Schumer vs. Obama
By: Glenn Thrush
December 10, 2010 04:38 AM EST
It wasn’t on the White House’s official schedule, but on Nov. 22, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) quietly slipped into the Oval Office on a self-appointed mission to steel Barack Obama for the tax cut fight.
Schumer, the newly anointed message guru for besieged Senate Democrats, told Obama he wanted the president to hold the line and oppose Republican efforts to extend the cuts to families making more than $250,000.
But Obama, according to people briefed on the hourlong one-on-one meeting, was cool and noncommittal, especially when Schumer pitched his pet plan to extend the cuts to families making up to $1 million per year — a move designed to corner Republicans into defending millionaires and billionaires. The president was considerably more blunt when Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made another trip to the White House a week later, suggesting he simply wasn’t interested in an extended battle with an uncertain result.
Schumer was irked, according to people he’s spoken to subsequently, deeply disappointed and convinced Obama had missed a major opportunity. The White House, in turn, was incensed when it learned Schumer planned to push forward with votes — ultimately unsuccessful — on alternative Democratic proposals.
-snip-
Since then, the relationship between Schumer and Obama, arguably the Democratic Party’s two most influential message strategists, has become so strained both sides are working to patch things up for fear their differences could hinder Democrats in the face of a strengthened and determined GOP opposition.
-snip-
“My sense is there are going to be discussions between both House and Senate leadership about all the final elements of the package,” Obama told NPR on Thursday. "Here's what I'm confident about: that nobody — Democrat or Republican — wants to see people's paychecks smaller on Jan. 1 because Congress didn't act."
But privately, White House officials, who have long viewed Schumer as a talented but essentially self-promotional operator with no abiding loyalty to Obama, think he was pursuing an irresponsible partisan fight that would delay the tax cuts and the extension of unemployment benefits for months.
And Obama himself warned Schumer that the millionaire strategy could sink the stock market.
When a vote on the millionaire plan came up short last Saturday, the administration gloated — and mocked Schumer for overestimating his support in meetings with West Wing officials.MORE at.........
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46223.html