Pelosi Passes Jobs Bill, Prepares For 2010 Elections

Democrats find themselves in a lose-lose situation. According to the latest NBC News/WSJ poll, if the Democratic majority passes or fails to pass their health reform legislation, they might be swept out of office in the 2010 elections. The Daily Kos’ Markos Moulitsas discusses.

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US House narrowly approves Democratic Jobs Plan


President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the House Wednesday muscled through a year-end plan to create jobs, mixing about $50 billion for public works projects with another almost $50 billion for cash-strapped state and local governments.

The unemployed would get continued benefits. But conspicuously absent from the plan were Obama's recently announced initiatives to give Social Security recipients $250 payments, a tax credit for small businesses that create jobs and a program awarding tax credits to people who make their homes more energy efficient.

Not a single Republican voted for the plan, which passed on a 217-212 vote after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., worked the floor for an hour before it passed. The measure now goes to the Senate, which won't consider the measure until next year and which generally has a smaller appetite for such deficit-financed economic stimulus measures.

Given increasing anxiety among Democrats over massive budget deficits and the party's poor marks with voters for its free-spending ways, the measure could face a tough road. Almost 40 Democrats voted against the plan, mostly moderates and junior members elected from swing districts.

According to documents released by Democrats, the measure would cost $154 billion. But there's also another $20 billion from the federal treasury to keep the highway trust fund afloat.

The measure blends a familiar mix of money for highway, transit and water projects and aid to help communities retain teachers and firefighters. There's also $41 billion for a six-month extension of more generous unemployment benefits and $12 billion to renew health insurance subsidies.

Many of the ideas are renewals of programs started in February's $787 billion economic stimulus bill, which has earned mixed reviews from the public as unemployment has hit 10 percent.

The idea behind the "Jobs for Main Street Act" was to enact fast-acting steps that would quickly boost employment. The bill also reflects concerns among rank-and-file Democrats that the original stimulus measure didn't have enough money for infrastructure projects.

But infrastructure spending is notoriously slow to spend out as projects need to be planned and can require a lengthy contracting process. Most of the so-called shovel ready projects have already been funded.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, less than half of the $39 billion in the measure for transportation and housing projects would be spent over the next decade, with just $1.7 billion being spent through next September.

Democrats claimed $75 billion of the measure is "paid for" with unused money from the Wall St. bailout. Republicans countered that the bill is really financed with red ink since the bailout money would otherwise revert to the Treasury to lower the deficit.

Republicans branded the new bill "Son of Stimulus" and were withering in their assessments.

"More spending, more debt. Same lousy policies that haven't produced jobs all year," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Democrats also say that economists largely credit the earlier stimulus measure for the fledgling economic recovery and the improving unemployment picture.

"The situation is worse than we thought and getting better more slowly than we hoped but it's clearly getting better," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

Democrats said that the measure would prevent a double-dip recession by giving state and local governments $23 billion to retain teachers and lesser amounts to keep firefighters and police officers. And it would help prevent tax increases by state governments by giving them $23.5 billion for the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled.

Republicans also distributed a chart showing that roughly half the money goes into accounts brimming with cash from the earlier stimulus bill.

"The agencies are awash with money coming through the pipeline," said Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif.

But Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., countered that most of the earlier stimulus money has been committed if not actually spent.

The measure also includes money for Amtrak construction, school renovation and job training. There's also $1.1 billion for part-time college jobs, summer employment for low-income teenagers and money for workers in national parks and forests.

The bill also allows very poor people with as little as no income to claim a $1,000-per-child tax credit in what Republicans charged was simply a welfare payment to 16 million poor families.

The bill also would extend federal surface transportation programs through the end of next September.

Democratic leaders had to scramble to find the votes for the measure, which came up right after the House approved a $290 billion increase in the government's ability to borrow. That 218-214 vote reflected unhappiness by moderate Democrats about adding to the nation's red ink.






Nancy Pelosi in "Campaign Mode"


Speaker Nancy Pelosi predicted Wednesday that job creation and deficit reduction will be the central Democratic themes for the coming year – and that public support for health care reform will rebound once a bill has been sent to President Barack Obama.

On the divisive issue of Afghanistan, the California Democrat ducked the question of how she would vote on increased war funding: “Let’s see what they request,” she said. But she has urged her party, including old allies on the anti-war left, to listen and give some “room” to Obama, recognizing that the president had been “dealt a very bad hand because there was no plan in Afghanistan for years.”

Pelosi made her comments at a year-end roundtable with reporters where she described herself as back in full “campaign mode” and confident House Democrats will retain “a strong majority” after the 2010 elections.

“He didn’t give me 72 hours notice,” she joked of Rep. Brian Baird’s surprise decision to not seek re-election in his swing district in Washington state. But Pelosi said her rule of politics was “don’t assume anything” and she wasn’t panicked by the recent spate of retirements in her ranks.

In the case of health care reform, Pelosi credited House Democrats with having saved Obama’s initiative after the onslaught of attacks during the August recess. And if the Senate can complete its bill this month, she will work to try to send a House-Senate compromise to the White House before the State of the Union.

“They will pass a bill and we will have a bill,” the speaker said, and once that happens, she predicted the focus will shift away from the differences among Democrats and more on what is in the package itself.

“We are in a define-or-be-defined occupation,” she said, and her adversaries have had the advantage of picking out single issues, such as abortion or the public option, to characterize the whole.

Matching the House bill against the still-evolving Senate package, she said she saw differences of affordability for families and the revenue-raisers that would have to be negotiated. But she downplayed differences over the public option for coverage, saying the emphasis had always been on giving consumers an insurance option, not that it be public or government run.

“We know that, between the two bills, we have the makings of a big difference for the American people,” Pelosi said. “When we have a bill . . . the discussion is no longer about the bishops or about the public options, and it’s about what’s in the bill for people.”

She plans to travel to Michigan for the Detroit auto show in January and is already pressing the Senate to respond quickly next month to a new job-creation package on the floor Wednesday. When a Michigan reporter asked her response to White House proposals about job-creating investments in environmental technologies, she bridled a bit: “We need no introduction to these subjects, and we’re thrilled that the White House is joining them.”

But in contrast with this past year, dominated by the Democrats aspirations for health care or climate change legislation, she said the grim federal debt now loomed over the agenda.

“There is a very, almost fierce determination to reduce the deficit,” she said, and repeatedly returned to her early years in Congress and budget battles under President Bill Clinton that contributed to the Democrats losing control of Congress in 1994.

“We’ve been here before,” she said. “We had to make very difficult decisions, and as you know, we paid a political price for it but we had to do it.”

Pelosi predicted in January ‘we’ll come to terms on a commission” such as those proposed to make recommendations to Congress on difficult deficit-reduction measures. But without mentioning Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) by name, she seemed cool still toward his legislation, which would usurp the speaker’s power over legislation and dictate an up-or down-House vote -- without amendments -- on whatever the commission recommends.

“I said pass it in the Senate,” the speaker said. “Send it to me, I’ll have to face it.” But when Senate leaders told her that it was unclear still if the Conrad plan had the 60 votes needed for passage, her answer was: “Then let’s talk about what we can both pass rather than talk about what some people think should happen but doesn’t really have the votes.”

“This is not a completely whole new ball game because we had to do it when President Clinton made the determination that we would go forward,” the speaker said. “We know how to do it -- we’ll do it again.”



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House Dems Accuse Senate Dems Of "Dithering"

House Dems: Senate is "Dithering"


House Democrats’ long-simmering frustration with the slow pace of the Senate has begun to boil over, with a broad swath of Democratic representatives accusing their Senate colleagues of failing both their party and their country.

The cross-chamber assessment is brutal:

• “There is a growing sense that we’re lifting more than our share,” says California Rep. Xavier Becerra, a member of the Democrats’ leadership team in the House. “Members are hoping the Senate will kick into gear because the public expects a lot more to get done.”

• “Sometimes I get the feeling that some of those guys [in the Senate] just like to see their names in the paper and see their faces on TV,” says Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern.

• “I talk a lot about the psychology of consensus,” says House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). “Too often, it appears, that the psychology in the Senate is the psychology of one.”

• “When it comes to a jobs bill, the Senate seems more interested in dithering,” says first-year Rep. Tom Perriello, a Virginia Democrat whohas taken heat back home for tough votes on climate change and health care — two issues that remain bottled up in slow-moving Senate deliberations.

• “If you just take a look at the number of bills we’ve sent to the Senate and what they’ve done, I don’t know what they’re doing with their time honestly,” says Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Cal.).

• “I think the majority leader sometimes has to have the leadership to resolve these things,” says Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak, a Democrat challenging Sen. Arlen Specter, in a direct attack on Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “I understand it’s politically challenging, but we have the votes — and we should be doing much better than we are. I think this place needs a change, quite frankly.”

Reid spokesman Jim Manley said he understands the House Democrats’ frustrations but argues that their anger is directed at the wrong set of senators.

“We appreciate their concerns, but give me a break: The real concern is Senate Republicans,” Manley said.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said the Senate is just a different place.

“You see, we have different rules here,” he explained. “It’s called the ‘filibuster.’ Maybe they haven’t followed the number of Republican filibusters here, which is an all-time record.”

Senate Republicans, in turn, say Senate Democrats are to blame: With 60 votes in their caucus — a number that includes independents Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders — Democrats have the votes they need to overcome Republican filibusters if they can just agree among themselves.

But they can’t — or at least they haven’t — and that makes House Democrats nervous that they’ve been left exposed heading into the 2010 midterm elections. They’ve taken the heat for tough vote after tough vote. And with the Senate having failed to act, they have little to show for their efforts.

House Democrats kicked off 2009 by passing a huge economic stimulus package — only to watch it whittled down to win over three recalcitrant Republican senators.

In June, they made a tough vote on climate change in the hope of setting the stage for a deal in Copenhagen — only to watch the bill slide to the back of the line in the Senate.

In November, they worked overtime to approve a health care reform bill — only to watch the Senate slow roll it through long committee deliberations and then an agonizingly slow ballet with Sen. Joe Lieberman and other moderates.



Last week, they passed sweeping reforms for the rules that govern the nation’s financial institutions — knowing full well that the bill won’t look much like the one they passed when — or if — the Senate gets to it.

And this week they’ll try to pass legislation to help address the nation’s unemployment crisis — even though they know there’s no chance the Senate will do its part until after the holiday break.

The Senate started 2009 at a faster clip. At the beginning of the session, it passed legislation to expand children’s health insurance, control tobacco and respond to a Supreme Court decision on gender pay discrimination. But things have slowed down drastically since; the Senate took four weeks to pass a widely supported extension of unemployment benefits when the House passed it in a matter of hours.

For House Democrats, the Senate health care debate has been particularly painful.

The fate of the Senate bill remains in doubt even after Reid made a series of concessions this week to appease Lieberman, who declared that he would join the Republicans in filibustering any bill that contained either a public option or a proposed expansion of Medicare.

Lieberman’s one-man act prompted Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro to call for his recall and another Connecticut Democrat, Rep. John Larson, to ask: “What gives a senator that right?”

The answer: The Senate rules, which give just about any member the power to stall legislation — especially when that member is the would-be 60th vote to invoke cloture.

On the House side, the speaker has the Rules Committee to help limit debate on the floor and keep the minority party - or her own upstarts - in check. In the Senate, an objection from a single senator creates the need for a procedural vote and a time-consuming process that can paralyze the chamber for days.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) — a former House member himself — said there’s built-in tension between the two bodies, and that the tension leads to frustration among members of both.

“I understand that. I meet with them all the time — they are not happy with the pace of our deliberations,” he said. “But unfortunately, it reflects more on the institution than any given member ... [T]he rules here are designed to block. That’s what the founding fathers had in mind.”

Some House Democrats aren’t buying it.

“I know their rules are different over there,” McGovern said. “But like-minded people should be able to come together on this stuff. So it is frustrating. ... They’re definitely slowing things up.”

Of course, not all House Democrats are unhappy with the Senate’s slow pace.

South Dakota Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin said she’s glad the Senate takes more time to consider “legislation [that] is overreaching in some cases.” Still, even she says the Senate has “broken down” as an institution with the use of the filibuster.

Should Reid get a health care bill passed before Christmas, party leaders will still need to decide how to pay for it — through either a tax on high-end plans or a surtax on the wealthy — and then figure out how to wrap up differences on abortion, immigration and cost containment.

But House Democrats aren’t in the mood to trust their colleagues in the Senate, and that will make the process more difficult — even as Democrats acknowledge that they need to start getting some of these bills wrapped up if they want to reap the rewards next November.

Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday that it’s been “a very productive Congress, or House term, but it won’t be productive unless we can get those bills through the Senate.”


Sources: Politico

House GOP Refuses To Continue Raising National Deficit

House budget splits defense, jobs



A year-end budget bill taking shape in the House on Monday night would meld $626 billion in new defense spending with a set of pared-back tax- and unemployment related provisions designed to get through the Senate without a prolonged fight.

At the same time, the leadership has opted to pursue a second, more robust job-creation package that will allow the House to speak on the issue but with no anticipation of Senate action before January.

What’s evolved then is a two-bill strategy with the primary focus this week on finalizing the budget package that will carry must-pass measures to extend the estate tax and authorize billions in extended jobless benefits.

“Our whole interest in life today is what can get through the Senate,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.)

Over Pentagon protests, the defense chapter in the bill is expected provide an estimated $2.5 billion for the purchase of 10 more of Boeing’s C-17 transports, and $465 million is included for the continued development of a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. But elsewhere, Defense Secretary Robert Gates largely gets his way, including a full order of 30 F-35 fighters and the terminations he wanted of funding for the F-22 and VH-71 presidential helicopter programs.

Included in the package is $128 billion in contingency funds for on-going military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the Pentagon is expected to seek at least $35 billion more next year to help cover the cost of President Barack Obama’s decision to add up to 33,000 more U.S. troops.

As seen in the bill now, the ripple effect of this buildup is already being felt.

There has been increased pressure to add funds for the purchase of more armored vehicles able to cope with the rough Afghan terrain. The final core defense budget is expected to include an additional $825 million for this purpose on top of the administration’s request. And as proposed by the Senate months ago, hundreds more vehicles would be purchased by trimming back on spending for the training of Afghan security forces.

Hoyer’s goal is to get the bill to the House floor by Wednesday, but it’s no longer certain that Democrats will use this measure to address the sensitive issue of expanding Treasury’s borrowing authority to finance the growing federal debt.

Just a week ago, the Maryland Democrat had hoped House and Senate leaders could join forces on the defense bill to raise the ceiling by as much as $1.8 billion — enough to carry the government through next year and the 2010 elections. But this proved nerve-racking for Senate moderates, who are insisting on the creation first of an independent commission to force Congress to do more to address deficit reduction.

Hoyer is still pursuing some resolution of the issue. Even as the House bill moves forward, he remains in negotiations with Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) over such a task force, already championed by 33 senators including 14 Democrats.

“I haven’t given up on that,” Hoyer told POLITICO. And if agreement can be reached, a long-term increase in the debt could still be added by the Senate and sent back to the House together with a compromise on the Conrad-backed deficit commission.

The senator himself has said he is open to giving Treasury the authority to borrow what it needs for a short term period—perhaps two months. But where this goes is ticklish still.

Threading the Senate needle is complicated by the fact that some liberals oppose the defense funding itself because of their opposition to the wars overseas. So it could be that the debt debate shifts to what would be a third hastily assembled vehicle, a stop gap spending bill to keep agencies operating while the budget bills are resolved.

As these many scenarios suggest, the whole year-end exit strategy is still evolving and something of a roll of the dice.

With Christmas next week, House leaders are anxious to send their members home for the holidays — but it’s proven difficult to get a clear read from Senate Democrats, who are consumed by the ongoing health care reform debate.

To appease the Senate and hold down costs, House Democrats are prepared to pare back plans to authorize a full one-year extension of benefits for the long-term jobless. Instead, any extension will be close to six months, costing $40 billion, and this may have to be reduced further, Democrats said Monday night.

At the same time, liberals are desperate to preserve some job creation and infrastructure investments. Tempers are frayed, and the two-track approach on jobs is born of this frustration.

In a remarkable effort to force the Senate’s hand, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) went so far last week as to actively pursue a strategy of providing only stop-gap funding for the Pentagon, thereby freezing out billions of dollars in home-state projects added by lawmakers in both chambers.

At one level, it was an anti-pork-barrel statement in the name of helping the unemployed. On the other, it would have put Democrats in the untenable posture of freezing defense funds in the midst of two wars.

A more peaceful approach, taken by tax writers, seeks to minimize their differences with the Senate by scaling back the scope of the bill. The House will insist on perhaps a one year extension of the current estate tax, which otherwise drops to zero in January. But tax writers have agreed that they can afford to wait before renewing billions of dollars in often popular tax breaks due to expire at year’s end.

Since many won’t affect tax filings until April 2011, there is a longer window for Congress to act. But the biodiesel industry is anxious, since transactions in January would be immediately impacted by the removal of the credit to encourage the blending of diesel with biofuels.

Watching from the sidelines, California Rep. Jerry Lewis, the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, complained that Democrats were creating a “hodgepodge” and should just let the defense agreement — finalized over the weekend — stand on its own.

“Let me make it easy for my Democrat colleagues,” Lewis said in a statement late Monday. “Put a clean Defense Appropriations bill on the floor, let members and senators cast a vote they can be proud of and send our troops and their families the resources they need and deserve.”


Sources: Politico

AARP Agrees To Endorse House Health Care Bill...Saturday Vote Expected

Revisiting Health Care Insurance Reform

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House Republicans unveil their plan for Health Care Insurance Reform.

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A Rhode Island Hospital comes under scrutiny after major Medical mistakes.

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House Democrats set stage for health care vote


In a coup for House Democrats, AARP will endorse sweeping health care overhaul legislation headed for a history-making floor vote, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

An endorsement from the seniors' lobby was critical when then-President George W. Bush pushed the Medicare prescription drug benefit through a closely divided Congress in 2003. House Democratic leaders are hoping it will work the same political magic for them as they strive to deliver on President Barack Obama's signature issue.

An announcement from the 40-million member group is expected Thursday, said officials with knowledge of the group's decision. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the endorsement is not official yet.

Backing the 10-year, $1.2 trillion House bill is a tricky move for AARP. Many retirees are concerned about cuts in Medicare payments to medical providers, which will be used to finance an expansion of health insurance coverage to millions of working families who now lack it.

Counting votes

Floor votes on the House bill could come as early as this weekend. Asked Wednesday if Democratic leaders had the 218 needed for passage, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., responded: "We're counting. We're counting."

House leaders moved on Wednesday to shore up support for the measure among the Democratic rank-and-file, even as they sharpened their fight with the health insurance industry.

Last minute changes to the legislation, released late Tuesday night, started a 72-hour legislative clock and cleared the way for votes as early as Saturday.

"Americans are ready for comprehensive health insurance reform and the House will soon act," Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement that accompanied dozens of last-minute changes to the bill.

Unjustified Premium Increases

In a move aimed directly at health insurance companies, the revised House bill would launch a federal-state crackdown on what it terms "unjustified premium increases." Insurers have sought above all to block creation of a government insurance plan, which happens to be the top legislative goal for liberals.

Under the bill, insurance companies would have to publicly disclose the justification for premium increases before they go into effect. The federal Health and Human Services department would monitor patterns of premium increases, and could take action if the price hikes are out of line. The bill would also provide $1 billion to state insurance commissioners, allowing them to ramp up their own monitoring and enforcement.

Democrats also strengthened a provision that would strip the industry of its decades-old exemption from federal antitrust laws.

Supporters said the tougher approach is needed to keep insurance companies from artificially boosting premiums in advance of the major reforms taking effect in 2013.

Other late changes to the bill, such as enhanced status for the government's office of minority health, were intended as sweeteners for supportive lawmakers, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Abortion Provision unresolved

With no Republican backing for the measure, Democrats will need overwhelming support from their own. A festering intra-party disagreement over how to prevent federal funds from being used to pay for abortion remained unresolved Wednesday morning.

The House bill is estimated to expand coverage to about 96 percent of eligible Americans. Beginning in 2013, it would provide government subsidies to extend coverage to tens of millions who now lack it, and ban insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical problems.

For the three years before the federal aid starts flowing, the bill would set up a temporary "high-risk pool" through which people who have been denied coverage because of poor health could obtain a government-subsidized policy.

The bill would set up health insurance "exchanges" through which self-employed people and small businesses could buy coverage, either from a private insurer or a new government plan that would compete. All the plans sold through the exchange would have to follow basic consumer protection rules, making it easier to shop and compare among them. The majority of Americans covered under big employer plans would not see dramatic changes.

The House bill would be paid for by boosting taxes on upper income earners and cutting Medicare payments to health insurance companies, hospitals and other medical providers. Democrats also moved Tuesday to close a biofuel tax credit loophole, raising about $23 billion to help pay for the legislation.



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ACORN: The GOP's Newest Weapon Against Dems...White House Rebukes Them, US House De-Funds

ACORN chooses to fight back against allegations of Fraud and Agency Misconduct. Too Late. Now because of complacent, possibly poor Leadership and very little accountability, they've completely lost the agency's federal funding all together. Double Stupid!

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Stupid! (ACORN Prostitution Investigation)




White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, "Obviously, the conduct that you see on those tapes is completely unacceptable. I think everyone would agree to that."

"The administration takes accountability extremely seriously."






US House votes to De-fund ACORN

The US House, in a Motion to recommit attached to the student loan bill, has voted overwhelmingly to de-fund ACORN.

It was a bipartisan vote, with more than 300 members voting for the measure. (We'll get the full numbers/vote breakdown shortly.)

This goes further than the Senate did; the Senate took money out of one bill. This is to de-fund the group completely -- for any money the House would appropriate.

*** UPDATE *** House Minority Whip Eric Cantor's office just sent around this statement:

“ACORN has violated serious federal laws, and today the House voted to ensure that taxpayer dollars would no longer be used to fund this corrupt organization. All federal ties should be severed with ACORN, and the FBI should investigate its activity. This united Republican effort to defund ACORN is a victory for the rule of law and taxpayers across the country.”

*** UPDATE 2 *** The vote was 345-75.



White House says ACORN must be held accountable

Days after the Census Bureau announced it would cut ties with the organizing group ACORN, and barely 24 hours after the Senate voted to withdraw funding from the lightning-rod activist group, the White House expressed support for measures to hold the group accountable for “unacceptable” behavior.

Referring to video taken by the conservative site Big Government that showed ACORN employees giving advice to individuals posing as sex traffickers, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, “Obviously, the conduct that you see on those tapes is completely unacceptable. I think everyone would agree to that.”

“The administration takes accountability extremely seriously,” he added.

Characterizing the Census Bureau’s decision as a move based on a lack of confidence in ACORN’s ability to perform its expected duties, Gibbs said he was not sure whether the president would ask Democrats to pull back from any campaign-year collaboration with the group. “I don’t know that I’ve had any discussion with him about that,” Gibbs said.




ACORN -- How Much Danger For Democrats?

The ongoing controversy over the community organizing group ACORN -- spurred by several undercover videos shot for a conservative blog known as biggovernment.com -- has emboldened Republicans to use the group's troubles as a political cudgel against Democrats.

"If the Democrats continue to ignore the apparent fraud taking place with taxpayer money, they will pay a price politically," predicted former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) in an e-mail exchange with the Fix late Wednesday.

Bush's Republican colleagues are already moving to exact that political price.

Minnesota Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is widely expected to run for president in 2012, announced on Wednesday that he had ordered all state funds going to the group frozen until a review of the organization had been completed.

Pawlenty's decision comes less than 48 hours after the Senate voted on a measure to restrict all federal funding devoted to ACORN -- a piece of legislation that drew wide bipartisan support with only seven senators (all Democrats) voting against it.

And, Republican leaders in the House continue to push the idea of bringing a similar bill up for a vote in the near future. "Simply put, ACORN should not receive another penny of American taxpayers' money," wrote House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) in a letter to his colleagues earlier this week.

The ACORN effect is even hitting the campaign trail. In New York's 23rd district special election, Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman is hitting state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R) for her alleged ties to ACORN.

The efficacy of these attacks remain to be seen -- John McCain attempted unsuccessfully to link President Obama to ACORN during the 2008 campaign -- but it's clear from the reaction of the White House that leading Democrats understand that being seen as defenders of the community group is political suicide.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs called the tapes "completely unacceptable" during his daily briefing on Wednesday, adding "the administration takes accountability extremely seriously."

Doug Schoen, a Democratic pollster, said the ACORN controversy poses a "huge risk" to the Democratic party. "Swing voters are almost certainly going to put off by the constant barrage of stories about their abuses, the videos, and their unrepentant approach to the way they operate," he added.

Jon Lerner, a Republican consultant, argued that the ACORN problem is one that plagues whichever party is in the majority in Washington. "When Republicans were in control, their fringe organizations became fodder for the perception that they were too extreme," Lerner noted.

ACORN has long been a hot button issue for conservatives who believe the group engages in shady (at best) voter registration and turnout efforts. But, to date, conservatives have been unable to draw strong enough links between ACORN and the Democratic Party to score real political points.

With more undercover videos allegedly on the way, expect more Democratic elected officials to follow the White House's lead and begin not only distancing themselves from ACORN but also siding with those who are calling for investigations into its conduct.

"Any Democrat who acts or votes to protect ACORN will have an impossible time justifying it, and it will almost be too easy for us to make them pay politically for doing so," predicted Republican strategist Kevin Madden.



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Sources: Washington Post, The Fix, MSNBC, Humanevents.com, NY Daily News, Senate.gov, US House.gov, Politico, Minnesota Independent, Google Maps