If Chuck Todd’s right about this, it could pour gasoline on the dying embers of a White House-Senate conflagration.
According to Todd, the White House is telling Reid *[see Late Update below], “You’re the vote counter, but don’t come crying to us when you need that last vote. That said, I’ve also been told, OK right now it’s this ‘opt-out,’ the compromise could end up being the ‘opt-in’ and maybe this is what Reid was doing here–going with the ‘opt-out’ so the ‘opt-in’ was the compromise rather than the trigger being the compromise.”
That’s a lot of jargon, but to break it down, it sounds like White House officials are telling Todd two things.
First, they won’t be there for Reid if he runs into political trouble keeping his caucus together for settling on a compromise (the opt-out) that is likely to cost him all Republican support.
Second, they seem to be telling him that this may be a gambit on Reid’s part to do compromise down further, rather than simply settling on the lowest common denominator (the trigger) right away.
Either way, this is in direct contradiction to a). the White House’s official statement of support for what Reid’s doing, and b). Reid’s insistence that he’s doing what he thinks is right, and what can pass in the Senate. Can’t imagine Democratic leadership is terribly pleased to hear this message leaking out of the administration.
*Late update: Todd tells Greg Sargent that his words are being taken too literally, and the White House didn’t actually say this to him.
