Politico has not one but two pieces on the White House's new political strategy. "We have exhausted the use of Rush as an attention getter," one Democratic official tells Politico. So the White House is broadening its offensive to include all Republicans who fall under the umbrella of "the party of no" because they oppose the president's budget. The assault of Republican obstructionism will involve the DNC, outside groups, Obama's grassroots voting list and supporters, and congressional Democrats. Ambitious stuff. The plan came about, Politico reports, because some Democrats feel the GOP got the better of Obama on the ombnibus bill. That bill included earmarks, despite Obama's pledge to root earmarks out of Washington. Now, I find the whole earmark debate silly. Earmarks are a small part of the federal budget, and there is something to the argument that congressmen, who (for the most part) maintain residence in their district or state, have a better grasp on which projects will satisfy voters than D.C.-based bureaucrats do. Still, "some Democrats" are right; the GOP has performed more ably in recent weeks than many expected. Another reason the White House is pursuing this new strategy is that, for the first time, it is encountering skepticism or even pushback on some of its spending priorities. The stimulus bill went through without much of a fight, though some Republicans made a pretty good argument there, too, for an alternative bill that would have frontloaded the spending, suspended the payroll tax, and increased defense outlays. But, now that the budget is at issue, there are more than a few Democrats who worry that Obama has his priorities out of whack and that maybe the big-government stuff can wait until the banks are fixed, the economy has recovered, and tax revenues are on an upswing. If you watched Kent Conrad's recent Senate Budget Committee hearing, you heard exactly these concerns. The problem with the White House strategy, then, is that it's focused on the wrong people. Obama doesn't really need to worry about Republicans all that much - they have no power and people don't like them anyway. He needs to worry about southern, midwestern, and other budget hawk Democrats who are only just beginning to question the president's opinions. It's these Democrats, more than any Republican, who stand the likeliest chance of derailing the White House agenda. Of course, it's much easier to demonize the GOP.