The immigration reform process is moving slower than many of its prime supporters expected. Initially, the hope was to have bipartisan immigration reform proposals released at the beginning of this week in both the Senate and House, which now seems unlikely. On Face the Nation, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the best case scenario is that [...]

In both the Senate and the House bipartisan groups are very close to releasing draft immigration reform bills. It is possible we could see some preliminary legislative language as early as next week. In the Senate the Gang of Eight resolved a major sticking point about guest workers, which should allow the group to finish [...]

Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) statement today about the deficit has started a round of speculation about what it means for the prospect of a grand bargain. What I think is more interesting is what it says about what has become of the Democratic brand right before the election. From his Schumers’ office about his speech: [...]

How many times have you heard Democrats claim that “this moment” will be the magical opportunity when they convince the American people to like the new health care law? The newest “opportunity” to win the public over is apparently the House Republicans’ push for repeal. From the Hill: “Our biggest failure was that we passed [...]

Brian Beutler broke the story of how Obama was working to undermine Schumer’s $1 million tax cut compromise last week, but Glen Thrush fleshes it out even more today. Key graf: But privately, White House officials, who have long viewed Schumer as a talented but essentially self-promotional operator with no abiding loyalty to Obama, think [...]

In a moment of angry accidental honesty, President Obama compared his recent deal with the Republicans on tax cuts to the fight over the public option. From a transcript of the press conference via Greg Sargent: This notion that somehow we are willing to compromise too much reminds me of the debate that we had [...]

Michael Bennet gets caught in a moment of rare honesty with an open mike in the Senate: “It’s all rigged. The whole conversation is rigged. The fact that we don’t get to a discussion before the break about what we’re going to do in the lame duck. It’s just rigged.” Of course it is.  They [...]

Nancy Pelosi dug her heels in last night and told her caucus that the President wants no extension of the Bush tax cuts beyond the $250,000 threshold. She’s also signaled that she’ll put it up for a vote on the suspension calendar, which means Republicans can’t make amendments or the motion to recommit. But it also means she’ll have to get 290 votes in order to pass it, and there’s no way she can bring enough Republicans on board to do that.

So it’s a purely symbolic vote that will fail. But she’s asking members to take it anyway, because she says that’s what the President wants.

Remember when Dick Gephardt was running for President as “Mister Labor?’ I sure do. Well, no more. Add his name to the long list of middle fingers being thrown at labor by the Democratic party. He’s just signed on to help Sodexo in the midst of their dispute with the SEIU, as has former Gore [...]

Robert Menendez, head of the DSCC, released a memo celebrating Blanche Lincoln’s victory over “powerful special interests in Washington DC,” the labor unions. The AFL-CIO’s Eddie Vale responds: The tens of thousands members of the Arkansas AFL-CIO are certainly not a DC special interest.  They poured their hearts and souls into supporting a candidate who [...]