Brian Beutler February 7, 2012, 4:03 PM

Democrats are emboldened enough by their political turn of fortune that party leaders are laying payroll tax cut contretemps at the feet of Republicans rooting for further economic strife.

“[W]e’ve seen improvement: The unemployment rate’s going down; people are getting back to work; there’s a more confident air in America,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) told reporters Tuesday at a leadership briefing with reporters on Capitol Hill. “Let’s make no mistake: There’s some Republicans that don’t think that really works with their strategy of defeating President Obama. These are some of the same voices that are opposing any bipartisan agreement to extend the payroll tax cuts.”

Other top Democrats say the same.

“It appears that is true,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “It appears that the numbers — which certainly aren’t good enough for any of us, but as Senator Durbin laid out are really pretty good; we need to do better, but we’re doing quite well…what are [Republicans] going to talk about if the economy improves?”

Democrats laid the groundwork for this attack several months ago, when Republicans were eating their lunch politically, and in full control over the direction of national policy. Now, with the payroll tax cut in danger of expiring, and Republicans weakened, they’re deploying it to hasten the GOP’s retreat on the payroll tax cut — or see them shoulder the blame if it lapses.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer issued the same rebuke. “There are some here, frankly, who are just as satisfied to have the economy not grow, not create jobs, not have GDP growth, so it can help their politics,” he told reporters. “If you believe, as I do, that this policy was successful in helping us to spur the economy, then delay redounds to the benefit of Republicans who want this economy to stumble.”

Republican elected officials and their aides bristle at this kind of accusation — as you’d expect, and as Democrats have in the past when the political circumstances were reversed. But step outside the marble enclosures in DC, and you’ll notice that Republican campaign consultants and strategists privately accept the underlying political dynamic. Conservative activists can be more blunt.

“I doubt any of [the GOP presidential hopefuls] can beat Barack Obama unless the economy gets worse,” said Red State editor Erick Erickson, in his official non-endorsement cri de coeur, “and I don’t want to be in a position of rooting for a bad economy.”

Dick Durbin, Economy, Erick Erickson, Harry Reid, Payroll Tax Cut, Steny Hoyer