Josh Earnest: Pelosi-Obama Tension Won't Last

The White House says that the apparent rift that has come to light over the passing of the "cromnibus" spending bill between President Barack Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will not permanently hurt the relationship.

"The president has always had not just a good working relationship but an open line of communication with Leader Pelosi, and that didn't change yesterday, and its not going to change in the future," said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest Friday, The Hill is reporting.

Earnest added that Pelosi is invaluable to Obama, saying Pelosi is incredibly persuasive when getting her fellow Democrats to support certain legislation, "I think probably [more than] any other leader in either party in recent history in Congress."

"That makes her not just a good partner, it makes her a really effective one," he explained.

"And I think that is why she and the president have had such a fruitful relationship," he said.

According to Earnest, it is a relationship the Obama administration is not taking for granted.

"I think there is a lesson that we have learned here at the White House, and I think it’s a lesson that everybody around Washington has probably learned at some point or another during Nancy Pelosi’s tenure in Congress, which is people who underestimate Nancy Pelosi do so at their own risk," he added.

The press secretary was responding to a statement that Pelosi had made on Thursday after the House passed the $1.1 trillion spending bill, even though the House minority leader strongly opposed the measure.

She expressed frustration at the White House on the House floor for allegedly cutting the deal without her, The Washington Post reported.

"I’m enormously disappointed that the White House feels that the only way they can get a bill [passed] is to go along with this and that would be the only reason they would sign such a bill that would 'weaken a critical component of financial system reform aimed at reducing taxpayer risk,'" Pelosi said. "Those are the words in the administration's statement."

"We are being blackmailed, being blackmailed, to vote for an appropriations bill," she said.

Earnest said that he wasn't concerned that tensions between Pelosi and Obama would continue.

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