If party unity is a key issue, then why is the Biden/McConnell deal now dead in the water in the House Dem Caucus? If you're actually seeking unity, don't you make a deal that the bulk of your members actually, um, support?
Come to think of it, if you're looking for unity, why do you have your Veep cut a deal w/ a Senate GOP leader who has openly vowed to make you a 1-term POTUS? If you're trying to pass a bill while you still have majorities in both houses, don't you have your Senate ML and your House Speaker in on the process?
I'm also curious about the claim that Obama's critics ignore basic separation of powers questions and that they'd prefer to be led by the likes of Che Guevara and Travis Bickle instead (Hugo Chavez demands equal time). How is cutting a deal w/ the Senate Minority leader and presenting it to your party's members on a take it or leave it basis showing respect for separation of powers? If you're trying to maintain party unity for the next 2 difficult years, why are you consciously alienating your members?
A mere 3 months from now, lifting the debt ceiling must come up for a vote. Based upon how the GOP has acted now, when its House majority has not yet been seated, it's fair to assume that it will make even bigger demands then. Has it occurred to people that fracturing the Dem caucuses now will make life that much more difficult later?
A year from now, the 1 year payroll tax holiday will be about to lapse. As Jed Lewison explained in detail yesterday, the odds of that tax reverting to current levels in a presidential election year are virtually nil. Cutting the payroll tax long-term will inevitably lead to SS benefit cuts long-term. How does endangering this party's greatest domestic accomplishment enhance party unity?
In closing, EJ Dionne offers a fair synopsis of the likely future effects of the current WH approach:
What does President Obama think of those who fought and bled to pass his bills in Congress (in some cases losing in this year's election for their pains) while also defending him against wild charges from the right wing? Are they among the liberals he described as "sanctimonious," who long for the "satisfaction of having a purist position and no victories for the American people"?
Obama's comments make you wonder: Whom does he think he can count on when conservatives try to repeal the health-care law, force cuts in programs he supports, investigate his administration down to the last pencil and continue to denounce him as an un-American socialist?
Darrell Issa awaits as House Oversight Committee Chair. This WH will need every friend it can find in the House to provide countervailing force. What it's doing now is undercutting those future efforts.
If the Biden/McConnell deal paves the path for future party unity, then I'd hate to see what disunity would look like.