PRESENT:

White House struggles to lead on spending (GLENN THRUSH & CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN, 3/9/11, Politico)

The White House has tried to keep its distance from Senate and House negotiators, fearing being dragged into another partisan food fight after the bipartisan triumph of the December lame-duck session. But White House officials now see the political initiative they enjoyed just weeks ago slipping away, amid divisions among Senate Democrats and an emerging GOP strategy of dragging Obama into an endless string of stopgap spending measures that could have long-term drawbacks for the White House. [...]

“For Republicans, it’s phenomenal to do all these little deals because it makes them look like they are actually doing something when they are really doing nothing,” said an administration official, who predicted passage of a three-week extension before the looming March 18 deadline to keep the government running. [...]

Obama’s team — which had anticipated a messy internal GOP fight between mainstream Republicans and tea party faithful — now worry that the contours of a winning GOP strategy on the budget is coming into focus: a series of small deals, with escalating cuts that force the president to defend his pet social and development programs at a time when he had hoped to position himself as a fiscal hawk.