How the ghost of Obamacare is haunting Nancy Pelosi's speakership

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is becoming frustrated with centrist Democrats for casting votes that may suit their individual political considerations, but undermine the interest of the party as a whole. The difficulty she's running into is complicated by the legacy of Obamacare.

House Republicans have been wielding what little power they have in the minority to force Democrats to cast difficult votes that split their caucus. On Wednesday, Republicans employed a parliamentary tool known as a " motion to recommit," to get centrist Democrats to add an amendment to a gun control bill to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement if an illegal immigrant tries to purchase a gun. That meant the rest of the caucus had to vote for the ICE provision, which they hated, to secure passage of their gun control legislation.

As my colleague Susan Ferrechio reported, Pelosi has now been telling her caucus to, as a rule, just vote against all Republican motions to recommit. Meanwhile, she is working with other party leaders to come up with a way to limit the ability of the minority party to offer such votes. But even if she succeeds in weakening this particular tactic, it doesn't change the more fundamental problem facing Pelosi.

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