The stimulus bill will likely pass this week unless the moderate Republicans wake from their slumber to recognize the benefits (both on the merits and on political grounds) of forcing a major re-write of the bill. But it’s not the sort of “win” the Obama team likely had in mind.

It is not just Republicans or conservative pundits who recognize a major strategic error:

Some Democrats suggested that Obama erred by giving lawmakers too much leeway, resulting in extraneous provisions in the bill that gave the GOP fresh ammunition to argue that the bill lacks focus and that what was at one point a $900-billion-plus price tag was unwarranted.

“My advice would be next time the administration should write the bill, and not leave it to all the disparate odds and ends of the Congress,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). “It’s kind of an institutional problem because everybody has worked for years and has certain things that they really want to get in a bill.”

The Democrats mistook their election victories for a green light to pull out the liberal wish list of programs and policy ideas (even a potential roll back of welfare reform). Obama had run on the promise to go “line by line” through the budget, not to let Pelosi add billions to each line.

Republicans were smart enough to seize the opportunity, as Stuart Rothenberg points out (subscription required):

Instead, Republicans — aided by a handful of Democrats who are worried about some of the spending items — have succeeded in redefining the bill from one that will jump-start the economy by creating jobs and helping people deal with the housing crisis to one that is an ideological Christmas tree that doesn’t put people to work, help them pay their mortgages or resuscitate the economy. . . The Democrats’ fundamental problem is that while Americans like the country’s new president and, so far, think that he is doing a good job, they continue to have significant doubts about Congress and are disinclined to believe that Washington always has their best interest at heart.

When the president champions the ” ideological Christmas tree” stimulus bill, the government is awash in red ink, and the economy doesn’t snap back so quickly, the public may not think the president is doing such a good job.