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Obama Says He’s Not Giving Up On Health Reform
President Barack Obama on Saturday sought to assure despondent Democrats he would not abandon his commitment to overhauling health care and would work to counter GOP challenges to their congressional dominance.
At its winter meeting, a defiant Democratic Party worked to project a message of strength even as loyalists acknowledged the prospect of several defeats in November. The party that controls the White House typically loses seats during midterm elections at an average rate of 28 net seats. President Bill Clinton, the last Democratic commander in chief, lost control of Congress in his first term and Democrats privately are predicting it could happen again.
Obama, looking to write his own history, warned fellow Democrats that "we have to acknowledge that change can't come quickly enough." He said political leaders must plot their way forward to November with an understanding of the economic difficulties Americans face.
"I understand their frustration. You understand it as well," Obama said.
The Other Party
A government report on Friday said 9.7 percent of the country was unemployed. Distrust of Washington has grown and spurred an anti-Washington sentiment that sent scores of activists to a "tea party" convention in Nashville on the same day. As witness to the tone, Republican Sen. Scott Brown won a special election to take the seat of the late, liberal Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Democrats also lost gubernatorial contests in Virginia and New Jersey.
Obama sought to energize his base against what he called "the other party." He urged Democrats to work with their Republican counterparts.
"We can't solve all of our problems alone," Obama said, as the audience sat in silence.
While Republicans have stood in solid opposition to the president's proposed overhaul of health care, Obama insisted he wasn't willing to abandon his top domestic priority that consumed months of his agenda and has produced slim hints of victory.
"Let me be clear: I am not going to walk away from health reform," Obama said, bringing the audience in the hotel ballroom to their feet.
"We can't return to the dereliction of duty," Obama said. "America can't afford to wait, and we can't look backward."
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His party, for certain, would prefer not to revisit its ordeals of 2009, which produced some victories but hardly the narrative that would deliver them victories this year.
"I know we've gone through a tough year. But we've gone through tougher," Obama said.
DNC chairman Tim Kaine, the former Democratic governor of Virginia who saw a Republican follow him into office, said they should not be downtrodden.
"The ghost of Harry Truman would kill us if he heard us complaining about having only 59 Democratic senators," Kaine said.
"We've had our ups and downs since the inauguration," Kaine conceded.
He warned, though, that Republicans were unlikely to support Obama's health care agenda.
"We might get one or two," he said.
Al Franken Lays Into David Axelrod Over Health Care Bill
Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats.
Five sources who were in the room tell POLITICO that Franken criticized Axelrod for the administration’s failure to provide clarity or direction on health care and the other big bills it wants Congress to enact.
The sources said Franken was the most outspoken senator in the meeting, which followed President Barack Obama’s question-and-answer session with Senate Democrats at the Newseum on Wednesday. But they also said the Minnesotan wasn’t the only angry Democrat in the room.
“There was a lot of frustration in there,” said a Democratic senator who declined to be identified.
“People were hot,” another Democratic senator said.
Democratic senators are frustrated that the White House hasn’t done more to win over the public on health care reform and other aspects of its ambitious agenda — and angry that, in the wake of Scott Brown’s win in the Massachusetts Senate race, the White House hasn’t done more to chart a course for getting a health care bill to the president’s desk.
In his public session with the senators Wednesday, Obama urged them to “finish the job” on health care but did not lay out a path for doing so. That uncertainty appeared to trigger Franken’s anger, and the sources in the room said he laid out his concerns much more directly than any senator did in the earlier public session.
The private session was set up in a panel format, with Axelrod joined at the front of the room by Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine and Democratic strategist Paul Begala.
A Democratic source said that Franken directed his criticism solely at Axelrod.
“It was all about leadership and health care and what the plan was going to be,” the source said.
Franken — a comedian turned liberal talk show host — vowed to keep a relatively low profile when he arrived in the Senate over the summer after a protracted legal battle with former GOP Sen. Norm Coleman. But he has developed a reputation among his colleagues as one of the more aggressive personalities on the Hill.
Last November, after Tennessee Republican Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander authored an op-ed in a local paper defending their opposition to a Franken amendment, Franken confronted both men on the floor — and grew particularly irritated with Corker.
He lashed out at Corker and a staff member in a follow-up meeting about the matter, several people said. Franken also clashed with South Dakota Sen. John Thune, No. 4 in GOP leadership, last month in a scathing speech during the health care debate, and staffers have reported other run-ins.
The White House, the Democratic National Committee and Franken’s office all declined to speak on the record about Wednesday’s session. Begala did not respond to a request for comment.
Sources: Politico, MSNBC, Politifact
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