogs were ducking and/or wanting to vote with

the TeaPubliKlans outright and so there was no deal unless you want something like what we have from Obama-GOP.

Well, except it wouldn't be this bad. The payroll cut is strictly suicidal and the cuts overall are the product of a deranged mind stuck in a failed ideology.

Pretty much worse than getting rolled. The thing is only even pretend defensible because of the bizarre inclusion of U/I in a deficit busting tax bill.