Washington Watch: Rep. Price says Obama, Democrats rolling out ‘tide of soft tyranny'

WASHINGTON -- Republican Rep. Tom Price of Roswell rarely minces words about his feelings toward President Barack Obama or Democratic leaders in Congress.

But his latest verbal volley at them may have reached a new level.

Price, chairman of the conservative House Republican Study Committee, recently issued a statement deriding Democratic leaders and declaring that Washington's "stolen powers must be relinquished."

"The tide of soft tyranny must be turned back if we hope to remain both the land of the free and a land of opportunity," Price said in the statement announcing a new "10th Amendment Task Force" in his committee. (The Constitution's 10th Amendment established that powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved for the states.)

I later asked Price if he really thought Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress were tyrants who stole their powers. He responded by paraphrasing Alexis de Tocqueville, the renowned French observer of American democracy, saying that it is "the tyranny of the majority that could ruin this country."

"Tyrannical rule has been known to occur in countries across this Earth," Price said.

While Price is not suggesting a coup against Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid anyplace beyond the ballot box, he said he thinks the Democrat-led federal government is becoming too intrusive in Americans' lives. The new health care law that will require all Americans to get insurance, he said, is indicative of that.

At the White House, whose officials are reluctant to pick a fight with members of Congress or angry voters, a spokesman declined to comment on Price's political name-calling. Just days earlier, Obama gave a speech in Michigan calling for more civility in politics.

Ryan Rudominer, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was less reserved.

He said Price's statements were a clear election-year political appeal to the less-government "tea party" movement, and he accused Price and other Republicans of caring more about appealing to their conservative base than doing real good in Washington.

"It's these types of reckless statements that are going to prove problematic with modern, independent voters," he said. "It might play well to the base," but not to others.

Fight over union rule gets personal for Isakson

Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson is hopping mad over a recent labor relations ruling designed to make it easier for unions to organize at air carriers like Delta Air Lines in Atlanta.

This past week, Isakson filed a rarely used "disapproval resolution" seeking to stop the National Mediation Board from changing unionization rules at airlines and railroads without congressional authorization.

Isakson is probably Delta's biggest backer in Congress, and he isn't a big fan of unions. But his current beef with the National Mediation Board goes beyond that, he told me.

When two of the recent Democratic appointees to the board met with Isakson as part of their confirmation process earlier this year, Isakson said he asked specifically if they would vote to approve the union expansion rule.

According to Isakson, they assured him they would not. Eleven days after they took office, Isakson said, they did the exact opposite.

"You know, I don't mind people having a difference of opinion," Isakson told me. "But don't lie to me."

Johnson gets seat on transportation committee

Rep. Hank Johnson has landed a seat on the important House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which doles out federal dollars for road and mass transit projects.

Johnson, who is facing a tough re-election campaign, says his appointment will help Georgia get more money for badly needed road improvements -- something that may play well in courting voters, but something that isn't necessarily that easy to do.

Johnson, a Lithonia Democrat, is just one of 75 members of the huge transportation committee -- and now the junior-most member, to boot.