House Dems Double Down

Democrats have responded to their midterm blowout by re-embracing Pelosi, insulting the public and labeling Obama a sellout. What are they thinking?

In his column today in the New York Times, David Brooks looks at the unwillingness of many House Democrats to support the president's bipartisan tax cut deal.

The House can be a lunatic asylum. In 1998, the GOP lost five seats in a year it should have gained seats (because of the expected “six year itch”). The lesson that the GOP learned was to spend the lame duck on Clinton’s impeachment.  Fast forward to 2010: House Democrats have taken a broad daylight beating. And what do they do?  They re-embrace Nancy Pelosi, call the public ‘dolts’ and label the president a sellout.

How to explain this?  Part of it stems from being a talk show watching 50/50 nation. And part of it stems from the legal mandate for majority-minority districts -- racially sanctioned gerrymandering -- which yield bluer blues and redder reds.  Another contributing factor stems from what our cities have become: enclaves of high-end educated folks and the inner city. And think of who become their representatives? Pelosi, Waxman, Nadler -- all caricatures of stereotypes.

Go back in time. Does today's New York City delegation have anything in common with the days of Hugh Carey, Manny Celler and John Rooney?  Yes, there were also representatives like Jonathan Bingham and William Fitts Ryan, but they were very much in this galaxy. Weiner and Rangel?  Not anymore.  To encapsulate it: Nydia Velasquez beat incumbent Steve Solarz in the Democratic back in 1992.

David Brooks may write about Senators Dick Durbin and Tom Coburn reaching across the aisle, but that’s only in the Senate.  You won’t find that in the House.