1115.org

Digby:

Does anyone else find it odd that the Obama administration consistently uses the most hardball, down and dirty, tough guy tactics when it comes to Democratic Party electoral politics but pleads that it is required to observe every arcane, institutional ritual when it comes to legislation?
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It’s this willingness to play the hardest hardball when it comes to candidates that makes me skeptical that the administration is being hamstrung by the congress rather than using that as an excuse. They certainly have the cojones to lead the party with an iron fist when it comes to electoral politics so it’s hard for me to believe that Rahm and Jim (and the president) just can’t herd those Democratic fat cats in the congress. It appears to me as if they have no trouble exerting their power when they want to.

I find this annoying, but hardly odd or even surprising. There certainly is an inconsistency in how Obama is applying political pressure, but the goal is entirely homogeneous. Refusing to herd the Congressional cats like Nelson, Landrieu, Lincoln, Bayh et al has exactly the same effect as crowding out primary challengers like Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania, Carolyn McCarthy and many others in New York, and Andrew Romanoff in Colorado: less progressive legislative outcomes. Obama is setting the table for 2012 (already), and it appears that he thinks his path to victory is to run as far away from the base of the Democratic party as possible.

The only thing that’s odd about it is that so many people want to pretend this isn’t happening.