Congressional Democrats to Obama: "Sure I Love You, But Just As a Friend"

President Obama put is succinctly yesterday, "If you love me you will help me pass my bill!"

Unfortunately for the President the reply he is getting from Democratic Party lawmakers is we love you but we are not IN love with you, "Can't We Just Be Friends?"

It was obvious that the President had anticipated Objections to his  jobs bill new stimulus plan from the GOP side of the aisle, but the most vocal objections have come from his own party.

This morning on the Joe Scarborough show, NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd declared that the Democrats are in open revolt about the president's Jobs proposal

In a moment, at a time when the campaign, the Obama campaign is desperate to have him seen as a tough leader again, you don’t want to get rolled by your own party.…to have this string of Democratic Senators come out and tell the New York Times… Joe Manchin this thing seems too big and Bob Casey saying, I would like to deal with it piece meal. Oh by the way, Casey and Manchin are up for reelection in swing states/red states in Pennsylvania and West Virginia respectively. So, that is not a good sign.”

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That NY Times article  talking about in the clip should be rather upsetting to the President:

Many Congressional Democrats, smarting from the fallout over the 2009 stimulus bill, say there is little chance they will be able to support the bill as a single entity, citing an array of elements they cannot abide.” 

Democrats like Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, who does not want the oil industry singled out for tax changes, object to parts of the bill. The White House has opposed breaking it up. 

“I think the American people are very skeptical of big pieces of legislation,” Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, said in an interview Wednesday, joining a growing chorus of Democrats who prefer an à la carte version of the bill despite White House resistance to that approach. “For that reason alone I think we should break it up.”

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, has said he will put the bill on the legislative calendar but has declined to say when. He almost certainly will push the bill — which Mr. Obama urged Congress to pass “right now!” — until after his chamber’s recess at the end of the month.

Reid seemed more bewildered than normal when he spoke to reporters:

“‘I don't know exactly what I'm going to do yet with the president's jobs bill, but we're going to have a full caucus meeting on it on Thurs,’ Reid told reporters, saying merely that he had introduced the bill Tuesday. A number of Democrats have previously opposed some of the ideas in the bill

Other Congressional Democrats weighed in on their displeasure to other news sources:

• “Terrible.” “‘Terrible,’ Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) told Politico when asked about the president’s ideas for how to pay for the $450 billion price tag. ‘We shouldn’t increase taxes on ordinary income. … There are other ways to get there.’”

• “Frustrating … There’s an unfairness to it.” “Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, from the oil-rich state of Alaska, said it was ‘frustrating’ to see the president single out the oil industry after calling on the congressional supercommittee in last week’s address to Congress to find savings. ‘When you start singling out certain industries, there’s an unfairness to it,’ he said in an interview. ‘On the pay-fors, I have a problem.’”

• “I disagree with the president.” Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat whose state includes some of the wealthiest counties in the U.S., said she didn't support the health-care tax, according to Bloomberg News. ‘I disagree with the president,’ she said.”

• Even Senator John "Why The Long Face?" Kerry said the bill would have to be broken up into pieces.  “I don’t think anybody expects it to pass en bloc.” “‘I don’t think anybody expects it to pass en bloc,’ Kerry told reporters yesterday afternoon. ‘So, the issue is going to be what, if any, parts of it might be cherry-picked. And really that depends a lot on the overall mix of the negotiation.’”

According to the Raging Cajun James Carville...its time for the White House to panic.

What should the White House do now? One word came to mind: Panic. We are far past sending out talking points. Do not attempt to dumb it down. We cannot stand any more explanations. Have you talked to any Democratic senators lately? I have. It's pretty damn clear they are not happy campers. …For God's sake, why are we still looking at the same political and economic advisers that got us into this mess? It's not working.”

This jobs plan was to be the cornerstone of the President's reelection effort.  Not the passage of the bill, but the Republican rejection of the bill. For the next 13 and a half months we were to hear nothing but those scary stories of the GOP pushing unemployed people off the cliff, taking away their healthcare and sending their parents back to Mexico (or something like that).

The roadblock Obama didn't anticipate was that when Democratic members of Congress went home, they found a constituency that was sick and tired of the tax and spend policy reflected in both parties.

Unless the Democrats fall in line soon, the president's reelection campaign is going to have to find a different enemy, because it will be a bi-partisan rejection of his Jobs plan.