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artappraiser — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 17:08:30 +0000

In reply to House Democrats explode in recriminations as liberals lash out at moderates

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GOP finds new tools to tear at Dem divisions

BY JULIEGRACE BRUFKE AND MIKE LILLIS @ TheHill.com- 03/05/19 06:00 AM EST

House GOP leaders are looking to capitalize on tensions between centrist and liberal Democrats following a pair of high-profile procedural victories on the chamber floor that have highlighted divisions in the Democratic Party.

Republicans intend to weaponize an obscure parliamentary measure, known as a motion to recommit (MTR), as an evolving strategy to give moderate Democrats a choice between crossing the aisle or risking GOP attack ads in their swing districts heading into the 2020 elections.

Republicans, when they held the House majority between 2011 and 2019, treated the Democrats’ MTRs as mere messaging gambits — partisan measures to oppose regardless of their substance. And GOP leaders were near-unfailing in uniting their conference against those proposals over those years: Not one Democratic motion to recommit passed during that stretch.

Now in the minority themselves, Republican leaders have adopted a different position, arguing that MTRs should carry the same weight as any other piece of legislation. And they’re thrilled that a number of Democrats, in the early weeks of the new Congress, have embraced the same belief.

“What we’ve established is that on their side, the motion to recommit is now about policy, it’s no longer procedural, because they’ve been voting with us on a number of the MTRs we’ve brought forward,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) told The Hill.

“Once you’ve voted for an MTR, you’ve established that it’s definitely about policy and not procedural,” he continued. “So after that, every MTR you vote against is going to be hard to explain, if you agree or your district supports the policy.”

In their latest win, Republicans last week picked off 26 Democrats on a motion to recommit that amended a landmark gun control bill to include language requiring that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) be alerted if an immigrant without legal status tries to purchase a firearm.

The gun bill was still approved, but the amendment infuriated liberal Democrats, who were forced to go on record supporting an immigration enforcement provision they detest, while proving an embarrassment to Democratic leaders who failed to keep their troops in line [.....]

In the aftermath, Democratic leaders are attempting to crack the whip, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warning would-be defectors that Democratic resources are best reserved for those who stick with the party, according to several reports.

“I think you should just vote against all motions to recommit. It’s a procedural vote, it’s a ‘gotcha’ on the part of the opposition,” Pelosi told reporters last week. “Let’s make life easy: just vote against them.”

The blowup has highlighted both the divisions in the House Democratic Caucus, which is no longer as liberal as it was just a year ago, and the growing pains that have accompanied the party’s newly won majority, which they secured by picking off Republicans in conservative-leaning districts — seats the GOP is hoping to reclaim in 2020.

Republicans say all of this is evidence that their tactics are working. And they hope the frictions could weaken vulnerable Democrats enough to flip the House next year [....]

Senior Democrats see a drawn

artappraiser — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 11:17:00 +0000

In reply to House Democrats explode in recriminations as liberals lash out at moderates

Senior Democrats see a drawn-out gantlet of investigations as the safer, more damaging course of action against President Trump than a politically fraught impeachment https://t.co/F7KYKb08Yr
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 1, 2019

The Hill version of the story

artappraiser — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 01:49:17 +0000

In reply to House Democrats explode in recriminations as liberals lash out at moderates

The Hill version of the story, which they are currently headlining: Dems struggle to unify after GOP embarrasses them on procedure, 02/28/19 05:25 PM EST

And Politico has this, which they call an Exclusive: ‘This is not a day at the beach’: Pelosi tells moderate Dems to stop voting with GOP Updated 02/28/2019 03:33 PM EST

House Democrats are divided over how to respond to Republican procedural attacks.

as well as this right beneath the above: Establishment Dems give Medicare-for-All the brush off, 02/28/2019 06:53 PM EST

But progressives are amping up the pressure for hearings as they push to enshrine single-payer health care in the 2020 agenda.

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Senior Democrats see a drawn

The Hill version of the story