President Obama urged Democratic senators to stand up to Republican obstructionism during remarks this morning at the Newseum in Washington D.C., urging them that “we still have to lead” — even after losing a filibuster-proof supermajority.
“All that’s changed in the last two weeks is that our party’s gone from having the largest Senate majority in a generation to the second largest Senate majority in a generation,” the president said. “And we’ve gotta remember that.”
The president then referenced an unlikely news source.
There was apparently a headline after the Massachusetts election. The Village Voice announced that Republicans win a 41-59 majority. It’s worth thinking about. We still have to lead.
The president also quantified Republican obstructionism, saying that Democrats had overcome “enormous procedural obstacles that are unprecedented” and cast more filibuster-breaking votes last year than in the entire 1950s and 1960s combined.
“That’s 20 years of obstruction packed into just one,” Obama said.
What I’m not open to is a decision to stay on the sidelines and then assign blame. I have little patience for the kinds of political calculations that says the benefit of blocking everything is greater than the cost of doing nothing. That basically says if you lose, I win.
The president urged Democrats not to shy away from their agenda after losing their 60th Senate seat in January’s Massachusetts special election.
“If anybody’s searching for a lesson from Massachusetts, I promise you, the answer is not to do nothing.”
