Hoyer says his relationship with Pelosi has not changed

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Wednesday acknowledged that House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) was upset with Hoyer’s remarks on the ongoing spending battle between Congress and President Bush, but said that he and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) remain on good terms.

Hoyer said Obey was displeased with him after he speculated that Democrats might be forced to settle for unconditional Iraq funding — while Bush agrees to Democratic spending on domestic priorities — in order to strike a spending agreement with the administration. Hoyer’s speculations were reprinted in The Washington Post in an account of Hoyer’s meeting with the newspaper’s editorial board.

{mosads}Hoyer told reporters on Wednesday that he would not speculate on spending negotiations and would defer questions to Obey.

“He has not been happy with my anticipating,” Hoyer added of Obey.

After Hoyer’s remarks appeared in the Post on Saturday, Obey came back with a different proposal, which Pelosi vetted, to separate domestic spending from any discussion over Iraq spending. He told reporters late Tuesday night that he would rather “lose every dollar on the domestic [spending] side of the ledger [to block] unfettered war funding,” adding that the Senate would “sell you out.”

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Pelosi was “livid” with Hoyer’s comments about the potential spending deal. This reignited speculation that the relationship between Pelosi and Hoyer, defined by a leadership race to become minority whip in 2002, had frayed again after they had worked so hard during the year to make it work.

Hoyer and aides to Pelosi, however, insisted that is not the case.

“There’s no change in our relationship,” Hoyer told The Hill on Wednesday.

Asked if he was back in Pelosi’s good graces and out of the proverbial doghouse — assuming a doghouse is a bad place for humans to be — Hoyer said, “That’s a premise I don’t accept. Charlotte wouldn’t have wanted to be in a doghouse.”

Charlotte, Hoyer’s English springer spaniel, died in April.

Pelosi spent the weekend in New York for the birth of her daughter Alexandra’s second child and told Democratic aides she had not seen the Journal story. On Tuesday morning, upon hearing the Hoyer was back early from traveling, Pelosi invited him to her office for a wide-ranging 90-minute chat.

Nadeam Elshami, Pelosi's spokesman, said, “They have a good workingrelationship and that has not changed and any other claims to the contrary are simply false.”

“The relationship is better than when they started the year,” a Democratic strategist with ties to both offices said. “There will never be complete trust, but it is certainly not the way it was one year ago.

“Pelosi has come to respect him,” the strategist added. “He’s done a good job managing the floor.”

Pelosi also has relied on Hoyer to help manage relationships with the committee chairmen; he holds a meeting with the chairmen every Tuesday or Wednesday morning, while Pelosi holds a weekly breakfast for the Democratic freshmen every Wednesday morning when the House is in session.

Having found their footing after a tentative start, Pelosi and Hoyer have achieved some major legislative victories either by trying to secure Republican votes or adopting the tactics of the previous GOP majority and jamming legislation down the GOP’s throat.

Pelosi asked Hoyer to help persuade Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) to support the energy bill that the House passed last week, according to a Democratic strategist.

Nevertheless, the standoff over the budget, the Alternative Minimum Tax patch, an energy bill and Iraq war funding has left Democratic lawmakers fatigued and frustrated. Not only are they negotiating with a recalcitrant administration, lawmakers want to get back to their districts and families for the Christmas holiday.

Hoyer was not his normal jovial self at his weekly press briefing Wednesday with reporters.

Asked if he was dispirited or dejected on account of the budget standoff, Hoyer said he was not. Rather, he was frustrated with the spending stalemate, notably with the Senate Republicans who are thwarting a potential deal.