Buzz Cut:
• Warren puts heat on Hillary and Obama
• Grab a rotating hot dog, a Slurpee and some ObamaCare
• Power Play: Foreign policy and the GOP Sixteeners
• #mediabuzz: Rolling Stone implosion
• Now that’s a stick up
WARREN PUTS THE HEAT ON HILLARY AND OBAMA
Liberal Democrats are angry at President Obama over the CIA, his foreign policy, increasing Wall Street coziness and a host of other disappointments. The left wing is also frustrated with their party’s presumptive 2016 nominee and in the shadow of a humiliating midterm loss. So they’re acting out. Facing what promises to be a very unhappy two years in the minority with lame duck president and a presidential candidate who is deeply distrusted by the Democratic base, liberal lawmakers have adopted policies and practices they once abhorred from Republicans. And as it happens, the woman leading the charge is the only potential threat to 2016 frontrunner Hillary Clinton and the area of dispute is centered directly on one of Hillary’s weakest spots: her deep Wall Street ties. So what does this say about the future of the party and the instigator of this brinksmanship, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren?
[“If the president is lobbying, we do not like it, and we’re saying to our members, ‘Don’t be intimidated by anybody.’”—Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., on opposing the spending bill.]
Just getting warmed up – They might not have won this time, but Warren & Co. have shown clout and the ability to organize to disrupt the best plans of the establishment. It seems highly unlikely that Obama and Hillary will be able to keep the rank and file in line, especially since the alliance between the two Democratic leaders is more of a cease fire than a partnership. That means more pressure on Hillary to move left and launch her official campaign sooner than her rumored early spring target. Giving Warren three or four months to raise her profile and stake out far-left positions would make Hillary’s task of crushing her harder and limit her ability to pivot center as soon as possible. It also means little hope for the president to enact any of the legacy-securing initiatives he had hoped for in his final years.
[WaPo: “The provision was so important to the profits at those companies that J.P.Morgan’s chief executive Jamie Dimon himself telephoned individual lawmakers to urge them to vote for it, according to a person familiar with the effort.”]
Can Warren still block the bill? – Senate liberals could still scuttle the deal, but they would need some help from the right, which also hates the bill. Last night, both the House and Senate passed a two-day continuing resolution to fund the government and avoid a partial shutdown. The House also passed the “CRomnibus,” the hideously named, $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the remaining nine-and-a-half months of the federal fiscal year (a conventional omnibus spending plan) but funding immigration programs for just three months (allowing Republicans to try to roll back Obama’s temporary amnesty after the Senate is in GOP hands). The House’s move punted the bill back to the Senate for final passage and eventually Obama’s signature. But that is not as easy as it seems, with thanks and apologies to Fox News Hill honcho Chad Pergram, here’s the lay of the land:
- The Senate reconvened at 10 a.m. ET, but must first finish the National Defense Authorization Act. Time runs out on this bill this afternoon.
- Until the must-pass military measure is finished, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid cannot file cloture to move to the vote for the spending package, which requires 60 votes.
- This is the crucial moment for bill. If Warren and liberal senators get enough help from conservative Republicans opposed to the bill for other reasons, they could prevent it from advancing. But finding 41 votes for a move that would precipitate a shutdown seems highly unlikely.
- Members from the left and right, however, have some additional options even after it passes. A single senator or a small group could insist on using all 30 hours of debate time, pushing past the two-day emergency funding plan approved Thursday night. That would force leaders to go back to the House for another emergency budget patch. Another vote would give conservatives who say they were hornswoggled by House leaders into backing the emergency bill on the grounds that the bigger bill was dead and buried. And with the shutdown threat revived, liberals and conservatives alike could make some additional demands, or at least use the time to try to find 51 senators to vote against final passage.
