NATIONAL JOURNAL

DEMOCRATS

Pelosi Guarding Dems' Left Flank As Obama Seeks Compromise

Monday, November 29, 2010 | 10:51 a.m.

ABC News' Klein writes, "in a lame-duck session that will be anything but lame, the ties that bind" the Dems "will be tested anew." It's Pres. Obama's relationship with his own party that "will determine a range of policy outcomes." Any of his "moves to the right in the coming weeks will be viewed with skepticism on the left."

With Dems still controlling the congressional agenda, Obama "will need to work on those on his own side of the aisle in the short-term, even as he begins to build relationships with" the GOP for the new Congress. So "the tensions and questions that have haunted" Dems "over the past two years get one more go-around." Obama "may yet be judged on how he adjusts in the wake of the mid-term elections." But Dems "who have a few more weeks in power want to make sure those adjustments don't have lingering policy consequences before then" (11/28).

AP's Davis notes that Speaker Nancy Pelosi will lead Dems "in pulling on the president's shirttails to make sure that he doesn't move from center-right to far-right." Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA): "We think if he'd done less compromising in the last two years, there's a good chance we'd have had a jobs bill that would have created real jobs, and then we wouldn't even be worrying about having lost elections."

Liberals "fear Obama will go too far in accommodating the GOP in the new era of divided government, and they see Pelosi as a counterweight." Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) says House Dems "want to make sure that they've got somebody at the table with the president, looking him eye-to-eye and saying basically, 'You've got some people who have been very, very loyal to you - not just progressives but moderates, too - and they truly believe that that's not the right thing to do.'"

"People close to Pelosi say she trusts the president - perhaps moreso than some of her allies in Congress do - to defend core Democratic principles in his dealings with the GOP." Cummings: "In his negotiations with the Republicans, (Obama) needs to be able to say, 'Look, you say you're not going to compromise, but I've got Nancy Pelosi over here who is very passionate about these issues, and I have to listen to what she's saying'" (11/25).