|
Published: March 25, 2009 WASHINGTON — President Obama loped up the stairs inside the Capitol on Wednesday, running a few minutes late for a lunch with Democratic senators. The standing ovation as he entered the room masked an undercurrent of friendly but distinct differences within. As he presses Congress to keep his ambitious agenda intact, Mr. Obama is navigating multiple constituencies within his party. Centrist Democrats in the Senate are trying to organize into a muscular bloc that is already putting its stamp on the president’s $3.6 trillion budget. At the same time, liberal groups, with tacit encouragement from the White House, are pushing back, trying to keep Mr. Obama’s core domestic initiatives — on health care, climate change and education — from being watered down in the legislative process. The divisions are no greater than those that existed within the Republican Party when it was in power, and at this point they do not threaten Mr. Obama’s ability to win the main elements of what he is seeking in his budget. But they bring to life a paradox of political success: As a party expands its ideological and geographic reach, as the Democrats have in the last two elections, it becomes harder to hold together, forcing its leaders to spend time papering over internal differences even as they confront a smaller but more unified opposition. Faced with just such a challenge, the White House unleashed a broad offensive on Wednesday, a mix of muscle and negotiation, in an effort to contain the varying viewpoints within the Democratic Party, split the difference and move forward. The muscle came in new television advertisements urging centrist Democrats, many of whom have a streak of fiscal conservatism that makes them leery of the increases proposed by the president, to support the budget. The spots are being broadcast in 11 states and urge moderate Republican senators as well as Democrats to support the administration’s budget priorities. The campaign is paid for by Americans United for Change, a group financed largely by organized labor, and was organized with the permission of Democratic strategists close to the White House. At the same time, Mr. Obama’s former campaign team has urged supporters to call their members of Congress. The negotiation came when the president, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and a cadre of advisers arrived on Capitol Hill to help present a unified front for the party. In the Mansfield Room of the Capitol, just steps from the Senate floor, Mr. Obama stood below a portrait of George Washington as he made his case over a lunch of finger sandwiches, vegetable soup and macaroni and cheese. The president said he would be flexible, several participants in the private meeting said, but he asked the senators not to abandon his priorities. His main target was a group of 16 centrist Democrats who want to pare the budget’s spending proposals and could hold the balance of power on other issues. The group was organized by Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, a relatively conservative state that Mr. Obama pulled into the Democratic column in November. Other members hail from regions like the South and Midwest that are culturally and politically a long way from the coastal and urban liberalism that long defined the party. People on all sides say that they believe the party will pull together on the big issues, but that before it reaches agreement, divides are likely to flare again and again. For days, tensions have been building, which is one reason Mr. Obama came. “Of course, we want to see him succeed,” said Senator Mark Pryor, Democrat of Arkansas, as he entered the luncheon. “My guess is we’re not going to walk in lock step on everything the administration wants. Maybe the Republicans do that, but that’s not a healthy process.” With Mr. Biden concentrating on the House on Wednesday, Mr. Obama was on the Senate side of the Capitol to begin working through these differences. Yes, he said, he is flexible on his idea to eliminate direct payments to farmers. And, yes, he said, he will think about his proposal to raise taxes on gas and oil producers, which has evoked an outcry among small producers in gulf states. But he also held firm on his belief that his three top priorities — education, health care and energy — not be trimmed. Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota and chairman of the Budget Committee, has expressed considerable differences with the president’s initial budget and has proposed one that he believes is more politically palatable. Although Mr. Conrad was one of the first senators to endorse Mr. Obama’s presidential candidacy, the budget differences have threatened to fray their relationship. But Mr. Conrad said the acrimony should not be overstated. “I try to be respectful,” he said, “but at the same time we’ve got a debate going on, an important debate for the country. If everybody in the room thinks the same thing, nobody is thinking very much.” When the senators stepped away from their luncheon on Wednesday, after a dessert of sugar-free Jell-O, Democrats were quick to note that any disagreements inside the party paled in comparison to the differences they once had with President George W. Bush. Still, several Democrats said they could not commit to voting for the budget until they studied the final number, the tax cut provisions and how the spending plan would ultimately affect the deficit projections. As the Budget Committees in the House and the Senate worked into the night on the details, different strains of ideologies began to assert themselves again. “Well, I think we are on the same page,” said Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska. He added, “We may not agree as to what the page says.”
|
