Congressional Democrats have grown sick and tired of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s antics, especially her use of Twitter to attack fellow Democrats and attempt to get what she wants from the caucus. As reported here yesterday, the socialist Democrat reacted to concerns about her voiced by former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman by tweeting “New party, who dis?” — a dig at Lieberman’s advancing years.
The slight wasn’t well-received by the party elders, themselves seniors, many of whom have had enough:
“I’m sure Ms. Cortez means well, but there’s almost an outstanding rule: Don’t attack your own people,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.). “We just don’t need sniping in our Democratic Caucus.”
Incumbent Democrats are most annoyed by Ocasio-Cortez’s threat to back primary opponents against members of their ranks she deems too moderate. But their frustration goes beyond that: Democratic leaders are upset that she railed against their new set of House rules on Twitter the first week of the new Congress. Rank and file are peeved that there’s a grassroots movement to try to win her a top committee post they feel she doesn’t deserve.
She didn’t get it. The freshman congresswoman who proposed a 70% tax rate last week had her sights set on a slot on the House Ways And Means Committee, which is responsible for taxes. She used Twitter and several radical progressive groups to pressure leadership so she could push her radical anti-business, middle-class-crushing tax hikes. But the slot went instead to Long Island Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
“It totally pissed off everyone,” said one senior House Democratic lawmaker of the campaign. “You don’t get picked for committees by who your grass-roots [supporters] are.”
Politico spoke to nearly 20 Democratic lawmakers and aides who said there’s a carrot-and-stick effort to rein in Ocasio-Cortez. Some are encouraging her to use her fame to unite the Democrats in the fight against the GOP, while others are warning her if she doesn’t clean up her act she will be terribly lonely especially when she tries to get a bill passed.
Some Democratic leaders are also annoyed that Ocasio-Cortez slammed the House’s new “pay-go” provision requiring that all new spending be paid for by either increasing taxes or by budget cuts on Twitter:
Tomorrow I will also vote No on the rules package, which is trying to slip in #PAYGO.
PAYGO isn’t only bad economics, as @RoKhanna explains; it’s also a dark political maneuver designed to hamstring progress on healthcare+other leg.
We shouldn’t hinder ourselves from the start. https://t.co/WW3UaBs7vh
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 2, 2019
When House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters that a new climate committee that Ocasio-Cortez championed would not have subpoena power, she retweeted the news and chastised Democratic leadership.
Our ultimate end goal isn’t a Select Committee.
Our goal is to treat Climate Change like the serious, existential threat it is by drafting an ambitious solution on the scale necessary – aka a Green New Deal – to get it done.
A weak committee misses the point & endangers people. https://t.co/LIMkPru6wU
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 19, 2018
Even some progressives who admire AOC, as she’s nicknamed, told Politico that they worry she’s not using her notoriety effectively.
“She needs to decide: Does she want to be an effective legislator or just continue being a Twitter star?” said one House Democrat who’s in lockstep with Ocasio Cortez’s ideology. “There’s a difference between being an activist and a lawmaker in Congress.
If there’s any hope at all for Ocasio Cortez it resides in the fact that a handful of Democratic Congress members continue to defend her. Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the former head of the House Progressive Caucus, said eventually other Democrats will warm up to her, telling Politico:
She’s “going to force some of the members to have to align with or against her,” he said. “In that sense, I would assume that can be irritating to some.”
“Maybe it’s the aunt or uncle you didn’t want to invite to the wedding,” Grijalva added, but Ocasio-Cortez “is part of the family.”
In the end, Ocasio-Cortez has to decide whether she wants to build bridges across her party or — in the event she manages to stay in Congress — end up an “old curmudgeon” like the late John McCain, who publicly hated almost everything members of his party proposed.
As New York Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks said of the freshman Democrat, “It’s one thing for outside activists to go after Democratic incumbents, It’s another thing when you’re in this institution, and you’ve got to work to get things done.”
Cross posted at The Lid
