The House was scheduled to vote today on the DISCLOSE Act, the series of transparency and campaign finance fixes to the Citizens United decision, but in the end, they found they didn’t have the votes, so Nancy Pelosi postponed it. The DISCLOSE Act became controversial after a narrow exemption to the donor disclosure rules was crafted for the benefit of the NRA.

Pelosi summoned the Blue Dogs and CBC to back-to-back meetings this afternoon, but was unable to overcome their opposition to the legislation. The Blue Dogs are concerned that opposition from the Chamber, National Federation of Independent Business, National Association of Realtors and other business groups will damage their reelection prospects in the fall.

The CBC, on the other hand, was unhappy about an exemption to the bill granted to the National Rifle Association agreed to by Van Hollen. While the exemption was later extended to other groups, the CBC remained concerned about the bill’s potential impact on the NAACP and other progressive groups.

The Blue Dog complaint is almost unbelievable. There’s no universe of outcomes where they avoid criticism from the Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Business and the National Association of Realtors. In fact, they are most vulnerable if they don’t pass this bill, since then those business groups can create ads without disclosure or transparency. Under DISCLOSE, at least the same opposition would not get funneled into unidentifiable attack ads.

As for the CBC, it sounds like they just want to extend the exemptions to cover their friends, which is also a ridiculous notion. Progressive organizations want less exemptions in the law, not more. You cannot create an anti-special interest bill by carving out more exemptions for special interests.

Clearly House Democratic leaders haven’t figured out the balance yet. We may see action next week. Election-year Congressional wrangling is kind of depressing.