The title on this LA Times story is With Biden’s agenda hanging by a thread, Democrats question Schumer-Klain strategy. Here are some excerpts:

For all the ire directed by liberal activists at two moderate senators who in recent weeks scuttled President Biden’s most ambitious plans, Democratic members of Congress increasingly cast blame on another duo for the failures, raising questions about whether the party can resurrect the centerpiece of its agenda.

Some frustrated Democrats say strategic blunders by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain were, in large part, to blame for Biden failing to win passage of a massive social spending and climate plan. The men too frequently sought to appease progressives and their allied groups while antagonizing the moderates needed to pass the legislation, known as Build Back Better, they say.

After that bill died in December, leaving Democrats reeling, Schumer and Klain doubled-down on the same strategy, pivoting to a quixotic showdown over voting rights that further alienated the moderate lawmakers they still need to revive at least part of the spending plan.

The two leaders played “more to public interest groups than the needs of the U.S. Senate,” a Democratic senator said. The senator was one of 20 Democratic lawmakers and administration officials who were interviewed for this story, most speaking on condition of anonymity to candidly discuss what they described as the party’s legislative missteps….

“They just won’t take the hits,” said a Democratic lawmaker. “They tell everyone what they want to hear and they’re afraid to take the hits from activist groups, whether it’s on voting rights or other policy areas. And if no one is willing to take the hits, it’s anarchy.”…

By the time the agreement became public in late September, progressives had already spent months building the case for a larger deal that never stood a chance in the Senate. As they cut the size of the legislation in half, Schumer and Klain were reluctant to fund some of the proposed subsidies and benefits while dropping others, urging Democrats instead to include everything but to fund them for a much shorter period of time, in some cases one or two years.

That approach showed that Schumer “can’t say no to anybody,” one Democratic senator said. “If you can’t make a decision [about what priorities matter most], then the path of least resistance is to let it fail and blame it on” Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz), another moderate who pushed back on the spending plan.