Obama’s “you’re on your own”-attitude toward the DCCC and the DSCC during the 2012 campaign cycle was not particularly appreciated by his very vexed fellow Democrats, but he’s already starting to make good on his Lone-Ranger-no-more promise to help them with the 2014 midterms — he is going to need a fully Democratic Congress to have any hope of securing his legacy, after all.

During the first of the at least fourteen promised Democratic campaign swings this year, the president paid the usual lip service to sincerely wanting to work with Republicans (“Look, my intention here is to try to get as much done with the Republican Party over the next two years as I can, because we can’t have perpetual campaigns… I am looking to find areas of common ground with Republicans every single day,” blah blah blah), but made no secret of the fact that he’s looking for a Democratic takeover. Via Roll Call:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $3.25 million Wednesday evening at fundraising events that President Barack Obama headlined in San Francisco.

It was the first of eight DCCC fundraisers the president has committed to in the 2014 cycle. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., attended the events — cocktails at one home and then dinner at another — and Obama stressed the importance of returning her to the speakership.

“I am here because there are very few people in public office who I am more fond of and respectful than the person who just introduced me, Nancy Pelosi,” Obama said in his remarks.  “She is thoughtful, she’s visionary, she’s as tough as nails. She is practical. She never lets ideology cloud her judgment.”

I just tried to repeat that last line out loud with a straight face. I couldn’t do it.

And the major topics of concern du jour for these particular wealthy Obama and Democratic donors? Exactly what you’d expect, of course:

President Barack Obama used fundraisers on Wednesday to assuage supporters’ concerns about a transnational oil pipeline and his commitment to tackling climate change, while urging them to drive Republicans out of power in Congress in 2014. …

“Despite a very aggressive agenda on the other side to block action, we’ve been able to double fuel-efficiency standards on cars, we’ve been able to take mercury out of our air, we have been able to reduce carbon emissions in this country,” he said at the first of two fundraisers on Wednesday night.

That fundraiser, a cocktail reception priced at $5,000 a person, was held at the home of Kat Taylor and her husband, billionaire former asset manager Tom Steyer, an ardent opponent of the pipeline project. …

Obama did not mention Keystone during his remarks, but he came back repeatedly to the topic of global warming, a clear nod to the concerns of his host.

It all makes sense. President Obama’s reasons for holding off on the Keystone XL pipeline before the election were obvious — why make a controversial major decision when you can easily stall until your second term is set in stone? His reasons for continuing to delay after the results were in were less clear, but for him of course, the perpetual campaign isn’t over. His second term is going to be pretty lame-duck if the Democrats don’t take Congress, and while a full two-thirds of Americans approve of the Keystone pipeline, there’s a lot of campaign cash yet to be squeezed out of the righteously greenie-inclined 23 percent who oppose it. Not need arousing their ire before he’s hit them up for all the money he can muster.