The Note, 5/20/2009: The Setback -- Congress asserts independence; Gingrich takes fight to Pelosi

May 20, 2009 8:18 AM

By RICK KLEIN

For those setting the Obama-as-Spock meme, a lesson that everyone’s favorite Vulcan learned a long time ago: Just because it’s logical, doesn’t make it so.

Nobody goes undefeated in this town -- fair enough. But there’s close losses and there’s drubbings, there’s games you lose yourself and games you’re flat-out beaten in -- and this one is going to sting for a while.

With Democrats rejecting his plan (for now) to close Guantanamo Bay by denying him the money to do it with, President Obama is suffering the first major defeat of his time in office.

It’s happening for some classic reasons. Republicans framed the issue better than Democrats, and it got wrapped up in a broader series of distractions around torture and detainee treatment.

But mostly Gitmo gets an unlikely new lease on life because the president thought all he had to do to close it was ask. That’s not how Congress works, not even in this new era.

(Consider, after all those Democrats excoriating President Bush over Guantanamo, Senate Democrats are voting to keep it open, with a Wednesday vote).

(And how important is that Thursday speech now? Is the most important audience on the left, the right, or the Senate’s version of the center? Plus -- how much fun is it that former Vice President Dick Cheney will be speaking on a similar subject, on the same day?)

Plus -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rallies some allies -- but sees her enemies pick up the volume.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tells ABC’s Diane Sawyer Wednesday that it’s time for Pelosi to go -- and that it’s “dangerous” to allow her to stay:

“She really disqualified herself to be speaker,” Gingrich, R-Ga., told Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America. “I think the Democrats should get a new speaker.” 

Gingrich writes in his weekly newsletter: “The person who is No. 2 in line to be commander in chief can't have contempt for the men and women who protect our nation. America can't afford it. . . . Speaker Pelosi has damaged America's safety.”

The response, per ABC’s Jonathan Karl, on “GMA,” “Speaker Pelosi’s spokesperson calls Gingrich’s call for her to leave, quote, ‘ludicrous.’ ”

If there’s solace here for the speaker’s office and the Obama White House, perhaps it’s that this is a day for disappointment all around.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., couldn’t even bear to watch his budget measures go down to defeat -- so he spent his day in the Rose Garden instead.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele declared the page to be turned -- but we may not be into the next chapter quite yet.

With all of this as context, Democrats are “bowing to political pressure” on Gitmo, Naftali Bendavid writes in The Wall Street Journal: “The issue of Guantanamo's closure has been a distraction for the Democrats since Mr. Obama several weeks ago requested $80 million to wind down operations at the prison for terrorism suspects by next January. Republicans have seized on the issue, conjuring images of terrorists being released onto America's streets, something the administration says it will never do.” 

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill.: “The feeling was at this point we were defending the unknown.”

Will Democrats feel differently when the unknown is known?

“Senate Democratic leaders insisted that they still supported the decision to close the prison, were simply waiting for Mr. Obama to provide a more detailed plan, and had acted to avert a partisan feud that would only serve as a distraction and delay a military spending measure,” David M. Herszenhorn writes in The New York Times. 

But . . . Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.: “We don’t want is them to be put in prisons in the United States. We don’t want them around the United States.”

Democrats are “running from the White House as never before this year,” per Politico’s David Rogers. “Following a similar retreat by the House last week, President Barack Obama is left with no new money to go forward on a signature issue for him -- and less flexibility than when he first made his request this spring.” 

Did they just get scared? “The Senate Democrats' apparent decision not to fund the $80 million closing of Guantanamo links them, inextricably, to the cheap politics being played by Senate Republicans,” Joe Klein writes for Time. “President Obama is going to give a speech on this topic on Thursday--but the Senators just couldn't wait 48 hours while the Republicans and cable newsistas were scaring their constituents. Yet another profile in courage.” 

Among the puzzling things . . . “A poll by the Democratic firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner finds higher approval ratings for Obama's national security policies than for his overall job performance. The poll was done for Democracy Corps, a research and strategy organization founded by Democrats Stan Greenberg and James Carville,” Jill Lawrence writes for Politics Daily. 

“At least for now,” the group says, Obama has “effectively erased doubts that Americans have historically harbored about the Democratic Party's vision and competence on national security.”

“The decision represents a potentially serious setback for Obama, who as a candidate vowed to close Guantanamo and who signed an executive order beginning the process soon after he took office,” Shailagh Murray writes in The Washington Post. Democrats’ “resolve crumbled in the face of a concerted Republican campaign warning of dire consequences if some detainees ended up in prisons or other facilities in the United States, a possibility that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has acknowledged.” 

As for Speaker Pelosi -- it’s offense as defense in the Democratic caucus.

“Leading House Democrats are lining up to defend House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her widely publicized dispute with the CIA -- while Republicans turn up the pressure on her to retract her accusation that intelligence officials lied to her,” per ABC News. 

“The strong support for Pelosi stems in large part from the reservoir of goodwill she gained in leading her caucus to a House majority in 2006,” Paul Kane writes in The Washington Post. “[Majority Leader] Hoyer, a former Pelosi rival in leadership elections, added that not a single member of the Democratic caucus has questioned him about Pelosi's stance, and he said it has not been a point of discussion in leadership meetings.” 

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., adds to the rhetorical pressure: “In disparaging the CIA and accusing the agency of lying last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has become a ‘wrecking ball’ to the morale of officers risking their lives in the field, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee said Tuesday,” the Washington Times’ Stephen Dinan reports. 

The political implications: “Earlier this month, Republican pollster Neil Newhouse released a 57-page analysis noting President Barack Obama’s high approval ratings and concluding, ‘We’re better off posting up against Democrats in Congress,’ ” Bloomberg’s Jonathan D. Salant reports. “In charging that the Central Intelligence Agency misled her about its methods of interrogating terrorism suspects, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave the Republicans an opening to follow that advice.” 

What we’re learning about Obama: “Obama could have taken a number of steps to stop this vicious news cycle and the damage it has been doing to his party and agenda,” Dan Gerstein writes in his Forbes column. “He could have issued a public statement reiterating his call to move on from re-litigating the torture wars, which would have sent an unmistakable signal to Pelosi that it was time to stand down. Or to avoid the personal and intra-party fallout from publicly dinging the Speaker, Obama could have done what Lyndon Johnson probably would have--pick up the phone, read Pelosi the riot act and tell her to drop it.” 

Roll Call’s Tory Newmyer considers the players: “The Speaker’s history with Panetta dates at least to Pelosi’s earliest days in the House in the late 1980s, when she was welcomed into a tight-knit social circle that included Panetta, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and then-Reps. Durbin, Marty Russo (D-Ill.), and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). They regularly gathered Tuesday nights for Italian dinners, frequently at the Capitol Hill rowhouse of then-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.).” 

No more looking back, RNC Chairman Michael Steele declares. (If we knew it was that easy . . . )

“Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is attempting to ‘turn the page’ on a troubled period for both his party and his own leadership. But it's not yet clear that he or his party has reached the next chapter,” per ABC News. “Steele himself proposed few new ideas in his speech, which dwelled more on how the party would frame its opposition to President Obama than on how Republicans can better present themselves to voters.” 

“Even as he recommended against looking backward, he mentioned Ronald Reagan no fewer than three times,” The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank writes. “He seemed unsure what to do about the situation. He announced that ‘the Republican Party is again going to emerge as the party of new ideas,’ but the main idea of his speech seemed to be that he opposes Democrats.” 

Kathleen Parker, in her Washington Post column: “Many are suddenly nostalgic for ‘whatshisname’ -- the guy who ran the party before Steele, whose name no one can quite remember. Oh, yeah, Mike Duncan. At least he kept the trains running on time, they say. To which criticism Steele says, ‘Stuff it.’ ” 

New from the DNC: A Web video, with Republicans hearting Dick Cheney.

Remind us who lost in California? “Californians are well known for periodic voter revolts, but on Tuesday they did more than just lash out at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature over the state's fiscal debacle,” the Los Angeles Times’ Michael Finnegan writes. “By rejecting five budget measures, Californians also brought into stark relief the fact that they, too, share blame for the political dysfunction that has brought California to the brink of insolvency.” 

Get ready for Chu-Chu time in CA-32, just east of Los Angeles: “Judy Chu, a Democrat who serves on the California State Board of Equalization, finished ahead of Democratic state Sen. Gil Cedillo,” ABC’s Teddy Davis reports. “Since Judy Chu did not receive more than 50 percent of the vote, she will now face a July 14 runoff against Republican Betty Chu, the GOPer who received the most votes on Tuesday.”

SCOTUS scooplet? “President Barack Obama began interviewing potential Supreme Court candidates Tuesday, while a senior White House official defended the president's stated preference for a nominee who will give the powerless ‘a fair shake,’ ” Jonathan Weisman and Naftali Bendavid write for The Wall Street Journal. 

David Axelrod provides the words to parse: “Fidelity to the Constitution is paramount, but as with any document that was written no matter how brilliantly centuries ago, it couldn't possibly have anticipated all the questions that would be asked in the 21st century.”

Coming Wednesday, from Treasury: “We need a financial system that is not deepening or lengthening the recession, and once the conditions for recovery are in place, we need a financial system that is able to provide credit on the scale that a growing economy requires,” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will tell the Senate Banking Committee, per ABC’s Matthew Jaffe. 

“Meeting this obligation requires early and aggressive action by the government to repair the financial system and promote the flow of credit," Geithner will say. "It requires governments to take risks. It also requires the financial system to support sustainable economic expansion. And it requires comprehensive regulatory reforms that deter fraud and abuse, protect American families when they buy a home or get a credit card, reward innovation and tie pay to job performance, and end past cycles of boom and bust. This is our commitment.”

What’s next? “The Obama administration is actively discussing the creation of a regulatory commission that would have broad authority to protect consumers who use financial products as varied as mortgages, credit cards and mutual funds, according to several sources familiar with the matter,” Zachary A. Goldfarb, Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho write for The Washington Post. 

How long before this explodes as an issue? “Advocates of gun rights are poised to win a Congressional victory that eluded them under a Republican president,” Carl Hulse reports in The New York Times. “To the frustration and discouragement of many Democrats, House and Senate lawmakers and aides say it now appears likely that President Obama will this week sign into law a provision allowing visitors to national parks and refuges to carry loaded and concealed weapons.” 

Colin Powell’s not out of the Republican Party yet: “Rush Limbaugh says, 'Get out of the Republican Party.' Dick Cheney says, 'He's already out.' I may be out of their version of the Republican Party, but there's another version of the Republican Party waiting to emerge once again,” he said at a speech in Boston, per The Boston Globe. 

The latest from the Jim Bunning circus: “Sen. Jim Bunning acknowledged Tuesday that during a meeting in December, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told him that ‘I was too old and I couldn't win’ a re-election battle in 2010,” McClatchy’s Halimah Abdullah reports. “Bunning, 77, went on to call McConnell a ‘control freak.’ ” 

Said Bunning: “If Mitch McConnell doesn't endorse me that may be the best thing that could happen to me in Kentucky.”

Looking good for Chris Christie, in New Jersey. New Q-poll numbers: “Two weeks before the primary in the New Jersey Governor’s race, former federal prosecutor Christopher Christie leads former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan 56-33 percent among likely Republican primary voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. . . . Among all registered voters, Gov. Jon Corzine trails Christie 45-38 percent, identical to the results of the April 22 survey.”

Still a chance at another Senator Kennedy: “Everything I am hearing on Tuesday points to Chris Kennedy getting into the Illinois 2010 Senate race,” Lynn Sweet reports in her Chicago Sun-Times blog. “As of Tuesday afternoon, the plan calls for him to be announcing sometime probably next week.” 

New from the climate debate -- town-hall meetings from Al Gore’s group: “Repower America today announced the launch of a series of town hall and roundtable meetings across the United States to hear from a diverse group of everyday citizens that include business leaders, educators, health care professionals and families about how comprehensive climate policy and clean energy jobs will benefit local communities.”

New from the Minnesota Senate race that never, ever ends -- DNC Chairman Tim Kaine reaches out to Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn., governor-to-governor, and for public consumption. “I urge you to use your influence to bring this process to an end by asking Norm Coleman to allow his neighbors and yours, their full representation in Congress,” Kaine writes to Pawlenty. “However, if Mr. Coleman refuses to concede and this case is heard and decided by the Minnesota State Supreme Court, I urge you to commit to signing an election certificate for the rightful winner as soon as the Court issues a ruling in this case.”

How does this happen? “Federal authorities are investigating the loss of a computer hard drive containing a huge quantity of personal information from Bill Clinton’s presidency in an apparent security breach at a National Archives record center, government officials said Tuesday,” David Johnston reports in The New York Times. “Government officials briefed on the matter said the breach, which was confirmed in April, involved the loss of a drive containing a terabyte of computerized data, which could include millions of individual pieces of information, including personal information about one of then Vice President Al Gore’s three daughters.”

The Kicker:

“Man, these are really good eggs.” -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, asked at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast what it’s like to be on the Supreme Court short list.

“Not so much.” -- Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, on whether he was having fun on a day where his boss was making a few medical diagnoses on his colleagues.

Today on “Top Line,” ABCNews.com’s daily political Webcast: Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, on Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Guantanamo Bay; and Ana Marie Cox, of Air America and The Daily Beast. Noon ET.  http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6105692

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