Word: pelosi
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...your fault in some ways," pressed a reporter at Pelosi's weekly press conference last Thursday, "that Barack Obama's first vote was so partisan and not bipartisan...
...Pelosi snapped back: "I didn't come here to be partisan. I didn't come here to be bipartisan. I came here, as did my colleagues, to be nonpartisan, to work for the American people, to do what is in their interest...
Obama may have the political capital, but Pelosi has no illusions about the way things work on Capitol Hill. "What she realized with Obama coming in was that, yeah, we can go through this dance, but at the end of the day, this was going to be a tutorial for the Obama folks," a House staffer close to Pelosi told Politico. "They're all going to vote against you and then come to your cocktail party that night." (See pictures of Obama's college years...
Some of the friction could just be cosmetic to appease both the progressive base and moderates. "It's the old routine of bad cop (Pelosi), good cop (Obama); partisanship vs. bipartisanship," says Stephen Wayne, a political science professor at Georgetown University. "It is also a bargaining tool to limit what the Republicans can expect from the legislation in exchange for their support...
Ultimately, Pelosi and Obama's relationship is in its early stages, and the first major trial of their marriage is yet to come. But it may come sooner than either would like. "The real test of the Obama-Pelosi relationship will be what Pelosi does if the Senate, as expected, trims the House fat and pumps up the honest stimulus part of the bill," says Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. "It seems to me that Obama is very likely to embrace the Senate approach. Will Pelosi go along with Obama or join the House...