by Christi Parsons and Peter Nicholas
Barack Obama walked the halls of the Capitol as a senator for nearly four years, and in his earliest decisions following election assembled a coterie of key advisers with deep roots in Congress.
And so it came as a surprise that Obama's first real workweek in Washington as president-elect was marked by collisions with those former colleagues, including some who had helped him win the White House.
In naming a CIA director and in shaping his massive economic stimulus plan, Obama managed to rankle some lawmakers from his own party by stepping crosswise of their procedures, prerogatives and personal feelings.
Now, as the incoming president moves deeply into the details of governing and begins in earnest to try to revive the ailing economy, the question is whether last week's ruffled feathers have been smoothed, or whether there are more tensions ahead.
Some clashes could be the inevitable stumbles of a new relationship. Others may reflect contending visions of how to do business, involving basic differences between the Obama viewpoint and what the president-elect refers to as the Washington "way."
"I do see a culture clash," said Dee Dee Myers, a White House press secretary for President Bill Clinton. "For a campaign that got kudos for being as well-run as Obama's, they probably thought they were going to come to Washington and continue with that successful framework. In many ways they have. But there's also a lot of acclimating that's going on too."
See the rest of the story on Obama's 'culture clash' with Congress in Tribune newspapers and here in the Swamp:
Back in Chicago during the previous two years, Obama's team has operated as a tight cadre of insiders who famously exercised tight control over their message and image. If the campaign officials weren't confirming something, it could scarcely be confirmed through other sources.
After the president-elect's first full week of doing business here, though, members of that team are now facing a new reality: They're reading their own business in Capitol Hill releases and news accounts. They're bumping up against Hill-size egos who operate on their own terms.
The week began with Obama antagonizing some influential members of Congress with his surprise choice of Leon Panetta, the former Clinton White House official, to head the CIA. Days before the appointment was official, word of the choice reached Capitol Hill, where Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was just beginning her tenure as the first woman to head the Senate Intelligence Committee.
She hadn't been consulted on Panetta as a nominee, she said, and was thinking about opposing his nomination. The departing committee chairman, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), was also raising concerns about the possible choice.
It was an inauspicious start to the week, coming with word that the Obama transition team was readying a massive tax-cut component to his economic stimulus package in order to lure Republican support.
The tax-cut strategy drew some pointed comments from Democratic lawmakers, who are less enthusiastic about tax cuts and suggested that their votes shouldn't be taken for granted. As they emerged from a private meeting of the Senate Finance Committee at midweek, several expressed skepticism of two tax cuts taking shape in the Obama plan.
Both missteps were corrected by week's end. After Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden called Feinstein to apologize, she reversed her position and supported the Panetta nomination.
"If members of Congress have good ideas, if they can identify projects for me that will create jobs in an efficient way that does not hamper our ability over the long term to get control of our deficit, that is good for the economy, then I'm going to accept it," Obama said in a news conference.
Obama certainly isn't the first incoming president to stumble in his early dealings with Congress. Jimmy Carter's dismissal of Washington norms resulted in a rocky relationship that hindered his agenda throughout his administration. Clinton struggled with lawmakers even when he had a Democratic Congress, just as President George W. Bush grew detached from fellow Republicans.
Obama was mindful of the week's perils and, in several cases, managed to resolve the conflicts.
But others remain in play, to varying degrees of tension.
For one thing, even some Senate committees had to scramble to learn Obama's Cabinet choices. The Energy and Natural Resources Committee, led by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), never got official advance notice of two Cabinet nominees within its jurisdiction: Energy Secretary-nominee Steven Chu and Interior Secretary-nominee Ken Salazar.
Rather, the staff of the committee pestered aides on the Obama transition team for clues as to whom the picks might be, ultimately ferreting out the names through their own efforts.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Obama did not alert her before announcing two major environmental picks, his nominee for EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, and Carol Browner, the new climate change czar. Boxer leads the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
"Maybe it's because he didn't want a lot of people knowing his choices, didn't want to leak things out," Boxer said. "That could be. But I think the chair of a committee can be trusted."
Likewise, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), a conservative member of the House Appropriations Committee--which will draft a large portion of the stimulus bill--said he was frustrated by the lack of information available.
"I'm very disappointed. I've read more in the public media than I've learned as a member of Congress," he said. "I'd be very interested in tax relief. I want to be part of it. But I have not been invited to any of these classic backroom meetings."
House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (D-Conn.) heard that comment and joked, "You sound just like members of my caucus."
Another potentially troublesome point of discussion is what to do about the government's $700 billion bailout of the financial sector.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Friday he had been working closely with the Obama transition team on legislation, and that he trusts the Obama staff to run the program effectively.
Still, he said, "We intend to trust but verify."
As Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) said this week, "We worked hard to get Obama elected. We're all in this together. ... But we're also not going to necessarily be a rubber stamp."
Myers thinks one person actually can influence Washington culture, arguing that Republicans Rep. Newt Gingrich and President Ronald Reagan are two figures who did so.
"It's absolutely possible," Myers said. "He can do a lot to set a tone, to say, 'I expect this, it's important.' "
The moment may be right, she says.
Janet Hook and Jim Puzzanghera of the Washington Bureau contributed.
Comments
"Until last week, Carol M. Browner, President-elect Barack Obama's pick as global warming czar, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change.
By Thursday, Mrs. Browner's name and biography had been removed from Socialist International's Web page, though a photo of her speaking June 30 to the group's congress in Greece was still available.
Socialist International, an umbrella group for many of the world's social democratic political parties such as Britain's Labor Party, says it supports socialism and is harshly critical of U.S. policies.
The group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, the organization's action arm on climate change, says the developed world must reduce consumption and commit to binding and punitive limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr. Obama, who has said action on climate change would be a priority in his administration, tapped Mrs. Browner last month to fill a new position as White House coordinator of climate and energy policies. The appointment does not need Senate confirmation.
Mr. Obama's transition team said Mrs. Browner's membership in the organization is not a problem and that it brings experience in U.S. policymaking to her new role.
"The Commission for a Sustainable World Society includes world leaders from a variety of political parties, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who succeeded Tony Blair, in serving as vice president of the convening organization," Obama transition spokesman Nick Shapiro said." This is scary! I think the commusnists are coming.
Posted by: WhatIf | January 12, 2009 7:26 AM
As president LBJ played the Congress like a fiddle; he was probably the most effective chief executive in recent memory. He was able to do that because he had worked for 12 years in the House (under the tuteledge of Sam Rayburn) and then brought those horse trading skills to the Senate, where he served for 11 years. He knew both instinctively and from experience when to cajole or browbeat, and whom.
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None of the above describes Obama's background in the Senate. He spent a whopping total of 4 years as a US Senator cum Media darling. Half of that time was spent as a presidential candidate. He did not forge the bipartisan friendships and alliances that LBJ did. He couldn't, in 2years, even if he tried.
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So you're wrong, Parsons and Nicholas, it really isn't a surprise "that Obama's first real workweek in Washington as president-elect was marked by collisions with those former colleagues" ...at least it shouldn't be.
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We're in for a rough ride in the coming 4 years.
Posted by: MJ | January 12, 2009 7:52 AM
As president LBJ played the Congress like a fiddle; he was probably the most effective chief executive in recent memory. He was able to do that because he had worked for 12 years in the House (under the tuteledge of Sam Rayburn) and then brought those horse trading skills to the Senate, where he served for 11 years. He knew both instinctively and from experience when to cajole or browbeat, and whom.
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None of the above describes Obama's background in the Senate. He spent a whopping total of 4 years as a US Senator cum Media darling. Half of that time was spent as a presidential candidate. He did not forge the bipartisan friendships and alliances that LBJ did. He couldn't, in 2years, even if he tried.
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So you're wrong, Parsons and Nicholas, it really isn't a surprise "that Obama's first real workweek in Washington as president-elect was marked by collisions with those former colleagues" ...at least it shouldn't be.
.
We're in for a rough ride in the coming 4 years.
Posted by: MJ | January 12, 2009 7:56 AM
Probasble be more as some of his CHANGE is way out.
Posted by: Inky | January 12, 2009 9:56 AM
Fault Chief of Staff, Rahm Emaneul for not informing committee members of appointments.
He's not on his toes. Not a good beginning. Poor protocol, should have known better.
Posted by: Jiren | January 12, 2009 10:06 AM
MJ-
I don't think holding LBJ up as an example is that good of an idea. He did for the Democrats what Bush has now done for the Republicans.
Posted by: Stephen Daugherty | January 12, 2009 11:15 AM
Whatif:
Please cite your source for this article.
And I sure would not call Gordon Brown a "socialist".
Posted by: BobinATL | January 12, 2009 12:03 PM
I don't think holding LBJ up as an example is that good of an idea. He did for the Democrats what Bush has now done for the Republicans.
Posted by: Stephen Daugherty | January 12, 2009 11:15 AM
.
Whether one likes LBJ or not is beside the point. He was EFFECTIVE because he entered the Oval Office with a long standing working relationship with both houses and both parties of Congress.
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BTW, not all of his legacy is negative. For example, only he could have gotten the Voting Rights Act through Congress at that time.
Posted by: MJ | January 12, 2009 12:07 PM
Ruffle a few feathers; it's okay, they have big egos and have to show off now and then; Specter's a good example. And Feinstein.
But Obama has a mandate, and they know better than to overdo it.
Posted by: rupert | January 12, 2009 12:10 PM
In 2001, in the landmark court case Coleman-Adebayo v. Browner, Carol M. Browner and the agency she administered, the EPA, were found guilty of race, color, and sex-based discrimination as well as tolerating a hostile work environment. The case provided the impetus for the passage (unanimous in both chambers) of=2
0the No FEAR Act (Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation) that was signed into law by President George W. Bush. The law was heralded as the first civil rights law of the 21st century. Study of Coleman-Adebayo v. Browner is now mandated for all new Federal employees within 90 days of their being hired, and every 2 years for all Federal employees. The extent of the racism and retaliation within Ms. Browner's EPA was so pervasive that Congress and the Executive required study of it as the penultimate example of what was WRONG with government. When asked in Congressional hearings whether she accepted the judgement of the jury, Ms. Browner said she did.
The question for Mr. Obama, is: Given her unrepentant position on the deplorable conditions she oversaw at EPA, how is Carol Browner qualified to hold administrative position again?
Posted by: Kevin Berends | January 12, 2009 12:24 PM
It's important for congress to understand:
The changes made to it's numbers in 2008 were the direct result of the sweeping wave resulting from Barack Obama's call for change. The SAME can be said for what took place in 2006 via mainstream America finally waking up to the minority of progressive voices who had been calling for change for years before and escalating sharply in dissidence to the Bush administration's disdain for democracy. If congress would like to stand in the way of America 'getting it's head-out-of-it's-@$$' - then congress can be swept clean again !
America will not have patience for backward regressive thought and lack of action.
Congress - wake up ! and stand up straight !
You are put on notice - Again.
Posted by: PulSamsara | January 12, 2009 12:46 PM
A culture clash? I think not.
The President-elect is for changing the culture of the Washington governing elite.
The Democrat congress is for changing the President-elect thinking about how to do business.
To get a flavor of how change really "works" in Washington just review Senator Durbin's statements regarding seating Roland Burris over the past 2 weeks.
Now that's what I call change we all can believe in.
Posted by: Mike C | January 12, 2009 1:51 PM