question: Could it have been more
helpful, earlier?
THE
LINCOLN
FACTOR
The outside game also helped progressives achieve other legislative
victories that might have otherwise eluded them.
With health care complete,
the Senate moved to finish Wall
Street reform in the spring of
2010. The White House and its
allies were still calling it “finreg”
at the time — a bit of insider jargon short for “financial regulation” that typified the approach
to that point. The House version
of the bill was the handiwork
of a master legislator, Financial
Services Chair Barney Frank (DMass.), who worked hand in hand
with senior White House and
Treasury officials. As such, it was
HUFFINGTON 09.09.12
“AS A POLITICAL
MATTER
THERE WAS AN
UPWARD LIMIT
FOR WHAT WAS
SELLABLE.”
—DAVID AXELROD
THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
in Baltimore, during which he publicly called those lawmakers out
for knee-jerk opposition and intellectual dishonesty. A month later,
he held open meetings at the Blair
House, debating congressional Republicans on the merits and shortcomings of their pieces of reform.
The Blair House summit was
deemed a draw by the Capitol
Hill press, but what the media
missed was that Obama had redirected the nation’s attention
to health care and away from
the Brown victory. The momentum shifted. The party decided
to move forward with reconciliation. Democrats had the space
and capital they needed to get the
Affordable Care Act passed.
The renewed push for the public
option, though ultimately unsuccessful, helped save the bill, according to Democrats on the Hill.
“It helped a whole lot,” said Rep.
James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the man
then charge of whipping votes, of
the Pingree-Polis letter. “The base
getting fired up helped a whole lot.
We could feel it out there.”
In an interview in his office the
week the House passed the final
piece of reform, then-Majority
Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said
he agreed. “It added energy to the
effort to get to where we wanted
to get,” he said, leaving open the