The gang system

David Brooks:

On Thursday, moderate unease translated into political action. Forty-nine moderate Democrats in the House belatedly signed a letter calling for cuts in the package, and protested the way they had been trampled by the Democratic leadership. Over in the Senate, a gang of roughly 20 moderates, led by Republican Susan Collins and Democrat Ben Nelson, huddled in the Dirksen Building to cut and focus the stimulus bill. They talked of trimming $90 billion or more.

The big news here is that there are many Democrats who don’t want to move in a conventional liberal direction and there some Republicans willing to work with them to create a functioning center. These moderates — who are not a party, but a gang — seemed willing to seize control of legislation from the party leaders. They separated themselves from both the left and right.

What we’re seeing may be the formation of a regular gang system. In the past, moderate gangs — like the judicial Gang of 14 — have appeared or disappeared depending on the issue.

But exploding federal deficits are a galvanizing issue for those in the center. Concern over these deficits will influence every piece of domestic legislation. In the coming weeks and months, there will be housing legislation, another round of TARP bailouts, the budget debate, the health care and entitlement debates. In each case, the Moderate Gangs will occupy the crucial ground, even if the Democrats do wind up with 60 Senate votes.

Barack Obama is not initiating events (he’s had surprisingly little influence on the stimulus bills’ evolution). But circumstances now present him with a precedent-setting moment of decision. Does he embrace the Gang System and try to use it to create a new style of politics? Or does he remain an orthodox Democrat, deferring to the Old Bulls on legislation, enforcing party discipline and trying to pick off a Republican or two here and there to pass laws?

The liberals already are mobilizing against the Moderate Gangs. On Thursday, the liberal interest groups were intensively lobbying against the stimulus cuts. But there’s no way that Obama, who spent two years campaigning on postpartisan politics, can reject the single biggest manifestation of postpartisanship in the country today. If he does that, his credibility will be shot.

Obama didn’t plan them. He didn’t create them. He isn’t yet leading them. But the gangs could be the big new fact in domestic politics. If nurtured and used creatively, they can be the lever by which Obama transforms the landscape of government and creates a broad postpartisan coalition.

We’ll see if he seizes this opportunity, or whether it’s just business as usual.

I imagine he will. If there's one thing we've learned about Obama so far it's that he takes his commitments seriously.

The only pledge I've seen him break outright is the 5 day wait before signing bills. But it's sort of understandable given how much work there is to be done quickly. The White House and Congress are swamped at the moment. Maybe he'll revisit this in the future once there's a return to normalcy.

Update: White House blog says they're working on the sunlight procedure.