House Speaker says Obama will campaign more for Dems as party faces tough election year

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Pelosi says Obama will campaign more for Dems

WASHINGTON — Seeking to calm political nerves, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday House Democrats are satisfied with the effort by the White House to help the party control Congress and she expects President Barack Obama to devote more time to ensure Democrats win in November.

Her remarks came at the end of a tense few days in which House Democrats complained about White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ statement that Republicans could win control of the House. Several have suggested privately that the White House is doing too little to boost their political prospects in an increasingly tough election year.

Pelosi lashed out at the remarks during a closed-door meeting with her rank and file on Tuesday. The White House spokesman later clarified that he expects Democrats to retain control while adding that he didn’t say anything “politically shocking.” The White House also circulated a memo detailing how much campaign help Obama and his administration have provided to Democrats.

“There is absolutely no reason to think that the White House has been anything but cooperative with us in terms of our political efforts to retain control of the Congress,” Pelosi told reporters Thursday.

The speaker and other House leaders met privately with Obama at the White House on Wednesday night where he was told of the concerns of rank-and-file Democrats. Obama won’t face voters again at the polls until 2012, but all 435 House seats and 36 Senate seats are on the ballot this year.

Obama said that he understood the criticism and promised full engagement and support through the fall, according to an aide who demanded anonymity to describe a private meeting.

Asked about Obama’s role in the campaign over the next four months, Pelosi said: “He has an agenda that he has put forth we have passed it in the Congress. It’s important for the American people to understand the success of that agenda and the president of course is the best promoter of his agenda so he will be doing that.”

Interpretations of Gibbs’ candor differed. Some Democrats perceived a White House giving up on control of the House; others figured Gibbs was handing Republicans a rhetorical weapon or trying to energize the Democratic base.

Pelosi said the jobs agenda was the main focus of the White House meeting. Gibbs’ name, she told reporters, didn’t come up.

On Thursday, she distinguished between her opinions of the president and his spokesman. “As I said in the meeting but was not reported, whatever comments may have been made had absolutely nothing to do with what the president was doing and what the president was saying himself,” Pelosi said.

Gibb’s comment was unfortunate and can be interpreted in many ways, she added.

On Thursday, the House Democrats’ campaign arm sent an e-mail under Pelosi’s name designed to stem any crisis of confidence among the party’s donors.

“Democrats will keep control of the House. Period,” the e-mail read.