Subject: Re: Obama and the GOP Don't Get Along. Enter Joe Biden. - NationalJournal.com
From: "Alexander S. Mackler" <[email-masked]>
To: "Eric Schwerin" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 06:23:06 -0500

My bet is Reid being more on sidelines = more influence for JRB.

On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 10:18 PM, Eric Schwerin <
[email-masked]> wrote:

>
>
> http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/obama-and-the-gop-don-t-get-along-enter-joe-biden-20141211
>
> Obama and the GOP Don't Get Along. Enter Joe Biden.
>
> December 11, 2014 Democrats' dramatic loss of the Senate in November may
> have made one of their own an unlikely winner—Joe Biden. But it remains to
> be seen whether the White House will let him off the bench and into the
> game.
>
> The vice president sits in a unique position to serve as a broker between
> President Obama and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and
> help locate that so-far elusive "common ground" that Obama has talked about
> since the midterm election.
>
> "I think the vice president's been somebody who at least we can talk to.
> It's hard to find anybody to answer your phone calls over at the White
> House or to be a negotiating partner," says Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, soon
> to be the majority whip. "I think that offers a lot of promise if they let
> him loose, let him out of the closet."
>
> The White House has identified issues such as global trade, tax reform,
> and rebuilding the nation's infrastructure as potential opportunities for
> compromise with the new Senate. Biden, who spent 35 years on the Hill and
> as vice president has already struck two 11th-hour budget deals with
> McConnell, could be a difference-maker on all of them. To Republicans,
> Biden retains a level of credibility that the president has lost, and he
> and McConnell have a relationship that dates back decades.
>
> "The only person on the face of the Earth who has the trust of [John]
> Boehner, McConnell, and the president is the vice president," says Ted
> Kaufman, the former senator from Delaware who was Biden's longtime chief of
> staff on Capitol Hill. "Trust is what makes legislation happen."
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>
> Success would come with an added political benefit along the way. If Biden
> can help forge some bipartisan accords, he would burnish his credentials as
> a possible 2016 presidential candidate. The current wisdom in Washington
> remains that the vice president won't run if Hillary Clinton does, but
> should Clinton demur, all bets are off. Biden would slide into the role of
> the reigning establishment Democrat. Hammering out deals with the
> GOP—something voters say they're eager for—would buttress that position.
>
> And even if he doesn't run, Biden would close out his government service
> on a high note, with a tangible relevance that eludes some vice presidents.
>
> The White House perhaps began to recognize the new and more pragmatic
> political environment Thursday, when it expressed support for the omnibus
> funding bill being debated in the House over the alarmed objections of
> Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and other liberals. As prospects
> for its passage became increasingly uncertain, Biden was personally making
> calls to cajole reluctant House Dems into voting for the measure.
>
> Still, a White House aide said it would be a mistake to believe that
> Biden, or any one figure, can serve as a magic talisman to reconcile the
> two warring sides. "We are more focused on substance and issues of shared
> concern and priorities than on personalities," the aide says.
> "Relationships matter, but the first order of business with Republicans is
> shared priorities, not which administration official is making the call or
> hosting the meeting."
>
> The vice president has been more or less on the legislative sidelines
> since the fall of 2013, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reportedly
> shut Biden out of talks to end the government shutdown. Two years earlier,
> the vice president had been instrumental in ending an impasse and striking
> a deficit-reduction deal with McConnell over raising the federal debt
> limit. Then, on New Year's Eve in 2012, after talks had gone nowhere for
> weeks, Biden and McConnell took over and averted the so-called fiscal
> cliff. Reid and other Senate Democrats felt Biden had given up too much in
> those deals.
>
> But the dynamic is about to shift. "Harry Reid is no longer the top dog.
> The room will now consist of McConnell, Biden, and Boehner," says John
> Feehery, a former top Republican aide in the House, describing a scenario
> at which Reid would surely scoff.
>
> Biden's involvement, Feehery says, would help bring other Democrats along.
> "He has an appreciation of what it takes to make a deal," he says, "more so
> than the president."
>  Don't Miss Today's Top Stories
>
> “
>
> Excellent!"
>
> Rick, Executive Director for Policy
>
> The vice president has made upgrading the nation's infrastructure a policy
> priority. Just last month, he appeared at the port in Houston, advocating
> for renewed investment in fixing the nation's ports, roads, and bridges.
> (McConnell echoed those concerns this week.) He's also served as an
> ambassador for free trade. In the Senate, he voted for the North American
> Free Trade Agreement in 1993. The White House is pressing for Congress to
> give Obama fast-track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which
> would ease trade barriers among 12 Pacific Rim countries, something
> ardently opposed by progressives.
>
> In addition, Biden's background as chairman of the Senate Foreign
> Relations Committee could prove valuable as Congress is expected early next
> year to debate whether to formally authorize U.S. military action in Syria
> and Iraq.
>
> But as the White House points out, Biden's involvement doesn't guarantee
> compromise. There are plenty of incentives, heading into 2016, for both
> sides to stay apart. While Republicans want to show voters they can govern,
> they're also wary of working with an unpopular administration; they might
> prefer to send bills up for Obama to veto. Democrats are determined to
> retain the presidency and retake the Senate, believing the best way of
> doing so is by portraying Republicans as out-of-touch obstructionists.
>
> And, somewhere in between, the vice president will be fighting a personal
> battle—to stay relevant during an administration's final chapter.
>
> This article appears in the December 12, 2014 edition of NJ Daily
> <http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/latest-am-20141212>.
>
>
> Eric D. Schwerin
> [email-masked]
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>

-- 

Alexander Snyder Mackler
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