Democratic Leadership Will Meet At White House Without Republicans

WASHINGTON -- With Republican leadership asking for, and receiving, a delay in a previously announced bi-partisan meeting at the White House, Democrats have decided to make it a partisan affair.

Senate and House Democratic leadership will be meeting with President Barack Obama on Thursday, three Capitol Hill sources tell the Huffington Post.

The invites on the Senate side include Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). On the House side, the list will likely include Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.)

The White House did not return a request for comment as to what topics would be on the docket. That said, it's not hard to guess. Currently lingering in the Senate are a host of high-profile legislative items that the party wants resolved during the lame duck session, chief among them the DREAM Act, unemployment insurance, a nuclear weapons treaty, tax cuts, and repealing the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

Comments

[heckmepitus]

09:03 PM on 11/18/2010

Nothing new here, the partisan White House continues to be partisan.

[whyus]

07:32 PM on 11/18/2010

Good!! About time they took action. Go get 'em,Nancy!

[pjkool]

06:49 PM on 11/18/2010

Good, I’m glad to hear that. The Republicans were never coming anyway. The Republicans saw what happened to Charlie Crist for being cordial to the president. They know if they are seen at the political lunch counter being cordial toward President Obama, the race baggers and talk radio hosts will wrap themselves in Gadsden flags and shout crucify them! Crucify them! Then the primary challenges follow.

[VJ2008]

06:29 PM on 11/18/2010

Please get tough Dems, please. Make as much history with this lame duck session as you have with this term of congress--even though the mainsteam media doesn't pay much attention to that. Please, please, please get tough and quit letting the republicans further harm this country. I'd like to think it will catch up to them, but I've been hoping that for a very long time. If you do not get tough and take some big votes on big issues, more and more people will become disillusioned with politics and then the repubs will get what they want, which I for the life of me can't figure out why they would want what they are trying for....for this nation. My only explanation is that they are all brainwashed--literally--I know the folks who watch Rush and Fox are, and it is a sad sight to see. The republicans want a civil/class war, and most of the fox viewers don't even know it. Sad as that is, they will get their war, and I'm guessing they won't like it.

[kenhamlett]

05:31 PM on 11/18/2010

They met and decided to "compromise" by letting the Bush tax cuts last two more years, put all their lame duck effort into START, and to forego DA/DT and UI benefits unless they possibly could find time to get to them. Remind me not to let these folks negotiate my next contract.

[Political Guy]

05:28 PM on 11/18/2010

I hope that president Obama finally gets its. That what the these crazed Republicans and Teabagger-customed Klan members fear most is not his failure but his success, and they will do anything to ensure that no other black man is ever elected president. He must come to grips with the fact that its not his policies they object to, its him. Its personal for them and he must begin to take them on as if he was defending his political survival, if not for him, then for for us all men of color who demand to be respected. He needs to remember that there is no sin in losing, but in not fighting.

[Tribal Knowledge]

05:17 PM on 11/18/2010

What else is new?

[samsgramnv]

05:12 PM on 11/18/2010

C'mon Mr President. Be a democrat....this could be a beginning.

[TYRANNASAURUS]

05:26 PM on 11/18/2010

BEGINNING OF GRIDLOCK................... something republicans are experts at.

[bhuddaDoc]

04:30 PM on 11/18/2010

OPEN LETTER TO OBAMA AND DEMS:

People...it is time to stop playing nice. The republicans don't care about dialogue or bipartisanship and frankly are laughing at us because we are trying to play nice. People want and respect decisive action towards our stated goals...not waffling about worrying about what people think of us. You have an agenda and it is a good one. Lets move it forward and make damn sure everybody knows everything about our successes. The absolute WORST thing you could do is to appear indecisive and then cave in to the spoiled little children on the other side...it only sends the wrong message that it is not only OK, but desirable to be #@$holes.

[wolfenstein]

08:11 PM on 11/18/2010

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathleen-reardon/gop-spring-loaded-to-a-ho_b_785391.html

[tangelan]

04:01 PM on 11/18/2010

I'm going to send all of these Congress people. Those tax cuts should not be extended. Those deficits will be blamed on Democrats. Let the Republican tax cuts expire as per their vote from 10 years ago. If they want to do another bill to get them passed in January then let them. PayGo goes back into effect in 2011 so they'll have to make sure the bill is paid for. If they do pass it they'll need to get it pass the President's veto pen.

You can't legislate without compromise unless you have control of all three branches and even then it's not easy. The GOP's 'NO COMPROMISE' stance isn't going to fly if they want to get anything done.

[wolfenstein]

08:13 PM on 11/18/2010

Power concedes nothing without a demand. If you got the power; demand what you want!

[Califishing]

03:53 PM on 11/18/2010

I can hear it now..&^&^&*^$% Them. They didn't want to show up well we got this. We have put up with their #%% for too long. Well now let's tell them what the American people are saying. The people are hurting and need help and it looks like it's up to us to get this country up and running at full force again. Let's go... From now on don't take any %$#$ from anyone. That's what I would say.

[edejan]

05:44 PM on 11/18/2010

I HOPE that's what they're saying.

[walkthewalk]

03:52 PM on 11/18/2010

The Republican leadership doesn't want to actually sit down with Pres. Obama. These people just want to whine about not being included in policy discussions.

You got your invitation. Now put up or shut up.

[hatrickpenry]

03:27 PM on 11/18/2010

With the current split being 56-42-2, there's a GOOD chance this lame duck session will be just that.

[Thomas Clarke]

03:14 PM on 11/18/2010

I sure as hell hope that they're going to take a good hard look around the table and realize that they're looking at the only politicians left who are interested in building bipartisan consensus. I hope they realize that they are sitting in a foxhole in the middle of a battlefield, and that the option to declare a truce and work out their differences with the increasingly strident and ideologically dominated GOP are slim and none. I hope they realize these things, but do they? If they come out of this meeting with a strong message to the American people and a commitment to show good faith and pass the legislation pending in the Senate, then they will have done what they were elected to do. If not, they're history.

[Clearing-Brush]

03:02 PM on 11/18/2010

If they had wanted the Repubs to show up, they should have told them it was a meeting with oil execs. They would have shown up early, brought flowers and candy, would have shaved they legs and worn their clean panties.

[tangelan]

04:03 PM on 11/18/2010

Lol! F&F.

[javajava]

04:28 PM on 11/18/2010

Man that busted me up..