TPMDC Sunday Roundup
Obama: I'm An Optimist -- But Not A Sap
In an interview with National Journal, President Obama said he is open to reaching across the aisle, but policy results matter. "My bottom line is not how pretty the process was," he said. "My bottom line was: Am I getting help to people who need it?" He also added: "I am an eternal optimist [but] that doesn't mean I'm a sap."
Obama Heading To U. of Chicago Campus
President Obama and Vice President Biden do not have any scheduled public events for today. However, Obama is visiting the University of Chicago campus today, where he formerly taught as a part-time law professor.
Obama To Sign Stimulus On Tuesday, Discuss Foreclosures Wednesday
President Obama will sign the stimulus bill on Tuesday, in a special trip to Denver -- the city where he formally accepted the Democratic nomination. Then on Wednesday he will head to Phoenix, Arizona -- John McCain's home state -- to put forward a plan to fight home foreclosures.
Axelrod: Obama To Take Action On Stem Cells
David Axelrod said on Fox News Sunday that President Obama will soon take action on stem-cell research, and is considering an order to formally lift the ban on federal funding that was put in place by George W. Bush.
Burris: Blagojevich's Brother Asked Me For Contribution Last November
Senator Roland Burris (D-IL) has now admitted that Rod Blagojevich's brother asked him for campaign contributions last fall, which Burris says he declined to do. Burris didn't disclose this when asked by the state impeachment committee to name any contact he'd had with Blago's people about the Senate seat.
Cantor: I Get Advice From Gingrich
In a new profile in the New York Times, Eric Cantor said he has regularly sought out the advice of a previous House Republican Whip who faced similar circumstances as he did, and then put his party in the majority: Newt Gingrich. Said Cantor: "I talk to Newt on a regular basis because he was in the position that we are in: in the extreme minority."
McCain: Stimulus Bill A 'Bad Beginning' For Obama
Appearing on CNN today, John McCain lambasted President Obama's performance in passing the stimulus bill. "It was a bad beginning because it wasn't what we promised the American people, what President Obama promised the American people - that we would sit down together," said McCain, adding that "almost all of our proposals went down on a party-line vote."
GOP Senator Graham: 'The Country's Screwed'
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressed his dissatisfaction today with the legislative process that led to the stimulus bill. Appearing on This Week, Graham had this to say about Democrats dominating the process: "If I may say, if this is going to be bipartisanship, the country's screwed."
| TOPICS: Barack Obama, Eric Cantor, IL-SEN, John McCain, Rod Blagojevich, Stimulus
Josh
Matt
Eric
McCain is an idiot. The American people realize that Obama DID sit down with the Republicans actually even more than he did the Democrats.
February 15, 2009 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pithy and true. I somewhat wish you'd left it with just the first sentence. Very important point and we don't wish it become diluted.
February 15, 2009 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly...it's like they truly live by the "who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?"
February 15, 2009 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Contrary to NY Times, Eric Cantor is NOT in the Gingrich Mold
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=6206
February 15, 2009 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey John - "The fundamentals of the economy are strong". Piss off!
Where was your crying and whining for bipartisanship when Bush was steamrolling everything though? Was it your "Gang of 14" that you used as a vehicle to put yourself out in front of the camera?
February 15, 2009 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now-Senator Burris. You, sir, clouded the truth, are an ethical scoundrel if perhaps not a legal one, and will be roundly trounced if you dare to run in the official senatorial primary. I suspect your failings are more from weakness in your character than from criminal intent.
Here's a thought...none of that matters. Good-bye sir when the real primary is held in Illinois.
Best,
A neighbor in Missouri
February 15, 2009 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
This country is really screwed when elected officials can't count. Huckleberry said the stimulus package had 18% tax cuts, when it's really around 36%. Why can't dems just call them plain stupid or liars?!
Republicans are going to have to "unlearn what they have learned." They thought bipartisan means getting everything they want, and destroying our country in the process. No more, you pathetic children!
February 15, 2009 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
They're not interested in governing. This Gingrich advising Cantor stuff is all you need to know about that.
February 15, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
The idea of President McCain in charge of leading us out of this mess (with the able assistance of Vice President Palin, you betcha!;) is still enough to cause me to wake up screaming.
And shorter McCain and Graham: "those mean Democrats won't let us run everything just because we lost the last two elections and our ideas are the cause of this clusterfuck! Waaaahhhh!"
February 15, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cosign.
February 15, 2009 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Word up man, but I bet I wake up screaming louder than you!!:>D
February 15, 2009 5:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
It appears that the dram queen Sen. Graham forgot how party legislated and ruled over the last eight. They actually did screw our county. What is happening now is polar opposite. The republican always put their party and playing politics over the good of our country. They want us to fail in order to regain control. Nice
February 15, 2009 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes. They don't care how long your family members may be out of work, for example, as long as they get power back pronto. That's all that concerns them, period.
February 15, 2009 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
My first reaction exactly. And the majority of American people feel the same way. In that context, I think McCain/Graham & Co. just keep highlighting how so delusional they are by saying stupid things like that.
February 15, 2009 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry...the past 2 years (when all the shit hit the fan) was Democrats in charge....why do y'all keep forgetting that part?
February 16, 2009 8:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
SFCW,
why do you keep forgetting the part where Reagan and his fans said "Government is the problem", "We have to get government out of the way."
Of course the Bush/Cheney gang loved that philosophy and they practiced it when they appointed Chris Cox to head the SEC (and Wall Street swooned)
AS to the Democrats being in charge, don't play dumb, its the President that enforces the laws and regulations.
February 16, 2009 8:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hence the expression "Executive Branch."
February 16, 2009 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain still hasn't grasped that he was repudiated at the elections and the only reason people even listen to him is politeness.
He apparently thought he was going to sit down with Obama as the head of the party (repudiated head of disgraced, failed party at that) and talk about why the best way forward was making the Bush tax cuts permanent, even though he knows nothing of economics. Boggles the mind.
February 15, 2009 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
McStain is a bad beginning, middle, and end.
February 15, 2009 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
The not-a-sap line is good. The President is not a man to use pointed language unless he finds himself obliged to.
"Sap" is relational; you can't be a sap even theoretically unless someone is trying to take improper advantage of you. He is reminding the American people that the party of failure did try to take improper advantage, that they failed, that he knows it was improper, and he is wise to their poor conduct and won't fall for it. Good.
February 15, 2009 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
The SHOCKER quote of the day is not McCain or Graham ragging on Obama for not being bipartisan but that Graham said that he is considering NATIONALIZATION of the banks.
Axelrod even side swept Gregory's question when he asked him if he would never consider nationalization of the banks. Axelrod basically said he is committed to an eventual private sector bank. What that says is that the Obama team have not ruled out nationalization.
It's time for Obama to sit down with Republicans who believe in Chapter 11 bankruptcy for failed entities ie Graham and discuss temporary nationalization of banks.
February 15, 2009 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, before they send another penny down that rat hole, they should temporarily nationalize the banks, clean up the f'n mess, and then privatize when the crisis is over. Right now the entire financial sector is completely f*cked up and the only apparent solution is nationalization. They already tried giving them cash and what did they do? Gave themselves bonuses and hoarded the cash. That's brilliant. Nationalization is the only way to go as all the major institutions are insolvent.
February 15, 2009 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well taking over a bank, and basically doing a forced restructuring, wiping out the stockholders then selling off the good assets (aka the S & L bailout model) is not nationalization, but basic chapter 11 bankruptcy action, which is what in the end needs to be done. They just have to tap dance about how it is resented, named and referred to. Basically doing it on the down-low and not calling it what it is, so the market doesn't freak out.
Nationalization means taking them over an running them. That isn't what we should do. Take them over, restructure them, wipe-out that bad assets, clear out the stockholders, then sell off the good assets to private firms. Hopefully that is what is behind the stress test and what happens when one fails the stress test.
February 15, 2009 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
That makes sense when there is not a situation like we have now when virtually the entire financial system is frozen. We need lending and normal operations to proceed while the restructuring is taking place. The minute the situation is viewed as a chapter 11, there will be a massive run on the banks at issue, which is virtually all of the big nationwide banks and financial institutions. That would create even more chaos than we have now.
Basically, they need to nationalize, without calling it nationalization and temporarily run the banks at issue in order to get the financial system operating again. I don't see another option. Basically, the fdic does that all the time when it takes over banks, so its not like this is something new for the government to do. They already do it.
February 15, 2009 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
No doubt the administration is pleased to let a Republican float that trial balloon; once the issue comes to the table, they can point to Sen. Graham and say "but he suggested it".
On the other hand...I would be pleased if Axelrod had more influence over banking issues, but he seems to have gotten rolled a bit in the first round with Geithner, Summers et al. Perhaps that's only an initial stance as Obama works to gain the confidence of the markets. I hope so.
February 15, 2009 9:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
It might have been more accurate and also more telling if he had said "I will not continue to be a sap".
February 15, 2009 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I am not a sap" is precisely correct. Obama has a stimulus package that's just about the size he requested a month ago (I'd like a bigger one) and includes the tax cut for 95% of Americans that he promised during the campaign. He is not a sap.
If you must insist on lengthening the quote, it would be more accurate to say: "I am not a sap and I hope Republicans will not continue to be saps."
February 15, 2009 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I am not a sap and I hope Republicans will not continue to be saps."
Try this. "I am not a sap and I hope Republicans will not continue to be shit-eating liars."
February 15, 2009 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
My favorite headline of the day is the one I just read on CNN.com:
"GOP senators say Obama off to bad start"
The story is mostly in reference to McCain's and Graham's Sunday show interviews.
This is news how? What did CNN expect them to say? - "O, yeah, I think he's doing a great job....Top notch!"
And does CNN really expect the American voting populace - the folks who elected Obama and numerous Dems to office last November, the folks who rejected the GOP, the folks who still really like and trust Obama - to give a flying f**k what McCain and his pal think? The last time I checked, the president's performance and approval wasn't measured based on the opinions of two douchebags who failed miserably in their attempt to prevent Obama from becoming president.
They play people to write this stuff?
February 15, 2009 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps they do, "play", people to write this stuff but I meant to say, "pay".
February 15, 2009 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is my favorite of today. It is totally on point and what makes political satire funny, when there is some truth to the satire.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/15/snl-republican-meeting-mo_n_167036.html
Very, very funny. That's why tina fey's palin was hilarious. It was based on a true picture of rambo. On the couric interview, they just used the transcript of the interview. They barely had to write anything. Now, that is funny.
February 15, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think that CNN added the GOP part as kind of a smirk. Kind of like: "The GOP (smirk, wink-wink) says Obama off to a bad start" - what-ever!
February 15, 2009 7:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
In a somewhat disordered article, Huff. Post has Bob Shrum saying McCain is "bitter and really angry." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/15/dems-growing-angry-with-m_n_167062.html
"He is angry at the press, which he thinks is unfair. He is angry at Obama and angry at the voters. He has gone from being an angry old candidate to being an angry old defeated candidate."
Obama reached out to McCain after the election, reached out a lot, and McCain could have begun afresh -- why did he blow that chance?
I figure at night he recurrently dreams he's sitting at the Oval Office desk, then in the morning he wakes up in the morning with the jolt that, instead of being President he's just an embittered old curmudgeon who threw away his good reputation on Palin and other stupidities. He combats the disappointment by spending his waking hours saying foolish, mean-spirited things that in spite of their incoherence make him feel relevant. And relieved to see his contorted, angered face on TV, something like before, he enjoys a measure of twisted satisfaction.
Till night again draws near, only for the cycle to begin anew...
February 15, 2009 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain will be Obama's best friend in a years time when he doesn't have to worry about being primaried in Arizona, and then has to rush back to the middle to make sure a Dem doesn't claim the center and his seat.
Anybody running against McCain can just repeat "The fundamentals of the economy are strong" over and over again. That complete lack of awareness should doom him in any election. Not to mention him kissing Bush's ass the last four years.
McCain is also mad that he couldn't be the gang leader, Snowe, Specter and Collins stole his usual thunder.
February 15, 2009 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
As Maddow would say, rinse repeat,rinse repeat,rinse repeat.
February 15, 2009 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Chris Cilizza has Arizona trending Democrat, so if the party can field a strong candidate, apparently McCain could be defeated as you say. I didn't know that; just one more irritant for the brooding old grouch to seethe over, though Gov. Janet Napolitano's elevation to Obama's cabinet may help him in a couple of ways.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112802704.html?hpid=topnews
Also, with any luck, Bush's currency will if anything be even lower in the next year-and-a-half, as more details of his grotesque abuses come out. And any talented opponent will make sure that Bush and Palin are prominent virtual members of McCain's campaign. Even though McCain will need to poll well among the scowling-ignoramous demographic, Sarah is probably too far too toxic to be of net gain should he foolishly (again) consider actively using her.
Nothing infuriates him more than when he doesn't get to lead things, so he must indeed be cursing the ground that the 3 Northestern Senators walk upon -- good comment. Of course, in order to lead, it helps to have a coherent idea and maybe even strategy, and that is where the old grouch keeps coming up snake eyes, as when he tried to re-arrange the debate schedule in a risible would-be attempt to save the world. Hope he continues in this vain, it's a good opportunity for the electorate to marvel at his embittered buffonery.
February 15, 2009 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thus we see Mr. Marshall is correct in his assessment of the MSM. Republican to the core.
February 15, 2009 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Chris Cilizza has Arizona trending Democrat, so if the party can field a strong candidate, apparently McCain could be defeated as you say. I didn't know that; just one more irritant for the brooding old grouch to seethe over, though Gov. Janet Napolitano's elevation to Obama's cabinet may help him in a couple of ways.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112802704.html?hpid=topnews
Also, with any luck, Bush's currency will if anything be even lower in the next year-and-a-half, as more details of his grotesque abuses come out. And any talented opponent will make sure that Bush and Palin are prominent virtual members of McCain's campaign. Even though McCain will need to poll well among the scowling-ignoramous demographic, Sarah is probably too far too toxic to be of net gain should he foolishly (again) consider actively using her.
Nothing infuriates him more than when he doesn't get to lead things, so he must indeed be cursing the ground that the 3 Northestern Senators walk upon -- good comment. Of course, in order to lead, it helps to have a coherent idea and maybe even strategy, and that is where the old grouch keeps coming up snake eyes, as when he tried to re-arrange the debate schedule in a risible would-be attempt to save the world. Hope he continues in this vain, it's a good opportunity for the electorate to marvel at his embittered buffonery.
February 15, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Franken needs to go on a PR offensive and use the GOP's quotes against them where they blatantly say Coleman is simply stalling, and will stall as long as possible. Politico has a piece up where Cornyn admits as much, and where Senate GOP's are raising huge money for his defense and are personally maxed out as well.
February 15, 2009 9:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks. That Politico article helps emphasize why Obama will need every Senate vote he can get; this one does, too.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18827.html#threadform
I agreed with the lady (many of us did) who said that giving Lieberman his committee assignments was like telling Obama's supporters to go Cheney ourselves, although I sucked it in because I knew Obama didn't want confrontation and he's the leader. I am glad that cooler heads than mine prevailed -- they need every vote they can scrounge in an era that appears to be based on hyper-partisanship.
February 15, 2009 11:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's becoming pretty clear to me that President Obama is trying to rescue and rehabilitate the Republican Party into becoming something larger than a Southern Regional Party.
After all, how can he lead the nation out of a partisan wildness, if there is only one party.
February 15, 2009 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
That is the problem and the republicans are the party of the 19th century. The way he accomplishes what he wants to accomplish is crush the republican party out of existence and allow a new party to be created to address the problems of the american people. Watch obama work his magic, because thus far he has worked them unbelievably. Just wait. The republican party as we know it will cease to exist, because it will be irrelevant and obama will accomplish that result by killing it with kindness. What a concept. Obama ju jitzu at work.
February 15, 2009 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
There does need to be an opposition,as TPM Jake says. Whether it can be one based on hatred and obstructionism is certainly a question.
February 15, 2009 6:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Almost all the Democrats' proposals won on a party-line vote, John. What does that tell you?
We piped for you but you didn't dance.
February 16, 2009 9:33 AM | Reply | Permalink