TPM's Brian Beutler reports that in the wake of the Senate's self-immolation on tax cuts, House Democrats are also lighting themselves on fire:
The Senate's decision not to address the Bush tax cuts until after the election is the strongest indication yet that the game is over. ... And with House Democratic leaders still insisting that they will follow the Senate's lead, it seems more and more likely that they too will drop the tax cut issue for now.
Pelosi's effort to wrangle her caucus into voting on middle-income tax cuts before the election appears not have dislodged conservative and politically vulnerable Democrats who either wanted to extend all the Bush tax cuts, including for high-income earners, or to avoid any kind of risky vote s close to the elections.
Don't worry though, because it's all the Senate's fault:
"There is unanimity in the caucus around what Jim Clyburn has just said," said Dem conference chair John Larson. "The anxiety comes from what our erstwhile colleagues across the building will do in the United States Senate."
House Ways and Means Committee chairman Sander Levin agreed with Larson -- the House will wait for the Senate: "I don't think there's a change in that."
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) -- a close ally of Pelosi's -- likewise couldn't say whether the House would do anything at all about tax cuts before members head back to their districts next week.
Actually, what's tanking Democrats -- and good policy -- are Blue Dogs and conservadems who think that punting on actual decisions and blurring the distinction between Democrats and Republicans is good political strategy. They're less than six weeks away from finding out just how wrong they are about that.
These conservative members of the Democratic caucus are taking a winning issue that the White House, Speaker Pelosi, and Majority Leader Reid have gift-wrapped for them, and they are throwing it away before even opening it up. They are the problem here. And in the House apparently their leader has a name, and that name is Steny.
A split has opened between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) over whether to hold a vote before the midterm elections on extending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class.
In closed-door leadership meetings this week, Pelosi has pushed for the House to act on the middle-income tax cuts before lawmakers bolt Washington for the campaign trail, while Hoyer wants the House to wait for the Senate to act first, according to Democratic aides.
If Democrats do end up losing the House, it's possible Speaker Pelosi will step aside rather than become Minority Leader. If that happens, Steny Hoyer will be looking to become leader of House Democrats. And as we can see by the way the tax cut debate is playing out, that would be a disaster.
Update: David Dayen, arguing that the problem here is that Blue Dogs, suggests that part of the reason is that they actually believe the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy are good policy. In his argument, this represents less a political blunder (though he doesn't dispute that it's political impact is the equivalent of a blunder) than it is a reflection of the core beliefs of these Blue Dogs. Of course, the implication of that is that to the extent their defeat this November gives us an opportunity to replace them with better Democrats in 2012, we need to seize that opportunity.
