Obama Campaign to Lend Partisanship Draws Few Republican Allies
By Laura Litvan
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- In her 30 years in Washington, no president had invited Maine Senator Olympia Snowe to the White House for a private meeting -- until Democrat Barack Obama asked her over last week.
She is now part of an exclusive club of Republicans willing to work with Obama, so far limited to just two other members, Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
The president is doing a little better with their party members outside of Washington. Charlie Crist of Florida and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California are among the four Republican governors who came out in support of Obama’s economic recovery plan because it contains millions of dollars for their states.
Obama’s promise to purge Washington of partisanship is giving way to a more familiar reality. To push his stimulus proposal, he has been forced to cobble together support from just a few Republican moderates in Congress and the handful of governors and mayors.
“He’s running up against a long and nasty history of partisanship that isn’t going to change overnight,” said Ross Baker, a professor of political science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
No House Republicans
Not that Obama, 47, hasn’t tried. Since taking office Jan. 20, he has sought to woo congressional Republicans with meetings, phone calls and even cocktails to gain support for the stimulus package. It passed the House last month without a single Republican vote, and was approved by the Senate this week with just three: Snowe, Collins and Specter.
That tactic of relying almost exclusively on Democrats may not work for other elements of Obama’s agenda. He will need broader Republican support for his plans to overhaul energy and health-care policy as well as his financial-bailout measure, which will involve sacrifice as well as dole out largesse.
That support so far has been scant. Last month, Snowe, Collins and Specter were among the nine Republicans who voted in favor of expanding a federal children’s health-care program; they also were among five of their party members who backed Democratic-drafted legislation designed to make it easier for victims of pay discrimination to win lawsuits.
Asked at a news conference this week whether he underestimated his ability to attract Republican support, Obama said his courting of those lawmakers, including a visit to the Capitol to meet with them, wasn’t intended to yield immediate results.
‘Build Trust’
“They were designed to try to build up some trust over time,” Obama said. “As I continue to make these overtures, over time, hopefully that will be reciprocated.”
At the same time, Obama has sought and won backing from Republicans outside Congress such as Crist, who was among a bipartisan group of 19 governors who endorsed the stimulus package and introduced Obama at a Feb. 10 town-hall meeting to sell the program in Fort Myers, Florida.
Crist, 52, said a stimulus is needed to help states cope with the costs of education, infrastructure and health care.
“It’s getting harder every day and we know that it’s important that we pass a stimulus package,” he said. “We need to do it in a bipartisan way.”
Oval Office Meeting
Obama has been reaching out to the three Senate Republican moderates in a variety of ways. Snowe, 61, who has served in Congress for three decades, said she has worked with six presidents and had never had a one-on-one Oval Office meeting until Obama hosted her on Feb. 4.
“This would be the first time I’ve met in the Oval Office where it was just me and the president with no aides whatsoever,” Snowe said, adding that she has had three phone calls from Obama since his November election. “I’ve never had this much contact in such a condensed period of time.”
The outreach included an invitation to Specter to watch his home-state Pittsburgh Steelers play in the Super Bowl.
Specter, 79, said he has been impressed by Obama’s overtures. The Pennsylvania senator met privately with the president Feb. 3, and was asked to the White House for both the Super Bowl and the personal meeting within just a few days.
“Two meetings in four days is pretty extensive,” Specter said.
Judicial Nominations
Specter, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is in a position to help Obama as he tries to move judicial nominations through the chamber. He also will be a pivotal player in any efforts to recast policies on warrantless surveillance of suspected terrorists.
Obama’s wooing also may pay political dividends on matters such as an overhaul of health-care policy and climate-change legislation, Collins, 56, said in an interview.
“He’s going to need the help of those of us who are more at the center,” Collins said. “I look forward to working with him on a host of issues.”
Snowe, a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, said she wants to work with Obama when he advances legislation to provide universal health care, though she wants to use her leverage to block a federal-run health-insurance system. Snowe said she also wants to work with Obama to gear tax cuts more toward the middle class.
Collins said she is most interested in working with Obama on health care, education and the environment. She also wants to help him meet his goal of passing climate-change legislation this year.
Collins said she had been surprised and pleased to be invited to attend the White House signing ceremonies for both the children’s health-insurance bill and the discrimination- lawsuit measure. She said these events and her half-hour private meeting with Obama on Feb. 4 suggest a lasting partnership.
“I found the president very open to suggestions and concerns,” Collins said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: February 12, 2009 00:01 EST |
