President Obama’s press secretary characterized the Keystone XL pipeline, which the Republicans call the greatest “shovel ready” project in the country, as an “ideological item” for Republicans, and he dismissed Democratic support for the pipeline as unworthy of attention.
“I get that the Republicans found a Democrat to endorse their point of view here,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said when reminded that Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., supports a payroll tax bill compromise that would require Obama to make a decision on the pipeline in the next 60 days. “But the point of view here is essentially suggesting that there is a political tradeoff to be had that extending tax cuts for middle-class and working Americans should only occur in return for a political gift or an ideological item that some Republicans are insisting on,” Carney said.
It’s more than just “a Democrat” who backs the pipeline. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., also supports constructing the pipeline, because it will create “thousands of jobs,” as he put it.
And as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., observed on Fox News Sunday, “the Teamsters and the AFL-CIO want the Keystone Pipeline right now.”
President Obama is torn between two wings of his base — Big Green and Big Labor. On Keystone, he’s siding with the environmentalists on the policy side, but trying to hold down the blue-collar union vote by complaining that Republicans won’t raise taxes on the rich.
