WASHINGTON -- Thursday's failed rebellion over the omnibus government funding bill offered two radically different models for the Democratic Party over the next two years. Which will it be: a unified, determined opposition or junior partners to a more powerful GOP?
The determined opposition was on display when Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) declared Wednesday that they would do whatever they could -- short of shutting down the government -- to strip a Wall Street giveaway from the so-called cromnibus bill.
It reared up again Thursday when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) delivered an impassioned plea on the House floor to oppose the bill over provisions that chipped away at the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and campaign finance limits.
Pelosi's stand nearly won, almost killing the cromnibus during a procedural vote. The handful of Democrats who had intended to let it go through changed their votes, and every Democrat backed their leader.
"I'm giving you the leverage to do whatever you have to do," Pelosi later told her caucus in a closed-door meeting. "We have enough votes to show them never to do this again."
But then came the matter of final passage of the bill, and Pelosi said her members should vote their consciences. For 57 House Democrats, their inner voices told them to take what they could get from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and let the Republicans have their goodies, too.
Some questioned the fate of Democrats in a GOP-controlled Congress if they were willing to cave now, while they still control the Senate.
"If you let them bully you on this, they're for sure going to bully you on immigration and they're for sure going to bully you on the Affordable Care Act," Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told HuffPost in an interview Friday. "At what point do we say no?"
"I don't want to speculate what's going to happen next year, but I think the American people want us to stand tall and oppose a right-wing Republican agenda, which is designed to protect the wealthy and the powerful," said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with the Democrats. Sanders then called the anti-Dodd-Frank provisions "disgusting" and a "disaster."
More: Failed Omnibus Revolt Leaves Democrats Pondering Future In The Minority
I hope our elected Democrats give Republicans/Teabaggers a taste of their own medicine. Therefore, I am hopeful that Democrats will be more like guard dogs than lap dogs. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is setting a good example...so far...
The determined opposition was on display when Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) declared Wednesday that they would do whatever they could -- short of shutting down the government -- to strip a Wall Street giveaway from the so-called cromnibus bill.
It reared up again Thursday when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) delivered an impassioned plea on the House floor to oppose the bill over provisions that chipped away at the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and campaign finance limits.
Pelosi's stand nearly won, almost killing the cromnibus during a procedural vote. The handful of Democrats who had intended to let it go through changed their votes, and every Democrat backed their leader.
"I'm giving you the leverage to do whatever you have to do," Pelosi later told her caucus in a closed-door meeting. "We have enough votes to show them never to do this again."
But then came the matter of final passage of the bill, and Pelosi said her members should vote their consciences. For 57 House Democrats, their inner voices told them to take what they could get from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and let the Republicans have their goodies, too.
Some questioned the fate of Democrats in a GOP-controlled Congress if they were willing to cave now, while they still control the Senate.
"If you let them bully you on this, they're for sure going to bully you on immigration and they're for sure going to bully you on the Affordable Care Act," Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told HuffPost in an interview Friday. "At what point do we say no?"
"I don't want to speculate what's going to happen next year, but I think the American people want us to stand tall and oppose a right-wing Republican agenda, which is designed to protect the wealthy and the powerful," said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with the Democrats. Sanders then called the anti-Dodd-Frank provisions "disgusting" and a "disaster."
More: Failed Omnibus Revolt Leaves Democrats Pondering Future In The Minority
I hope our elected Democrats give Republicans/Teabaggers a taste of their own medicine. Therefore, I am hopeful that Democrats will be more like guard dogs than lap dogs. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is setting a good example...so far...
