President Obama has stopped reaching out to Democratic members of Congress, according to Politico:
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) is trying to cut a deal on the nation’s fiscal crisis, but he can’t recall the last time he talked to the president. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is in charge of one of Obama’s top priorities — preventing a rate increase on student loans — but he hasn’t talked to the president in months. And Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is the go-to guy on high gas prices, but the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee hasn’t spoken to the president much since the previous Congress.
"I think the reality is the current Congress is not constituted in a way that makes it likely that we can do very much," Bingamansaid, "and that’s reflected in what we wind up doing on the floor and understandably the president is not as engaged — at least with me."
