Pelosi-Obama Feud Has Roots in Senate

Nancy Pelosi’s recent public criticisms of Barack Obama are just the tip of the iceberg; behind the scenes, tensions have been building for months, Democratic insiders say. Recently, Pelosi has publicly broken from Obama on defense spending, the Senate health care bill, and tax breaks, but those disagreements are just symptoms of House discontent. “House members did their work,” one top Representative tells Politico. “And the Senate screws it up.”

House members feel the White House has favored the Senate, and now fear he’s pursuing a “run against Congress” strategy. Some even theorize that Obama would rather have a Republican-dominated House to act as a foil and boost his reelection hopes. The White House of course dismisses that theory, and a Pelosi spokesman says the tensions are being overblown. “His agenda is our agenda,” the spokesman said. “There is a shared frustration with the Senate.” (More Nancy Pelosi stories.)