GOP House Leaders Blame Pelosi For Dysfunction, Partisanship

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House GOP aims Fire At Dem. Leaders


After a spirited back-and-forth with President Barack Obama on Friday, House Republicans re-focused their barbs on a familiar target: House Democratic Leadership.

Obama’s hour-and-a-half exchange with House Republicans didn’t leave either side with much renewed hope for bipartisanship, but GOP leaders muted their criticism of the president after his forceful performance, instead blasting Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

House Minority Leader John Boehner and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor have spent much of the last year bashing Obama and his policies, blaming the president for failing to acknowledge their legislative suggestions.

But after their direct confrontation with Obama, the pair praised the president for spending 90 minutes with them, saying it was a forum “we need to have more of" and expressing confidence that Obama would follow through on more dialogue with Hill Republicans.

Instead, Pelosi and Hoyer were their targets. Boehner and Cantor bashed the House Democrats’ leadership style and placed the future of this session of Congress squarely on Pelosi and Hoyer’s backs.

“It’s really up to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer to carry through,” Boehner said. “I think the president will carry through in terms of having more meetings with us, having more discussions with us, but there’s got to be more than just discussions.”

Pelosi's team quickly pushed back. "Republican leaders continue to complain about the absence of bipartisanship, but they are ignoring some of the facts: More than 100 Republican-sponsored bills passed the House (many with unanimous support), and many other major bills received Republican support," said Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami. "All you hear from Republicans is their opposition to the Recovery Act (which included jobs and middle-class tax cuts), health insurance reform and Wall Street reform."

Pelosi and Boehner will meet next week, a confab scheduled before the retreat, a Democratic leadership aide said.

But Boehner said Democratic leaders have all but closed the door on bipartisanship: They "looked up and said, 'We have a 40-vote majority; we're just going to go it our way.'"

“I think the speaker and the majority leader need to assess how they’re running the House,” he said. “This is not the way the founders envisioned the House working.”

Of course, Boehner wasn't ready to let Obama off the hook entirely.

About two hours after the event ended, Boehner's office issued a news release accusing Obama of repeating "discredited talking points during dialogue with House GOP."


Sources: Politico, MSNBC