Chamber chief: Won’t seek Obama’s defeat

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Declaring “this is not personal,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce president said Wednesday that his trade group would work with the White House, despite the chamber’s hardcharging midterm election campaign and continued opposition to Obama administration policies.

Chamber President Thomas Donohue vowed to fight what he called a “regulatory tsunami” facing American business, singling out President Barack Obama’s signature initiatives of the new health-care overhaul and financial-regulations law.

“We have never seen anything of this scale before,” he said of the rules under consideration. “It defies all logic and common sense.”

But Donohue was careful to separate opposition to the president’s policies and opposition to the president, and he sought to reassure the business community that the chamber’s quarrels with the president had not marginalized the association. He said that the giant trade association will stay out of the 2012 presidential elections and that it was cooperating with the administration on jobs and trade.

The declaration comes after the chamber spent more than $32 million in political ads during the midterm elections, most of them aimed against Democrats. Obama criticized the chamber during the campaign for not disclosing its donors.

The White House also stressed cooperation Wednesday.

“There are issues that we both have in common that we both want to see progress on,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

The chamber’s political relationships are multilayered and don’t hew specifically to one party on all issues.