Posted on 02/28/2019 7:20:23 PM PST by yesthatjallen
House Democratic leaders are scrambling for a way to unite their splintered caucus following a series of embarrassing votes that have empowered the minority Republicans and escalated tensions among the top party brass.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday urged her troops to oppose the Republicans’ procedural motions as a blanket policy, regardless of their substance, but faced resistance from some moderates who want the leeway to vote with local concerns in mind.
“Vote 'no.' Just vote 'no,' because the fact is a vote 'yes' is to give leverage to the other side, to surrender the leverage on the floor of the House,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol, relaying the message she gave to Democrats at a closed-door meeting.
Pelosi’s plea follows an embarrassing hiccup on Wednesday during a vote on a key gun reform bill to require universal background checks.
More than two dozen Democrats, mostly freshmen from swing districts, crossed the aisle to help Republicans pass a motion to recommit (MTR) — a parliamentary proposal released at the last minute — to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement if a person in the country illegally tries to buy a gun.
The surprise GOP victory forced Democrats to endorse an immigration policy most oppose to ensure passage of their long-sought background check bill.
At a closed-door Thursday meeting of the Democratic whip team in the Capitol basement, Pelosi and a number of rank-and-file members — including prominent freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — implored their colleagues to reject the GOP procedural gambits, regardless of how tough it might seem to vote against them.
But a number of moderate Democrats are vowing to vote however they see fit.
“I vote my district,” Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), who voted in favor of the GOP’s measure, told The Hill on Thursday.
Freshman Rep. Jefferson Van Drew (D-N.J.) also held firm.
“I always feel responsible for what I vote for,” said Van Drew, who voted against his party on the GOP measure. “And if I believe something makes sense I'll vote for it; if I think it doesn't make sense, I won't vote for it — if it's an MTR or anything else.”
Democrats say they get where lawmakers like Van Drew are coming from. But they also say their votes are putting the rest of the party in a bad position.
“We certainly understand the situation that the new members feel, and we're just trying to remind them this is a procedural tool of the minority,” Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), vice chairwoman of the House Democratic Caucus, said leaving the Thursday meeting. “They have to remember that … the very essence of it is to put them in awkward positions.”
The loss on Wednesday was particularly painful because it was a surprise and because it came on gun control legislation that’s a cornerstone of the Democratic legislative agenda.
Ocasio-Cortez told her colleagues that she had to explain what unfolded on the floor to the activists seated in the visitors’ gallery, according to a lawmaker in the room.
“These MTRs, they're designed to be essentially the House version of Trump's agenda when it comes to dividing people,” Ocasio-Cortez said after the meeting. “They force a zero-sum situation where, in order to get my thing, I have to hurt another person.
“I think it's something that we need to anticipate, and I think it is something we need to be united against.”
A leadership split
For the Democrats, the split starts at the very top. Pelosi has built a long-earned reputation for uniting her caucus against such procedural maneuvers, which she deems “gotcha” votes. But her top lieutenants — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Md.) and Majority Whip James Clyburn (S.C.) — want to give freshmen and other vulnerable lawmakers the freedom to break with the party on tough votes.
“I think we suffer from potentially a lack of consistency in terms of the message that members are getting,” said Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), a chief deputy whip. “I think that's a problem.”
Democrats discussed potentially changing House rules to require more advance notice of the legislative text for motions to recommit. But top leaders made no decision on Thursday and, for now, are simply encouraging the rank-and-file to fall in line.
Leadership has also taken some steps to help manage the moderates inclined to vote for the motions. Reps. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) and Scott Peters (D-Calif.) have been tasked in recent weeks with helping their respective Blue Dog and New Democrat coalition members understand the procedure and content of the motions while reporting back to the whip team, according to a senior Democratic aide.
Clyburn said the caucus is still having discussions and is not yet seriously entertaining a rules change.
“Not yet, not yet,” he said.
Pelosi suggested that the newly created Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress could consider changes to motions to recommit.
“I think that’s an appropriate place for some of that discussion to take place. In the meantime, vote 'no,' ” Pelosi said.
Republicans have twice won passage of motions to recommit this year. The obscure measures allow the minority party one last opportunity to change legislation before its final passage. The minority party can spring it on the majority at the last minute with little to no advance notice of a specific amendment.
“There's a good deal of frustration over this in the caucus,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).
Republicans cried foul over the possibility of a rules change to one of the few tools they have at their disposal in the minority.
Speaking to reporters, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday accused Democrats of trying to restrict minority party rights — dating back to 1909 — once they took back the majority.
“Less than 60 days into the new majority, they want to silence the minority. That’s wrong,” McCarthy said.
GOP to attack no matter what
Some Democrats in the whip meeting argued that Republicans will attack vulnerable members anyway, no matter how many times they vote for the procedural motions to avoid unflattering campaign ads, according to lawmakers in the room.
“People are going to run ads whether they cast tough votes or not,” said Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.). “The point was made in there that you've got to understand the cost of that to the caucus itself, and how that weakens the caucus.”
But others are sympathetic to colleagues in competitive districts who worry about tough votes.
“My personal opinion is that procedure votes, parties usually stick with each other on procedure votes. But I do have an understanding of members from vulnerable districts and they have to vote their district,” said centrist Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas).
Democrats used motions to recommit to try to change bills when they were in the minority, but their efforts were unsuccessful since Republicans viewed those votes as merely procedural.
But Republicans have repeatedly turned them into efforts to force tough votes for vulnerable Democrats. Earlier this month, they successfully added an amendment condemning anti-Semitism to a resolution to withdraw U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen.
Republicans pushed the anti-Semitism measure in the aftermath of freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) facing bipartisan backlash for suggesting that U.S. lawmakers defending Israel are motivated by money.
But the GOP’s success with the motion to recommit on the Yemen resolution ended up leading to more problems. The Senate parliamentarian ruled that the resolution was no longer “privileged” because of the anti-Semitism language was deemed non-germane, meaning that supporters cannot force a vote in the upper chamber. They will instead have to reintroduce a new resolution and attempt a do-over.
Democrats faced another GOP motion on Thursday to their second gun reform bill of the week, which would lengthen the review period for background checks. Current law allows a firearm sale to proceed if a background check hasn't been completed within three days.
The legislation is meant as a response to the 2015 shooting at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., in which the gunman, Dylann Roof, would have failed a background check had an examiner received notice that he had been previously arrested for drug possession.
Republicans offered a motion to recommit that would still allow gun transfers to victims of domestic violence after three days. But Democrats easily defeated it after an emotional speech from Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who described the domestic violence between her parents.
“All of us were scared to death about her gun and my father's gun! We had two guns to worry about!" Dingell said.
Only two of the 26 Democrats who voted for Wednesday’s motion did so again on Thursday: Van Drew and Rep. Collin Peterson (Minn.).
Poor Nancy is going to need a ton of Adult Diapers ,LOL
Lots of democrats come from swing districts. Pelosi wants them to commit political suicide.
The commie RATS are their own worst enemy. And that is a good thing....
Pelosi wants them to commit political suicide.
Like they did passing Obamacare ,LOL
Little by little the public is seeing what a sorry display the Democrats provide. They care nothing about the people. They only care about their power and money. The folks are starting to pay attention.
Dems run 1/2 of 1/3rd of the federal government not sure what kind of power they think they have (okay they still control some of the judges but we shall see how long that lasts)
Democrats do not want fedgov to know when an illegal alien attempts to purchase a firearm, something they have no right to do here.
Domestic enemies. All of them.
Keep the stress, strain and pressure on the vile Botoxian.
She’ll eventually keel over stone cold dead from it.....it can’t happen fast enough, but keep the pressure on her.
Dems run 1/2 of 1/3rd of the federal government not sure what kind of power they think they have (okay they still control some of the judges but we shall see how long that lasts)
Progressives of various flavors control both wings of the Uniparty. Without a doubt.
Elected Dem officials are publicly saying The Party matters more than what their own constituents want.
Wow...
WAY too late for the GOPee to get aggressive.
They had two years to get the job done.
PRyno [and McCarthy and the rest of the GOPee #NeverTrumpers] needs to be keel-hauled.
The Shill concerned that radical dem lies, hidden and obfuscated about in the last election, are coming to light.
FYI, the power the dems think they have is co-equal “President” Pelosi!
knew it was in here somewhere. even when congressional republicans do something inarguably righteous, there is always a “blame-GOP-first” cretin on FR who’s breathless to distort the truth.
And another batch of Botox. Craze communist bitch.
Because forcing a person to take a position on whether it's good or bad for illegal immigrants to illegally purchase guns is so hurtful to democrat congress creeps. Hurtful because doing what their heart tells them to do will make them hated and they know it.
The GOP doesn't like to actually do things. They don't really beleive their own rhetoric. They prefer to be the minority. That way they can grandstand a bit, cast some symbolic votes that don't ammount to anything, get reelected and still get to go to all the best lobbyist parties. When they are in charge they either have to do stuff to make the base happy (which they hate doing) or admit they've lied all along (which is awkward). They make a great minority party tough. And here we see it playing out again.
There is an actual rift in the Democrat Party that the GOP could/would exploit, IF the GOP didn’t HATE its own constituents. By that I mean WHITE PEOPLE. The GOP HATES YOU! They hate you because you are white. Reject that, and you live in ignorance. The Blue Pill has its merits. It’s all cool, man, then you just die and stuff, man. Your mixed-raced grandchildren will like totally care about you and stuff. Like totally, man, and stuff. Like, Woodstock, man.
You see, it’s like this (very bitter Red Pill on the way): The Left is a fragile confederacy (irony alert!) of groups. The leadership is currently made up of Jewish and old WASPish Leftists (Schumer, Pelosi, Schiff, Biden, Nadler, Clinton, Tapper, Todd, Mitchell, Blitzer, Wasserman-Schutlz, Rosenstein, Breyer, Kagen, Bader-Ginsburg, Garland, Kristol, Podheretz, Lenin, Trotsky ... etc ... ad in finitum ...I can keep going for quite a while ...). Now, if you want to deny the nexus of certain ideologies and certain peoples, fine. The Blue Pill is an option. You are probably old anyway. You are not as old as the people who control the DemonKKKrats. They are the oldest people still alive. Biden has to be at least 100 years old.
In opposition to this Old Guard is the Coalition of the Ascendant. The POC. Led by AOC (snort), that Somoli enwurd, and a bunch of other mascots. I have news for both conservatives and libruls: these POC’s don’t care at all about the Holocaust. They want free stuff. and they have the numbers. They don’t care if the grandparents of the 1% were gassed or not. They are taking their their stuff by conquest. They don’t give a $-!t about Nazi posts. This is their moment. How it will shake down in the GOP is anyone’s guess. It depends on how low it goes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.