Friday, February 6, 2009

Has Anyone Noticed That...

..the unpopular George W. Bush managed to get his stimulus package through Congress in a much smoother fashion than Obama?

Apparently, Rahn Emanuel is throwing Nancy Pelosi under the bus, to protect the Prez. Jane Hamsher has the details:

The story of the morning seems to be that the Obama team is unhappy with Nancy Pelosi and the House committee chairs for delivering up such a liberal, pork-laden bill that they themselves really had nothing to do with.

"Anonymous staffers" are fanning out to fuel the fiction that "during the transition Summers, his deputy Jason Furman, and the White House's top Congressional liaison, Phil Schiliro, laid out the broad principles they wanted the bill to adhere to, but when it came to actual content, they deferred to the chairmen."

Hamsher, clearly, in Pelosi's camp continues:

Except that it's not true. The Obama transition team has been working on the substance of the bill from day one. Their first step was to go to the Association of Mayors, the National Governors' Associations and other non-congressional groups and say "give us all your shovel-ready projects." That and other provisions written by the Obama team became the spine of the bill. It went through only three committee markups, and moved through the House at lightening speed in a way that made many House chairs unhappy, with the notable exception of Dave Obey (now also under attack) who helped push it through quickly.

The House bill is notable not only for its size but also because it had no earmarks, which are the lifeblood of House members, the way they show their constituents what they're doing for them. As one person knowledgable about the writing of the bill says, "if you're in the House why would you write a bill without earmarks unless you didn't write the bill?"
Then she nails Emanuel:

[It]may well be because the architect of this strategy is Rahm Emanuel himself, and his first step was to leak that Obama was commiserating with House Republicans about how awful the bill was. Then using Jim Cooper as a cutout, it was leaked that Obama was unhappy with the waste in the stimulus bill and that his people had urged Cooper to vote against the bill and oppose Pelosi.

Although Cooper later walked back the statement, the damage was done -- John Fund and others had picked up the baton and were spreading the meme that anything objectionable in this bill was Pelosi's fault, and that Obama was quite rightly angry about it. When Jake Tapper asked Robert Gibbs about the Cooper comment and Gibbs wouldn't deny that it had happened, Pelosi's fate as designated "sin eater" for everything the GOP and the cannibalizing press found objectionable about the bill was sealed.
Whoa! Pelosi as "designated sin eater". The Obama Adminstration is going to be more fun than I thought.

1 comment:

  1. I did notice Obama is not a "smooth operator" or a "cool dude" as many thought. Bush does not look that bad now, actually he seems to be more a cool guy without much fuss - just get the job done, whether its disposing of saddam or passing a 750B TARP. wow! lot of rhetoric with obama, hope, change, wtf, bs.

    Bush is not that dumb a guy. hmmmmmmmmmm.

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