Roundup

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | November 15, 2009, 1:14PM

Axelrod: Obama Opposed To Bill With Stupak Amendment
Appearing on State of the Union, White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod said that President Obama would oppose the Stupak Amendment as a change in the status quo on abortion law. "The president has said repeatedly, and he said in his speech to Congress, that he doesn't believe that this bill should change the status quo as it relates to the issue of abortion," said Axelrod. Asked whether Obama would sign a final bill that contains the Stupak Amendment, Axelrod replied that Obama "believes both these issues and can and will be worked through before [the final bill] reaches his desk."

Conrad: Health Care Bill Can't Pass Without Restriction On Abortion Funding
Appearing on State of the Union, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) said that the health care bill cannot pass without something like the Stupak Amendment. "What is clear is at the end of the day, for this bill to be successful, that there cannot be taxpayer funding of abortion," said Conrad, also adding: "It was clear in the House. It'll be clear in the Senate."

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Roundup

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | November 1, 2009, 1:04PM

Lieberman Pledges To Filibuster Public Option, Blames Its Supporters For Holding Up Reform
Appearing on Face The Nation, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) pledged to filibuster against the public option: "The government going into the health insurance business -- I think it's such a mistake that I would use the power I have as a single senator to stop a final vote." He also blamed public option-supporters for being the ones who are obstructing reform: "All of a sudden if you're not for this government health insurance company, you're against health care reform. I'd say to them, 'Don't stop us from getting something good and important done for the American people.'"

Boehner: NY-23 Election Part Of 'Political Rebellion Going On In America'
Appearing on State of the Union, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) addressed the situation in NY-23 by delcaring, "We're in the middle, I think, of a political rebellion going on in America," and said that the Republicans will work to earn the support of people coming into the political system. At the same time, he insisted that the GOP was not excluding moderates, in light of moderate GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava's withdrawal from the race: "We accept moderates in our party. We want moderates in our party. We cover a wide range of Americans."

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Roundup

TPMDC Morning Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | October 23, 2009, 9:02AM

NYT: Behind The White House Vs. Fox News Fight
The New York Times reports on the White House-Fox News feud, and how it followed an unsuccessful attempt by senior adviser David Axelrod and Fox head Roger Ailes to work out their problems. "We simply decided to stop abiding by the fiction, which is aided and abetted by the mainstream press, that Fox is a traditional news organization," said deputy White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer.

Obama's Day Ahead
President Obama will depart form the White House at 10:05 a.m. ET, arriving in Boston at 11:30 a.m. ET. He will tour a research laboratory at MIT, at 12 p.m. ET, and will deliver remarks on clean energy at 12:30 p.m. ET. He will deliver remarks at a fundraising reception for Gov. Deval Patrick at 2:05 p.m. ET, and will speak at a fundraising event for Patrick at 2:45 p.m. ET. He will depart from Boston at 3:40 p.m. ET, arriving at 4:35 p.m. ET in New York City. He will join Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), and tour a small business at 5:15 p.m. ET. He will deliver remarks at a Dodd fundraising dinner at 6:45 p.m. ET. He will depart from New York at 8 p.m. ET, arriving back at the White House at 9:10 p.m. ET.

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Liz Cheney

Liz Cheney: White House Fight With Fox News Is 'Censorship' And 'Abuse of Power'

Eric Kleefeld | October 21, 2009, 4:43PM

Liz Cheney appeared on Sean Hannity's TV show last night, and had some very tough things to say about the Obama administration's public feuding with Fox News.

Cheney said that David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel were sending a "clear warning" against other networks: "It's clear censorship, and it's, in my view, abuse of power from the White House."

As for why the Obama administration has it in for Fox, Cheney said: "They became accustomed to an environment where they just got a lot of adoration, and they don't like to be challenged. And Fox News has sure been, you know, at the top of the list of those asking the hard questions."

She may have a point about a White House being accustomed to an environment of adoration and not being challenged. This would explain why the Bush-Cheney White House liked Fox News so much.

Roundup

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | October 18, 2009, 1:02PM

Jarrett: Obama 'Not Demanding' Public Option
Appearing on Meet The Press, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett made it clear that President Obama is not demanding that a public option must be included in the health care bill: "He's not demanding that it's in there. He thinks it's the best possible choice. But I think, David [Gregory], let's not underestimate how much progress we've made. The fact that there's agreement on so much means that we are right on the brink of delivering for the American people, and that's a positive sign for our country."

Specter: GOP 'A Party Of Obstructionism' With No Plan
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) blasted his former party: "On the Republican side, it is no, no, no -- a party of obstructionism. You have responsible Republicans who had been in the Senate -- like Howard Baker, Bob Dole, or Bill Frist -- who say Republicans ought to cooperate. Well, they're not cooperating ... Take a look at the absence of any Republican plan."

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Roundup

TPMDC Saturday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | October 10, 2009, 1:06PM

Obama Boasts of Bipartisan Support For Health Care Reform -- And Shames The Opposition
In this weekend's YouTube address, President Obama proudly touted the support for health care from prominent Republicans such as Bob Dole, Bill Frist, Mike Bloomberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Louis Sullivan and Tommy Thompson -- and contrasted this with the opposition from other Republicans in Washington:

"These distinguished leaders understand that health insurance reform isn't a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, but an American issue that demands a solution," said Obama. "Still, there are some in Washington today who seem determined to play the same old partisan politics, working to score political points, even if it means burdening this country with an unsustainable status quo."

LeMieux: Dem Health Care Solutions Worse Than The Problems
In this weekend's Republican address, the recently appointed Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL) attacked the Democratic health care proposals as being worse than the current problems:

"We in the Congress have a duty to tackle this problem, but the solution we settle upon should not be rushed, and the solution should not be worse than the problem we are trying to solve," said LeMieux. "Right now, Senate Democrats and White House officials are behind closed doors crafting their final health care overhaul proposal. While the Democrats in Congress have not yet provided the actual language of their proposed law, we do know enough for Americans to be concerned."

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Barack Obama

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | September 13, 2009, 12:45PM

Joe Wilson: "I Am Not Going To Apologize Again"
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) said he would not apologize again for his "You lie!" outburst during President Obama's speech to Congress, setting up a likely censure vote in the House. "This is playing politics," Wilson said. "This is exactly what the American people do not want to see, do not want to hear." He also defended the substance of the original incident: "I believe in the truth. What I heard was not true."

Obama: "One This Bill Passes, I Own It"
In an interview set to air on 60 Minutes, President Obama said:"I have no interest in having a bill get passed that fails. That doesn't work. You know, I intend to be president for a while and once this bill passes, I own it. And if people look and say, 'You know what? This hasn't reduced my costs. My premiums are still going up 25 percent, insurance companies are still jerking me around, I'm the one who's going to be held responsible. So I have every incentive to get this right."

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David Axelrod

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | September 6, 2009, 1:09PM

Axelrod: Public Option A "Good Tool," But Shouldn't Define Whole Debate
Appearing on Meet The Press, White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod said that President Obama "believes the public option is a good tool." However, Axelrod also added, "It shouldn't define the whole health care debate, however."

Van Jones Resigns
Van Jones, President Obama's adviser on green jobs, has resigned in the wake of controversy surrounding past attacks on Republican, and his having signed a petition by 9/11 Truthers years ago. "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones said in his resignation letter, also adding: "I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future."

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Health Care

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | July 26, 2009, 1:04PM

Sarah Palin Resigning Governorship Today
Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) will officially resign today, at the governor's picnic in Fairbanks. The big question now: What's next for her in politics? "I cannot express enough there is no plan after July 26. There is absolutely no plan," she told the Associated Press. "The decision (to quit) was made in the vacuum of what was best for Alaska, and now I'm accepting all the options, but there is nothing planned."

Axelrod: Obama Saw Gates Discussion "Veering Off In The Wrong Direction"
Appearing on Face The Nation, White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod explained President Obama's decision Friday to clarify his comments on the Henry Louis Gates arrest. "I think he understood that the debate was veering off in the wrong direction and as he said, that his words may have contributed to that," said Axelrod, "so he felt a responsibility to step forward and kind of cool the situation down and acknowledge the fact that he had, as he said, calibrated his words poorly and had contributed to that. So that is what he did and I think it has had the desired effect."

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Barack Obama

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | June 28, 2009, 1:12PM

Axelrod: Obama Won't Rule Out Middle-Class Tax Hike
Appearing on This Week, Senior White House David Axelrod did not rule out the idea of President Obama raising taxes on people making under $250,000 -- which Obama pledged not to do during the 2008 campaign -- in order to fund health care. "One of the problems we've had in this town is that people draw lines in the sand and they stop talking to each other. And you don't get anything done," said Axelrod. "That's not the way the president approaches us. He is very cognizant of protecting people -- middle class people, hard-working people who are trying to get along in a very difficult economy. And he will continue to represent them in these talks."

McConnell: We Have Best Health Care System In The World
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) attacked the Democrats' health care proposals. "Well, listening to them, you wouldn't recognize that America has the finest health care system in the world. We have some problems with access and with cost, which can -- addressed without wrecking the best health care system in the world," said McConnell. "What they really have in mind, Bret [Baier], is to create a government-run plan after which there won't be any private insurance companies."

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Barack Obama

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | June 7, 2009, 1:01PM

Hillary: Obama Has Passed "3 a.m." Test
Appearing on ABC's This Week, Sec. of State Hillary Clinton was asked whether President Obama has passed the "3 a.m." test that she raised in her famous campaign ad against him in the 2008 primaries. "Absolutely," said Clinton. "And, you know, the president in his public actions and demeanor, and certainly in private with me and with the national security team, has been strong, thoughtful, decisive, I think he is doing a terrific job. And it's an honor to serve with him."

Hillary: I Initially Rejected Sec. of State Offer
Also during her This Week interview, Hillary Clinton said she'd initially turned down the offer from President Obama to be Secretary of State, thinking it was "absurd" and wanting to go back to serving New York in the Senate. "But he was quite persistent and very persuasive. And, you know, ultimately, it came down to my feeling that, number one, when your president asks you to do something for your country, you really need a good reason not to do it," said Clinton. "Number two, if I had won and I had asked him to please help me serve our country, I would have hoped he would say yes."

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Rush Limbaugh

Axelrod: Limbaugh Has His Own Experiences With The Law

Eric Kleefeld | May 29, 2009, 5:21PM

David Axelrod went on CNN this afternoon to talk up Sonia Sotomayor's stellar legal experience -- and to point out the record of her most prominent critic:

"And for people like Rush Limbaugh, and I don't know what he -- you know, he has his own experiences with the law," said Axelrod. "Maybe he makes his own judgments based on that."

It's worth remembering that the White House really likes focusing on Rush Limbaugh as an opponent in any debate. This is yet another example.

Barack Obama

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | April 19, 2009, 1:14PM

Summers: "It's A Long Road" For The Economy
Appearing on NBC's Meet The Press, Larry Summers said of the economic situation: "But it's a, it's a long, it's a long road and it's going to take time. It's going to take creating jobs again. That's why the recovery bill was so important. It's going to take supporting the financial system, because without a flow of credit you really can't even begin to get the economy going again. That's where our main focus is."

Obama's Day
President Obama spent the morning in Trinidad and Tobago, at the fifth Summit of the Americas. He attended an 8 a.m. ET multilateral meeting with SICA (Central American Integration System), a 9:10 a.m. ET Leaders Retreat, and held a news conference at 11:45 a.m. ET. He left Trinidad at 1 p.m. ET, and is scheduled to arrive back at the White House at 6:15 p.m. ET.

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David Axelrod

Perkins Not Challenging Vitter In 2010

Eric Kleefeld | March 13, 2009, 3:34PM

Tony Perkins, the president of the religious-right activist group the Family Research Council, has just announced that he will not challenge Senator David Vitter (R-LA) in the 2010 Republican primary.

Not only that, but he's endorsing Vitter: "I am grateful for those who've encouraged me to consider returning to elected office, but this is not the right time. Along those lines, I would like members of the State Central Committee to know that I support Senator David Vitter's bid for reelection in 2010."

Perkins is also a former Louisiana state Representative, and he ran for Senate in 2002, winning 10% of the vote in the all-party primary that the state used at the time. Had he run, Perkins might have posed a real threat to Vitter's renomination -- after all, one of them is a top-level social-conservative activist, and the other is a social-conservative politician whose career got bogged down in the D.C. Madam prostitution scandal in 2007.

Of course, there was a serious risk in any potential candidacy: That he might run against Vitter, lose the primary, and have only succeeded in softening up the incumbent against a Democratic challenger.

Capitol Culture

The Fairness Doctrine, R.I.P.

Matthew Cooper | February 18, 2009, 6:47PM

Well, it looks like "the fairness doctrine" died a quiet death today. White House spokesman Ben LaBolt told Fox News that President Obama was not interested in restoring the Federal Communications Commission rule that basically requires broadcasters to give equal time to opposing points of view.

If enforced, the rule would obviously create havoc in talk radio land where conservatives dominate the airwaves. Not surprisingly, the right has been in a tailspin about this, predicting that Obama would somehow take away half of Rush and Sean and Laura and but liberals in their place. Talk about redistribution! But despite some congressional interest in the measure, the idea of restoring it was never really in play.

Intellectually, I think the idea is weak and the administration seems to think so, too. After all, it hearkens back to a pre-internet era when finding an opposing view was harder. But there were some lingering questions about what Obama would do. David Axelrod got asked about it on Fox News Sunday--yes, this is a News Corp obsession--and he punted, saying it was a decision best left for Julius Genachowski, Obama's not-yet-announced nominee to chair the FCC. (Genachowski is a close friend, for what it's worth.) But it looks like the decision's already been made. Seems sensible to me but the right loses something to fulminate about. I'm curious to see how much disappointment there is on the left.

David Axelrod

Who Needs a Signing Statement When You Have a Year to Regulate?

Elana Schor | February 16, 2009, 3:25PM

A funny thing happened this weekend, after congressional Democrats surmounted a fierce lobbying effort and maintained one of three executive-pay limitation plans that were being eyed for removal from the final stimulus bill.

It turns out that Wall Street wasn't the only opponent of more stringent limits on bonuses for bailed-out executives -- Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and White House economic adviser Larry Summers were leading the charge to keep CEO pay caps out of the stimulus.

Oops. Though Geithner and Summers wanted President Obama's loophole-riddled executive compensation limits to be the only game in town, they ultimately lost that battle with Congress. Now what can they do to make sure eminently qualified leaders at companies like AIG and Merrill Lynch don't have to forgo their lucrative pay packages?

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Joe Biden

Biden and Sweeney/Axelrod and Geithner

Matthew Cooper | February 10, 2009, 5:23PM

I'm told old friends, Joe Biden and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, had a good private meeting yesterday, one of many meetings the vice president and senior administration officials have been having and will have with top labor leaders. (If the labor movement wasn't so atomized they might have all gone in together.) "No real news coming out of the meeting," one person with knowledge of the session said. "It was more of a general, and ongoing discussion. They discussed a whole variety of things," and part of a continuing and ongoing dialogue" between Labor and the Obama White House.

Among the topics discussed were the Employee Free Choice Act, which the administration has assured labor leaders it still wants to push for in late Spring, and the nomination of Hilda Solis to be Labor Secretary. Republicans seem to be softening in their opposition to Solis but it now looks like there won't be a committee vote on her nomination until after Congressional recess, February 23rd, making it likely to be the last cabinet seat to be filled.

On another front, TPM Alumnus Greg Sargent now of whorunsgov.com quotes David Axelrod downplaying the New York Times reported rift between him and Tim Geithner, something he downplayed in the Times story itself.

My nugget to add to this is that no one on the economic team, so far as I can tell, was pushing for the kind of showy, punitive measures that might have made today's ugly roll out of the new bailout plan at least more appealing to those who want to see banks punished. It echoes what I said last week about Summers and Geithner. People who expected to see fireworks between those two are ignoring their decades of friendship and how ideologically sympatico they are. Future fireworks, if there are any in the land of no drama, are likely to come between the economic team and otherson the periphery. In any event, the bailout plan such as it is, is now out there. It was a half-built house when it was unveiled this morning and given the market reaction today to the thing it's probably going to get revamped even more.