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By Ryan Grim
Huffington Post

The White House is playing hardball with Democrats who intend to vote
against the supplemental war spending bill, threatening freshmen who
oppose it that they won't get help with reelection and will be cut off
from the White House, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) said Friday.

"We're not going to help you. You'll never hear from us again,"
Woolsey said the White House is telling freshmen. She wouldn't say who
is issuing the threats, and the White House didn't immediately return
a call. [UPDATE: White House spokesman Nick Shapiro says Woolsey's
charge is not true.]

Woolsey said she herself had not been pressured because the White
House and leadership know she's a firm no vote. But she had heard from
other members about the White House pressure.

"Nancy's working with it. It's going to be a very close vote," Rep.
Jack Murtha (D-Penn.), a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.) said Friday. "We don't have any Republican leeway, so far
we have no Republican going to vote for it."

"We'll pass it, but it'll be a close vote. Every vote will count," Murtha said.

Woolsey and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) are both ardent opponents of
the war and no friends of the IMF, which is in line for a $100 billion
extension of credit in the same bill. Both pointed out that the
Democratic leadership didn't bring the bill up for a vote on Friday,
indicating they weren't confident they had the votes.

"It says something that this hasn't been brought up yet," Kucinich
said. "I will tell you there's a good number of members holding solid.
That's why this thing hasn't passed yet."

Kucinich said he's whipping the 51 Democrats who previously voted
against the war funding and also whipping Democrats who have voted
against the IMF in the past. He said that tremendous pressure was
being exerted on the folks leaning against it.

"This is politics, you know, there's a lot of pressure put on
members," he said. "But from what I can see, people are concerned that
when they go back home, they're going to have to explain why they
voted for the war if their constituency's opposed to it. People who
have consistently opposed the war are going to have difficulty
explaining why they switched."

The White House is playing hardball with Democrats who intend to vote
against the supplemental war spending bill, threatening freshmen who
oppose it that they won't get help with reelection and will be cut off
from the White House, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) said Friday.

"We're not going to help you. You'll never hear from us again,"
Woolsey said the White House is telling freshmen. She wouldn't say who
is issuing the threats, and the White House didn't immediately return
a call. [UPDATE: White House spokesman Nick Shapiro says Woolsey's
charge is not true.]

Woolsey said she herself had not been pressured because the White
House and leadership know she's a firm no vote. But she had heard from
other members about the White House pressure.

"Nancy's working with it. It's going to be a very close vote," Rep.
Jack Murtha (D-Penn.), a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.) said Friday. "We don't have any Republican leeway, so far
we have no Republican going to vote for it."

"We'll pass it, but it'll be a close vote. Every vote will count," Murtha said.

Woolsey and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) are both ardent opponents of
the war and no friends of the IMF, which is in line for a $100 billion
extension of credit in the same bill. Both pointed out that the
Democratic leadership didn't bring the bill up for a vote on Friday,
indicating they weren't confident they had the votes.

"It says something that this hasn't been brought up yet," Kucinich
said. "I will tell you there's a good number of members holding solid.
That's why this thing hasn't passed yet."

Kucinich said he's whipping the 51 Democrats who previously voted
against the war funding and also whipping Democrats who have voted
against the IMF in the past. He said that tremendous pressure was
being exerted on the folks leaning against it.

"This is politics, you know, there's a lot of pressure put on
members," he said. "But from what I can see, people are concerned that
when they go back home, they're going to have to explain why they
voted for the war if their constituency's opposed to it. People who
have consistently opposed the war are going to have difficulty
explaining why they switched."
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"There are a lot of progressives who don't like the IMF," said
Woolsey. Kucinich is making the case to colleagues that the IMF loan
is merely a backdoor bailout of European banks.

Woolsey, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she
held a meeting earlier this week among Democrats opposing the package
but is not actively whipping against it.

The GOP is also objecting to the inclusion of IMF money in the war
bill. Kucinich recalled that the last time progressive Democrats
joined with Republicans to defeat a Democratic agenda item came in
1999, when 26 Democrats sided with Republicans to block President
Clinton's continuing bombing of Serbia.

"Republicans had their own agenda," recalled Kucinich.

The White House may be forced to drop the IMF provision and fight for
it another day, but it's a top administration priority.

"That may happen," said Kucinich. "But as long as it's in there, it's
a force that's moving in the direction of defeat of the bill."

Jeff Muskus contributed reporting

Ryan Grim is the author of the just-released book This Is Your Country
On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America

Source: Huffington Post


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