The jury’s still out on whether President Obama is interested in triangulating or not, but Nancy Pelosi’s clearly made up her mind that the shellacking never happened. From Politico’s report on the White House meeting today between Obama and Democratic congressional leaders:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told President Barack Obama that House Democrats remain firmly committed to allowing Bush-era tax cuts expire for earners making more than $250,000 — a move that could complicate the administration’s efforts to reach a compromise with Republicans. …
In turn, Obama told Reid — whose conference is much more open to expanding the cuts to wealthy taxpayers — that he is willing to let them pursue their own compromise ideas, provided they secure enough votes to pass, according to sources familiar with the meeting. …
During the hour-long session in the White House, Reid and Pelosi, whose position as Democratic leader was reaffirmed in a vote by House Democrats Wednesday, both pressed Obama, as they did on a conference call Monday, to adopt a tough bargaining stance with the GOP and avoid the muddled messaging that has characterized some administration pronouncements.
It’s interesting that Pelosi and Reid expect Obama to avoid “muddled messaging” when they themselves can’t reach any kind of consensus on this issue.