The House Pelosi Built

If anyone might have the right to revel in a bit of health-care schadenfreude, it’s John Dingell. Nancy Pelosi and Henry Waxman ought to feel lucky he’s foregone the pleasure.

The Michigan Democrat, at least until last year, presided over the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. As such, Mr. Dingell, the House’s longest-serving dealmaker, was positioned to be point man for President Barack Obama’s health-care and climate priorities.

Was. Weary of Mr. Dingell’s slow pace, and impatient with his attempts to unite diverse committee Democrats around legislation, within weeks of November’s election Speaker Pelosi made her move, enlisting some home-town muscle. Fellow California liberal Henry Waxman challenged Mr. Dingell to his chairmanship, and with Mrs. Pelosi’s support, dethroned him. The speaker has been reaping her whirlwind ever since.

The measure of Mrs. Pelosi’s leadership was always going to be her ability to manage an unruly caucus. She was an architect of that diversity, rounding up an unprecedented crew of conservative Democrats to pick off vulnerable GOP seats in 2006 and 2008. These “majority makers” sat uneasily with her liberal wing and her own ideological inclinations, but Mrs. Pelosi initially proved herself savvy. The House Democrats’ debut “Six in ‘06” agenda—minimum wage hikes, cheaper student loans and the like—was carefully crafted to present a united Democratic front.

That restraint has gradually given way to Mrs. Pelosi’s more radical ambitions, and Mr. Waxman enlisted to see that agenda through. He has certainly fulfilled Mrs. Pelosi’s hope that he be the anti-Dingell. And the result of his purist, knuckle-cracking style is that House Democrats flood to recess today on a wave of division, confusion and dismal headlines. “Henry Waxman has been our greatest gift,” chortles one House GOP aide. If Mr. Obama ultimately fails in his top ambitions, he should know early whom to thank.

On the conservative side of the equation, Mr. Waxman has unrelentingly antagonized the rural Democratic members who make up the majority of his committee. He wrote a climate bill without their input, loaded it with provisions that hurt their districts, and left them to vote on Republican amendments designed to inflict maximum political damage.

He ignored requests to wait to see if the Senate could produce, instead forcing a painful floor vote on legislation prior to the July Fourth recess. Members went home to be brutalized by constituents and local employers. - WSJ Story