Some of the most influential senators in the new Congress are neither in the majority nor among the longest-serving. They don’t show up on the Sunday-morning talk shows, and they aren’t talking about running for president in 2016.
Instead, they’re a pack of Democrats from mostly smaller, rural states who are inclined to work with Republicans on legislation President Obama doesn’t support. They may even be willing to help the GOP override his vetoes.
Some of them support building the Keystone XL oil pipeline and are expected to be active as the Senate begins to debate the issue this week. Others want Congress to pass tougher sanctions against Iran, and all are open to making changes to Obama’s health-care law. All three issues have drawn veto threats from the White House in recent days.
One of the biggest unanswered questions about the week-old Congress is whether the new Republican majority will be able to overcome Capitol Hill’s culture of stifling partisanship and cultivate enough Democratic support to challenge Obama.
These moderate Democrats say they will cooperate if Republicans don’t use the Senate floor to score political points — as Democrats have done over the past several years. They have big expectations for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who will need to keep his larger conference unified while sustaining his promise to allow a more open and nonpartisan debate process. (our emphasis)Of course, the usual conservaDem suspects are included: Sens. Heidi "Ho" Heitkamp, Joe "I Don't Know If I'll Vote for Obama" Manchin, Joe Donnelly, Jon Tester, blah blah blah ad nauseam. (Again, more reasons why progressive Democrats should never contribute the the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Never.) Each and every one of these spineless career politicians, having no core convictions to speak of, would rather sell out their party and their president in order to continue their time in office. To hell with them. And with their counterparts in the House.
They also provide useful props to the Ed O'Keefes of the media world who are desperate to forge the narrative of the newly-responsible Republican Party straining to find reasonable Democrats on the other side of the aisle to do the
Damn, we're so tired of these too- clever- by- half hacks with all their "inside politics" game- playing and the media that love this kind of narrative. Maybe that's part of the reason why people of all political stripes admire Sen. Elizabeth Warren; she's true to herself and true to the bedrock convictions of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.
