Tweet
Via the news pane at TPM, the Wall Street Journal‘s Washington, D.C., blog reports this afternoon:
The top congressional leaders from both parties gathered at the White House for a working discussion over the shape and size of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan. The meeting was designed to promote bipartisanship.
But… challenged by one Republican senator over the contents of the package, the new president, according to participants, replied: “I won.”
Kind of nice of him to remember that, isn’t it? But wait, there’s more:
… other Democrats echoed the sentiment. As he left the White House, House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina was asked about Republican complaints that Democrats aren’t listening to what their GOP colleagues have to say. "We’re responding to the American people," he said. "The American people didn’t listen to them too well during the election."
Good for Obama and the Democrats. Between orchestrated leaks to undercut the new president’s policy pronouncements and the media’s rediscovered appetite for skepticism, a clear test is being applied by the GOP and the Beltway establishment to see whether the new administration has the stomach to make "change" more than just a slogan.
If Obama & Co. define bipartisanship as simply accepting whatever crumbs the Republicans will allow them, they’re doomed. If, however, they define it as understanding the center of where the country (rather than the D.C. elite) is politically, then pushing to accomplish what needs to be done regardless of partisan obstacles, they might be able to pull it off.
When Obama proclaimed in his inaugural address, "What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them," my reaction was, well, fine, but he better bring the earth-moving equipment with him — because his opponents aren’t going to believe the ground has shifted until they see it firsthand.
Less than a week into his administration, it’s already become time for Obama to back up his claim.
61 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Too-tan Boehner seems to have found his sound-bite in opposition to the Obama Stimulus: No Free Condoms.
I wonder when, or if, the Rethugs will realize they’re not in charge any more.
His dad sure could have used some.
DC= Mayor Fenty or Council Chair Gray
If, however, they define it as understanding the center of where the country (rather than the
D.C.Versailles elite)fixed that for ya’
Goopers are turning even less attractive. Besides the normal anti-reason, , bullshit ridden invective- it now becomes clear that they are the “survivors”- the creme de la creme of the dumbshit southern bullshitters- and if ya want a second opinion- they’re ugly too!
If yer gonna invite a gooper for dinner- supply bags- one for him/her and one for every guest in case the gooper’s falls off!
Boner’s in a race to become Dole.
Lots of Progressives are complaining about Obama trying to “change the minds” of GOP Congresscritters. I don’t think he’s doing any such thing because he undoubtedly knows that can’t be done.
I think he’s making a very public gesture of reaching across the aisle in a common sense fashion. He knows most of the GOP will reject his proposals out of hand, but he’ll peel some of them off, and he will end up looking reasonable and the wingnuts will end up looking like…well, wingnuts. I bet he even gets David Broder to praise his bipartisanship.
It’s political jujitsu, and like the prisoner condemned to death who was frantically thinking of some way to save his life, he might even teach the horse how to sing.
I’d tell them
Highball, Barry!
never. You are referring to a group of people who are not a part of the reality based community
Goopers are in good company on the stimulus package hard to find many enthusiastic supporters for it on either side of the aisle.
Swopa!
LOL on your pic
Bout time to start the countdown for a bus fallin on Arlen Specter. If he doesn’t fall victim to a primary contest from a gooper- he’s gonna get his ass handed to him by a dem.
Digg
Hi, Wobbs. Hope springs eternal. *g*
I regard the return of politics as usual (by Boner, Hannity, Rush, etc.) as a good thing. Their shtick has been rejected two elections in a row. I think of them as still digging despite its annoyance factor.
Don’t underestimate Obama in this regard; he is familiar with the concept of giving enough rope.
You cannot govern based solely on being bipartisan if your beliefs are different from the other side. When you are elected on a platform you should not abandon that. You cannot be all things to all people. The Shrub said that he had a mandate. Ha! Obama does have a mandate!
Thanks! Not entirely germane to the post, I admit, but I love that cartoon.
It is going to be interesting to see how Obama handles his first Sat. morning address tomorrow
Hope you’re right. Spector really irritates because sometimes he talks a good game. Never votes it, just gets teevee time talking it.
Bushco has got something on him…
I think Rush used up all his rope when he said he hopes Obama fails.
He’s one of the best at the art of political speak- where you flap your jaws for a quarter of an hour and amaze listeners who may eventually discover that you didn’t say a friggin thing.
As I said downstairs, because it seems appropriate here too, Obama’s been President for 3½ days. I’m furious and disappointed that he hasn’t fixed the economy, emptied Gitmo, indicted Bush and Cheney, and given me a puppy. (Well, maybe a kitten…)
Heh. I remember as a kid being totally irked when the space program would preempt Saturday morning cartoons. Does Obama do that?
I think the efca is going to his waterloo
Rush’s rope is long. He’ll always have his following, but fence-sitters are not likely to be impressed.
Oh, and good evening LooHoo.
He uses them toobz
Only after Viagra.
Somewhat OT – sorry swopa
This morning on looseheadprop’s post there was a discussion as to why Paterson picked Gillibrand. On Democracy Now! today Juan Gonzalez gives us a peek into a possible reason. Seems Gov Paterson was seen as a progressive state Senator but has become increasingly conservative since taking over as governor. The appointment is the last headline and the discussion follows. About 12:30 into the show.
Carry on.
It is about time that the Democrats put the Republicans in their place! They had their chance to make this a better country and they squandered that chance and instead went for the golden ring of Greed! Good for Obama and the Democrats, now lets hope they don’t lose their balls in the future!
Yeah. WTF has he been doing, the lazyass?
Evening, sir. Afternoon, here, actually. But cheers! It’s FRIDAY!
I could prolly help ya with the kitten, the other stuff, not so much.
bom dia, SD. Yes, it does *g* I’m kind of amused how the other side is working themselves into a froth.
I hope Obama says “I won” to Harry Reid. He needs to be reminded once in awhile.
707! Yeah, what is up with that?
Umm…
Rush, “You get one chance at being an obstruction. After that, we’re going to drive the train over you.”
What do you believe that means to you? Fairness doctrine? Prosecution of Oxycontin abuse? Child Molestation? I’m looking forward that that train wreck.
Will need to change the default: “Adopting the conservative frame,…[fill in the name of the media person here–ThinkProgress used Jake Tapper in their post re Cantor].
Saw it again in action from NBC nightly new discussing the 61 Gitmo detainees back in Al Qaeda meme via Miklazewski…Gregory….as well as the stenoing of Republican talking points about grass….
These guys are falling over themselves to earn Atrios’ wanker of the day status. Don’t they think facts matter? Dinosaurs with the earth quaking under them = MSM.
Harry Reid will denounce Obama’s partisanship, and then run and hide.
You want a puppy? I got 4 (born inaugeration day)…and NO…you cannot call one Obama….But there are three bitches, and you could call one George…
I’m gonna tell PETA you said that.
I like to think of Dylan’s ‘Slow Train Coming’ (though without the religious overtones). I don’t envision one thing representing the train, rather the ‘Death of a Thousand Screams’ (Geoffrey Holder in the original Dr. Doolittle) as Rush’s fate.
Calling a bitch George might lead to gender identity confusion. Were it up to me I’d go with Condi or Babs…
But I want a pony, myself…! ;-)
I’m glad that Obama is willing to stand up to Republicans but his stimulus plan won’t solve our problems and his economics team doesn’t really seem to know what the problems are, let alone solve them.
I’m not up to speed on Rush’s musical tastes, but if he’s a fan of Mark Knopfler’s guitar work, he might look forward to that.
Hey, CT. What’s happenin’, bro?
Check Jerry Garcia’s work on ‘Dylan and the Dead’. I know Rush was a big fan. Not.
Working hand to mouth…! Tends to cut into my Lake time… ;-)
Oh, man, that blows.
This is a grave concern. If Obama doesn’t at least stop the bleeding in the economy, and so far he and said team have shown no signs of trying anything bold in this regard, then no amount of skillful narrative control and rope supplying will change things…BigMedia and Repubs will blame Obama for everything and totally rewrite history as if everything was fine and dandy under Shrub/Repub rule.
I see this happening already in the little bit of BigMedia I’ve seen the last couple of days.
I like a lot of what he’s doing and what he says he’s going to do, but without doing many of the things people like Ian and other Liberal economists are proposing, we’ll be screwed as the economy gets even worse, and no one will remember the good stuff.
He must know this, right?
Like any able trooper, I soldier on…! ;-)
Btw, Ian is upstairs…
See: Clinton, Hillary
I can’t see how he doesn’t know it. Now that most of us are beginning to accept that this guy isn’t stupid — which was a VERY common refrain around these perts a couple weeks ago — can we really look at the statements and floated policy planks as maybe just that, ’statements’ and ‘floated policy planks’, with nothing real having been done yet?
He just flatly told the Repubs that he’s in charge, after all the bi-partisan talk. He knows how and apparently where to draw a line. I’m not advocating blind trust by any means — but can we at least CONSIDER that he’s giving this situation some actual thought and not following a Republican script line by line?
As long as Harry Reid is the majority leader in the Senate the Republicans will remain in charge. They’ve already held up Holder and Obama’s Sec. of Labor. These are small victories that they will continue to build on. Change the Senate rules and dump Reid.
Yes, we can.
About two years ago, I vividly remember being one of the few, around here at least, to start talking up the O-man. Believe me, it was a lonely task until Edwards dropped out, and even then there were still a lot of Clinton folk. So I’d say I was an early Barack backer, so you’re preaching to this choir.
However, his economics team is really atrocious. As I said earlier, lots ‘o good happening, but this econ stuff is troubling. Geithner doesn’t even pay his freakin taxes until he needs to get nominated, and even then it’s not complete?!? In reading many of Larry Summers’ past writings, I can find not one iota of creative or bold solutions anywhere. We need a drastic change in thinking in regards to the economy, and we have the public support at the moment to go for it, and yet all Obama and his Reem Team are offering is milquetoast.
Obama has detailed some parts of the plan already and let’s just say his “floated policy planks” stank. Yes, I’m hopeful still, but it sure would be nice to see even an inkling of understanding about what needs to be done to the economy. He sho nuff ain’t gonna git it from his econ advisers.
Larry Summers is a first-class reality-based economist. He knows very well what is going on in the economy. The problem is that things are so bad and getting worse so fast, that it isn’t obvious that anything feasible is going to help very much. We are in a melt-down. This is untested territory for everyone. If and when things get a lot worse, worse enough so that people will prepared to accept stronger government action, we will get it. Obama can’t get so far out in front of the public that they won’t follow. There is no easy way out of the coming Great Depression. At best some palliatives like helping out with unemployment insurance and health expenses, plus money to the states to maintain basic public services. Beyond that, we are going to have to wait for public pressure. The Goopers can’t defeat a bill, but they can defeat the administration if it gets too far out in front. This is the simple and sad fact of our politics. The economists understand we need probably a trillion and a half dollars of real spending, but most of us know it’s not going to happen right away.
It is just tragic what the 25 years of Rethug dominance have done to our economy.
We’ll leave that one to Boner…(Rcons are the experts at forgetting about the condoms).
jmt
Damn SWOPA. You nailed this.
Summers and other Clinton/DLCers are just as much part of the problem, and maybe even a bigger problem then Repubs, since they put “D”s after their names and Liberals get complacent and trust them as they sell-out America.
Many, many people saw all this coming. It was as clear as can be IMO, and the only surprise is that the meltdown didn’t happen sooner. Millions of people could see that things like NAFTA, media consolidation, deregulations, and so on were not beneficial to society as a whole. Just for the 1% who control the levers, of which 95% of those people are born into it.
Obama’s Econ team has promoted these horrendous policies for years, despite a vocal opposition clearly spelling out why these policies are not sustainable. Summers and friends ignored the warnings.
Love so much of what Obama is doing, but I have some significant reservations about the Econ issues, based upon the people he has surrounded himself with.