White House Summons Conservadems, Doesn't Call Progressives Back

Posted by Chris Bowers, Open Left at 10:15 AM on September 10, 2009.

It looks like I may have spoken too soon about House Progressives successfully forcing their way into key health care negotiations. From TPMDC, it appears the White House never called them back about their expected meeting with the President:

Remember back on Friday, President Obama discussed the public option on a conference call with House liberals? And remember how the upshot of that call was that Obama planned to meet yesterday with the chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, And Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus?

Well that meeting never happened. Yesterday, sources told me that the meeting hadn't been scheduled, but could happen as late as this morning. Today, a House aide tells me that it's not going to happen at all.

"They never called," the aide said.

This doesn't mean the meeting isn't going to happen. However, it does mean that the Congressional Progressive Caucus still doesn't have the same role in the negotiations as, say, the 16 Democratic Senators who have been summed to the White House:

ABC News has learned that President Obama will be meeting with 16 Democratic senators (and one "Independent Democrat") this afternoon at the White House.

They are: Senators Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Mark Warner of Virginia, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Tom Carper of Delaware, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Udall and Michael Bennet of Colorado, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Bill Nelson of Florida, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, and Independent Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

That this happens to be identical to the membership of Evan Bayh's Conservadem group, plus party switching Arlen Specter, is not a coincidence. The pecking order has been reaffirmed. Conservative Democrats like these still hold all the power in the Obama administration.

They have taken that power by providing a credible threat to vote against legislation the Democratic leadership considers essential to pass. So, the Democratic leadership has no choice but to negotiate with them. Until that threat from Progressives is equally credible, or until the threat of primaries from the grassroots is even more credible, this Conservadem gang will continue to hold all the power.

Ever since Democrats retook Congress, individual Progressives have held a lot of power due to their dominance of committee chairs in the House. However, as a group, they have been irrelevant to key negotiations on major legislation. In the House, deals have been hashed out with Blue Dogs since the first week of the Obama administration, while gangs of Conservadem and Maine Senators still do the negotiating in the Senate.

One of the goals of the Progressive Block strategy has been to change this dynamic, and force House Progressives into these key negotiations. While they are now getting conference calls and mentions in major addresses, it seems there is still some distance to travel before taking part in the truly important discussions. Until that distance is traveled, Progressives still haven't made the gains in influence that the Block strategy was designed to provide.

Update: Hopes that this meeting with the Conservadems is about whipping them into line is, to borrow a phrase from Rahm Emanuel, f*cking stupid. The White House has told progressvie groups to stop attacking these Senators. In the speech last night, House Progressives were called out while the co-ops and triggers supported by many of these Conservadems were praised as avenues to explore. Not to mention that the White House has been offering concessions to Democrats like these on every major piece of legislation in 2009.

The White House is siding with, or at least capitulating to, these Senators, not whipping them into line.

Tagged as: conservatives, progressives, blue dogs, health reform

Chris Bowers was a full-time editor at MyDD from May 2004 until June 2007. Some of his projects have included the creation of the Liberal Blog Advertising Network, the first scientifically random poll of progressive netroots activists, the Use It Or Lose It campaign, the nation's most accurate forecast of Democratic house pickups in 2006, and the 2006 Googlebomb the Elections campaign.