Why The White House Isn't Driving A Harder Bargain On The Debt Ceiling

A brief reminder that while the Obama administration often seems to adopt an insanely weak bargaining position vis-a-vis congressional Republicans, they're often doing this in part because they can't get congressional Democrats to stay on-side:

The push-back has come in recent days from Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a freshman who is running for reelection next year. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) told constituents during the Easter recess that he would not vote to lift the debt limit without a "real and meaningful commitment to debt reduction."

Even Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), generally a stalwart White House ally, is undecided on the issue and is "hopeful" that a debt-ceiling bill can be attached to a measure to cut the federal deficit, said her spokesman, Linden Zakula. Klobuchar is also up for reelection next year.

This is all totally nuts, but it is what it is. Congressional Republicans generally manifest more unit cohesion and seem to operate on the assumption that insofar as they all stick together, that they'll tend to benefit on average. Congressional Democrats don't have that mentality and it complicates everything. It's one thing to say what's the smart posture for "Democrats" and another thing entirely to say what's smart for Amy Klobuchar or Joe Manchin.