Since the first salvoes of the health care debate, Anthony Weiner seemed to believe that Congressional Republicans were negotiating in bad faith. He focused much of his public commentary on pointing out what he contested was as the lack of a coherent policy rational in the Republican opposition to health care reform.
For Weiner it was black and white…obviously the Republicans had one goal and one goal only: employ the old stereotypes to undermine a popular new president and turn the tide of political battle. Throughout the spring he gently ridiculed his colleagues and the administration for being gullible in the face of old-fashioned know-nothing fear mongering politics.
Doing this gently, must have been somewhat of a trial for a Congressman who doesn’t like to wait. He has a reputation for impatience. One former staffer speaking on back round described his tendency to “sigh exaggeratedly” and “rapid-fire snap his fingers” as stressed out interns scramble to locate spontaneously requested phone numbers or policy briefs. Referring to an impatient Weiner the staffer said “he’s wound really tight, if you put a piece of coal in his hand while he’s in one of his moods you’d probably get a tiny diamond.”
Weiner never seemed to doubt that the motivations of the Republican leadership were purely political.
In the battle over financial regulation, the White House and congressional leadership now seem to be operating under the same assumptions.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer recently said that one of the lessons of the health care battle was: “not to assume that the opposition is willing to be constructive.”
The AP quoted Harry Reid as Saying “I’m not going to waste any more time of the American people.”
It must be somewhat cathartic for Weiner to see his Democratic colleagues finally taking the gloves off. The same AP article quoted him as saying: “You can see immediately the difference in tone, and you can’t help thinking they (the administration and Congressional leaders) learned that message pretty quickly…There was no waiting for their 60th vote, or waiting for a bipartisan group to finish.”
For the time being most Democrats seem to have decided that playing nice with the Republicans is pointless. Weiner has seen this all along.