"How Barack Obama joined hands with Republicans to conquer his party on trade"--Behind the Scenes

How Barack Obama joined hands with Republicans to conquer his party on trade
By Jake Sherman and Manu Raju

Updated 6/26/15 11:51 AM EDT

When it was all but over, and the trade legislation that President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans spent many agonizing months brokering was on the brink of law, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi was left to lament that she and her party had been shut out by the president she helped elect.

“When we did deals with [George W.] Bush, he always insisted on having Boehner in the room,” Pelosi told top Democrats Wednesday morning over coffee, donuts and bagels, referring to then-Minority Leader John Boehner, according to attendees. “That’s not happening now.”

Shortly after the meeting as some of her liberal allies still seethed, Pelosi announced she would support a key final element of the White House’s trade package, sealing a major victory for Obama, Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The story of how Pelosi was vanquished by a president of her own party in unlikely tandem with GOP leaders began three days after Republicans swept the November midterm elections. It consisted of lobbying by the president and his Cabinet members, who zeroed in on a few dozen key Democratic senators and House members, wooing them with lunches in Washington, private Oval Office meetings and appearances in their states and districts.

It included frenetic deal making by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and his close allies, who worked to mollify a host of regional and partisan concerns — on issues as far-flung as the potential for an influx of immigrants, to worries that U.S. Postal Service would be interrupted in Europe.

The machinations highlighted tensions between Senate Republican leaders and conservatives like Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who skipped a cliffhanger vote this week despite privately pledging his support to his leadership team. And it showcased an all-hands-on-deck approach to kill any changes that could scare away other countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership — most notably a bipartisan effort to crack down on countries that manipulate their currencies.

The push over the past six months strengthened an alliance between Obama and Ryan — the 2012 election rivals — and marked a rare détente in the bitter standoff between Hill Republicans and the White House since Obama took office.

“We don’t need to give my guys an excuse to bolt on this,” Obama told Ryan in one of their three private calls, according to a source familiar with their June discussion over a way to pay for the costs of a worker aid program that became a major bone of contention. “Let’s just fix this.”

More than at any time in his presidency, Obama was willing to take heat from the left to get legislation through Congress. He pushed back — at times, angrily — at labor unions and progressive Democrats who argued the trade accord would suppress wages and send jobs overseas.

Much More of the "TPA/TPP" Backroom Deal Making" at........

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/how-barack-obama-joined-hands-with-republicans-to-conquer-his-party-on-trade-119444.html#ixzz3eCIoiNhC