Liberals irked by Obama’s compromises

Liberal Democrats in and out of Congress are expressing mounting frustration with President Obama and what they say are decisions by the president discarding major elements of their agenda.

The political left provided Mr. Obama’s base of support during last year’s election but has been disappointed repeatedly during his first year in office. The Democratic president has agreed to a series of compromises on health care reform, ordered an escalation of the war in Afghanistan and failed to lift the ban on gays serving openly in the military.

When Mr. Obama this week gave tacit approval as Senate Democrats dropped the “public insurance” option from their health care bill and top House Democrats fell in line, liberal lawmakers accused the president of losing control of the debate.

“It’s time for the president to get his hands dirty,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner, New York Democrat and a leading liberal vote in Congress on health care issues. He argued that Democrats have been forced to accept compromises in recent weeks that have undermined their goals in overhauling the nation’s health care system.

“We need the president to stand up for the values our party shares. We must stop letting the tail wag the dog of this debate,” he said.

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called the emerging Senate compromise a “terrible disappointment” and encouraged Democratic lawmakers to kill the bill.

The White House defended the president on Wednesday against suggestions that his support among progressives was slipping.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed as “silly” the notion that Mr. Obama is taking liberal support for granted when making decisions about health care, Afghanistan, gay rights or any other agenda item.

“I’ve never heard the president say, ‘Oh, I don’t have to worry about that because these people are going to be with me,’ ” Mr. Gibbs said. “I’ve been with the president for six years and I’ve never heard him say something as silly as that.”

Mr. Gibbs stressed that the president was “not making policy decisions based on a lot of weighing back and forth on different political ideas” and is certainly “not making decisions about our national security based on looking at this through the political lens.”

Mr. Obama’s recent moves, nevertheless, are causing undisguised heartburn on the left.

Some liberal members of the Democratic caucus in the Senate, including independent Bernard Sanders of Vermont and Democrat Roland W. Burris of Illinois, say they will not help pass a health care bill - the cornerstone of Mr. Obama’s domestic agenda - if the president bargains away the best parts of proposed reforms, in particular the public option.

Proponents of a government-run insurance plan say it is essential to make private insurers compete to raise coverage levels and cut rates.

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi on the Senate floor, Mr. Burris said, “There can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender.”

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich,Ohio Democrat and a leading critic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said liberals did not get who they thought they would when they voted strongly for Mr. Obama in the Democratic primaries and the 2008 presidential election.

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