Taming the press

Opinion
100 Days: Obama, F.D.R. and Taming the Press
By Jean Edward Smith
Published: February 2, 2009
Barack Obama and the White House press corps had an awkward start. He should patch things up the way Franklin Roosevelt did.

Message from President Obama

The economic crisis is growing more serious every day, and the time for action has come. Last week, the House of Representatives passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will jumpstart our economy and put more than 3 million people back to work. I hope to sign the recovery plan into law in the next few weeks. But I need your help to spread the word and build support. It's not enough for this bill to simply pass Congress. Americans need to know how it will affect their lives -- they need to know that help is on the way and that this administration is investing in economic growth and stability. Governor Tim Kaine has agreed to record a video outlining the recovery plan and answering questions about what it means for your community. You can submit your questions online and then invite your friends, family, and neighbors to watch the video with you at an Economic Recovery House Meeting. Join thousands of people across the country by hosting or attending an Economic Recovery House Meeting this weekend. The stakes are too high to allow partisan politics to get in the way. That's why I've consulted with Republicans as well as Democrats to put together a plan that will address the crisis we face. I've also taken steps to ensure an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability. Once it's passed, you will be able to see how every penny in this plan is being spent. You can help restore confidence in our economy by making sure your friends, family, and neighbors understand how the recovery plan will impact your community. Sign up to host or attend an Economic Recovery House Meeting and submit your question for the video now: http://my.barackobama.com/recovery Our ability to come together as a nation in difficult times has never been more important. I know I can rely on your spirit and resolve as we lead our country to recovery. Thank you, President Barack Obama P.S. -- If you can't host or attend an Economic Recovery House Meeting, you can still submit your questions for Governor Kaine and then share the video with your friends and family this weekend. Learn more here: http://my.barackobama.com/recovery

Paid for by Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee -- 430 South Capitol Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

...Flight attendants caught by surprise

Rohandra John Monday, February 2nd 2009

While checking passengers seated in the Economy Class of a United Airlines flight headed to Washington DC one February morning last year, Trinidad-born flight attendant Jair Massair did not expect to see Barack Obama. Massair and the other flight attendants were not aware that Obama, who at the time was beating the campaign trail, was going to be on the flight and were totally caught by surprise. Excitingly she rushed to tell her colleagues of her discovery. They urged her to invite Obama to sit in First Class instead, because they felt the Economy Class was not comfortable enough for the future president of the United States. Massair, with butterflies in her stomach, walked up to Obama who sat, studiously looking over his documents, and extended an invitation to him to sit in First Class. But he politely rejected the offer. "He said to me 'I only sit in First Class if it is absolutely necessary,' " she recounted to the Express, during a telephone interview from her Los Angeles home last week. Massair said she was taken aback by Obama's humbleness and it was one of the things that had impressed her the most. "He did not mind sitting and mingling with the passengers in Economy. The other senators who were with him on that same flight sat in First Class." She admitted that she also found him to be extremely "handsome" -she was not the only one. "My girlfriends were all busy fixing themselves and applying lipstick because he was on the plane," she said giggling. Before the trip was over Massair had asked Obama to take a photograph with her to which he willingly agreed. But little did she know that he was to be the next president of the United States, creating history as the first African- American to head the White House. Now she wants the whole world to know of her up-close encounter with the now very popular US president. Massair, who has been a flight attendant for the past three years, but has her sights set on becoming a Caribbean film writer and director some day, said meeting Obama was definitely her most memorable experience. "I've met popular person's before, because everybody flies, but meeting Obama was different. Even at that time he had a very strong presence that had you awe-struck ," she said. View source article in Trinidad Express

No laughing matter: Secret Renditions Still an Option for CIA

http://www.truthout.org/020109A
Greg Miller, The Los Angeles Times: "The CIA's secret prisons are being shuttered. Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits. And Guantanamo Bay will eventually go back to being a wind-swept naval base on the southeastern corner of Cuba. But even while dismantling these programs, President Obama left intact an equally controversial counter-terrorism tool. Under executive orders issued by Obama recently, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States."

Obama gets laughs at Alfalfa dinner

Obama said that in his first weeks as president, he has had to "engage in some of the toughest diplomacy of my life."

"And that was just to keep my BlackBerry," he said.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama poked fun Saturday night at his chief of staff and ribbed Washington's elite during a black-tie dinner at Alfalfa Club, a 93-year-old Washington social club.

Colin Powell chats with other guests at the Alfalfa dinner in Washington on Saturday night.

The first African-American president began by poking fun at the club's historical roots.

"I know that many you are aware that this dinner began almost 100 years ago as a way to celebrate the birthday of General Robert E. Lee," Obama said, referring to the man who commanded the Confederate army during the Civil War.

"If he were here with us tonight, the general would be 202 years old. And very confused."

The ceremony was closed to the media. But the White House released excerpts of the president's remarks.

The Alfalfa Club was started by four Southerners in Washington's Willard Hotel in 1913. Its sole purpose was an annual night out for the boys, and it took its name from a thirsty plant that sends its roots deep down looking for liquid refreshment.

The club remained exclusively open to men until 1994, when women were admitted as members.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, whom Obama defeated for the presidency, and McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, also attended the event.

Obama saved most of his ribbing for his chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel, who has a reputation for being quick to anger.

"Now, this hasn't been reported yet, but it was actually Rahm's idea to do the swearing-in ceremony again," he said. "Of course, for Rahm, every day is a swearing-in ceremony."

On the president's first full day in office, Chief Justice John Roberts re-administered the oath of office to Obama after they flubbed during the inauguration. Watch highlights of Obama's second week as president »

Obama said that in his first weeks as president, he has had to "engage in some of the toughest diplomacy of my life."

"And that was just to keep my BlackBerry," he said.

"I finally agreed to limit the number of people who could e-mail me. It's a very exclusive list. How exclusive? Everyone look at the person sitting on your left. Now look at the person sitting on your right. None of you have my e-mail address."

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Politico's behind the scenes look at the Alfalfa dinner

THE NATION'S ESTABLISHMENT (Don Graham, Chairman Harman, Michael Dell, Henry Kravitz) lined up last night to touch the garment of President Obama, or at least shake his hand, at the 96th anniversary dinner of The Alfalfa Club, one of the capital's most secretive and prestigious organizations. Everyone was there: George H.W. Bush, Sandra Day O'Connor, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr., hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. It's closed to press and off the record, but friends of Playbook report:

--The line to greet the President at the head table at the Capital Hilton was a breach of Alfalfa protocol, but was the latest reflection of the new President's star power. Even Fred Malek, the McCain's campaign's national finance chairman, joined the queue. The well-wishers KEPT BUMPING THE CHAIR OF SENATOR McCAIN, who was on the floor, two seats away from the head table.

--Senator McCain presented the Alfalfa Party's candidate for president of the United States: 'Vernon E. Jordan Jr. – the Washington insider who has advised every president since Lyndon Johnson. Gee, I wish he would have advised ME.'

--Chief Justice Roberts absolved himself of the botched oath-giving by offering to swear in Alfalfa's new president, then doing so WITH GIANT CUE CARDS.--From excerpts of the President's remarks released by the White House: 'This dinner began almost one hundred years ago as a way to celebrate the birthday of General Robert E. Lee. If he were here with us tonight, the General would be 202 years old -- and very confused. ... Now, this hasn't been reported yet, but it was actually Rahm's idea to do the swearing-in ceremony again. Of course, for Rahm, EVERY day is a swearing-in ceremony. But don't believe what you read. Rahm Emanuel is a real sweetheart. No, it's true. Every week the guy takes a little time away to give back to the community. Just last week he was at a local school, teaching profanity to poor children.'

--The President's great unreleased lines: 'I'm a casual admirer of Abraham Lincoln. ... [He should have seen] my inaugural: He never drew crowds like that. ... [To Senator Lieberman] No hard feelings because of the election. My door is always open. Feel free to drop by ANY SATURDAY AFTERNOON. ... [To Gov. Palin] I never expected you to be PALLING AROUND with THIS crowd. I want to congratulate you on your Golden Globe for '30 Rock.' .... [To Vernon Jordan] Just because a guy can give great speeches doesn't mean he's going to be a great president. ... I see Chief Justice Roberts is here to administer my daily oath of office. ... [On the similarity between Cheney and Biden] Dick Cheney is a man of few words. Joe Biden is also vice president. ... [On the delay in getting a dog] The labradoodle we picked has some problems with back taxes. ... [On 'a better way for our time' than blaming each other and passing the buck] I ask you to summon that spirit once more, and make future generations proud of what we did WHEN WE WERE TESTED BY HISTORY.'

--The Alfalfa Dinner has the nation's longest head table – 45 spots, including the First Lady, Mr. Emanuel, Speaker Pelosi, Mayor Fenty, plus various ambassadors, Cabinet secretaries, generals, admirals, senators, governors and Supreme Court justices.

--Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), the new Alfalfa president: 'Never before have so many, who have accomplished so much, traveled so far -- in coach. .... This is an august gathering. A newspaper recently published a list of the 25 people most responsible for the global economic meltdown. You know who you are. And it's good to see you here tonight. ... I plan to follow Barack Obama's model, and diminish the role of the Vice President. ... If our president didn't know then, he sure does now: Joe Biden is the reason Amtrak invented the quiet car. ... Also, I'm a little frustrated: I didn't get to pick my VP. Instead, a group of people walked into my office and told me who it would be. Now I know how John McCain felt.'

--Sen. Joe Lieberman, outgoing president, concluded his introduction by saying: 'I have the high honor to ... issue an order that neither my mother, nor my father, nor my rabbi ever dreamed I would be able to issue: BRING ON THE LOBSTER.' (That would be the lobster Navarin in puff pastry with royal trumpet mushrooms and star anis.)

--More from Senator Lieberman: 'We had hoped Vice President Cheney would be here tonight. I hope it's not his back injury that's keeping him away. Apparently, he hurt it moving some things out of his office. Personally, I had no idea that waterboards were so heavy. ... I was so close [to being McCain's vice president]: As close as Alaska is to Russia. ... I hear that President Obama will soon be visiting the Washington offices of the New York Times as part of his search for a new house of Worship ... On the other hand, I appreciated your humility when you chose not to arrive at your Inaugural ceremony by walking across the reflecting pool..'

--Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is the group's new vice president.

--Mr. Malek was the host for Sarah Palin, who was looking relaxed and hot. At the pre-dinner reception by Allbritton Communications Co. (Politico's parent), she towered over Don Rumsfeld as they spoke.

--Upon spying super-lawyer Robert Barnett, one of his well-off clients got down on one knee in genuflection.

Herbert Hoover Lives

By NY Times Op-Ed columnist FRANK RICH
Published: January 31, 2009

HERE’S a bottom line to keep you up at night: The economy is falling faster than Washington can get moving. President Obama says his stimulus plan will save or create four million jobs in two years. In the last four months of 2008 alone, employment fell by 1.9 million. Do the math.

The abyss is widening. Of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones industrial index, 22 have announced job cuts since October. Unemployment is up in all 50 states, with layoffs at both high-tech companies (Microsoft) and low (Caterpillar). The December job loss in retailing is the worst since at least 1939. The new-home sales rate has fallen to its all-time low since record-keeping began in 1963.

What are Americans still buying? Big Macs, Campbell’s soup, Hershey’s chocolate and Spam — the four food groups of the apocalypse.

The crisis is at least as grave as the one that confronted us — and, for a time, united us — after 9/11. Which is why the antics among Republicans on Capitol Hill seem so surreal. These are the same politicians who only yesterday smeared the patriotism of any dissenters from Bush’s “war on terror.” Where is their own patriotism now that economic terror is inflicting far more harm on their constituents than Saddam Hussein’s nonexistent W.M.D.?

The House stimulus bill is an inevitably imperfect hodgepodge-in-progress. Obama’s next move, a new plan to prevent the collapse of America’s banks, may prove more problematic still, especially given the subpar record of the new Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, in warding off calamity while at the New York Fed. No one should expect the Republicans to give the new president carte blanche, fall blindly into lock step or be “post-partisan.” (Though that’s exactly what the G.O.P. demanded of Democrats with Bush: You were either with him or with the terrorists.)

But you might think that a loyal opposition would want to pitch in and play a serious role at a time of national peril. Not by singing “Kumbaya” but by collaborating on possible solutions and advancing a policy debate that many Americans’ lives depend on. As Raymond Moley, of F.D.R.’s brain trust, said of the cross-party effort at the harrowing start of that presidency in March 1933, Hoover and Roosevelt acolytes “had forgotten to be Republicans or Democrats” as they urgently tried to rescue their country.

The current G.O.P. acts as if it — and we — have all the time in the world. It kept hoping in vain that the fast-waning Blago sideshow would somehow impale Obama or Rahm Emanuel. It has come perilously close to wishing aloud that a terrorist attack will materialize to discredit Obama’s reversals of Bush policy on torture, military tribunals and Gitmo. The party’s sole consistent ambition is to play petty politics to gum up the works.

If anything, the Republican Congressional leadership seems to be emulating John McCain’s September stunt of “suspending” his campaign to “fix” the Wall Street meltdown. For all his bluster, McCain in the end had no fixes to offer and sat like a pet rock at the White House meeting on the crisis before capitulating to the bailout. His imitators likewise posture in public about their determination to take action, then do nothing while more and more Americans cry for help.

The problem is not that House Republicans gave the stimulus bill zero votes last week. That’s transitory political symbolism, and it had no effect on the outcome. Some of the naysayers will vote for the revised final bill anyway (and claim, Kerry-style, that they were against it before they were for it). The more disturbing problem is that the party has zero leaders and zero ideas. It is as AWOL in this disaster as the Bush administration was during Katrina.

If the country wasn’t suffering, the Republicans’ behavior would be a laugh riot. The House minority leader, John Boehner, from the economic wasteland of Ohio, declared on “Meet the Press” last Sunday that the G.O.P. didn’t want to be “the party of ‘No’ ” but “the party of better ideas, better solutions.” And what are those ideas, exactly? He said he’ll get back to us “over the coming months.”

His deputy, the Virginia congressman Eric Cantor, has followed the same script, claiming that the G.O.P. will not be “the party of ‘No’ ” but will someday offer unspecified “solutions and alternatives.” Not to be left out, the party’s great white hope, Sarah Palin, unveiled a new political action committee last week with a Web site also promising “fresh ideas.” But as the liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas Zúniga observed, the site invites visitors to make donations and read Palin hagiography while offering no links to any ideas, fresh or otherwise.

For its own contribution to this intellectual void, the Republican National Committee convened last week under a new banner, “Republican for a Reason.” Perhaps that unidentified reason will be determined by a panel of judges on a TV reality show. It had better be brilliant given that only five states (with 20 total electoral votes) now lean red in party affiliation, according to Gallup. At this rate the G.O.P. will be in Alf Landon territory by 2012.

The Republicans do have one idea, of course, but it’s hardly fresh: more and bigger tax cuts, particularly for business and the well-off. That’s the sum of their “alternative” stimulus plan. Obama has tried to accommodate this panacea, perhaps to a fault. Mainstream economists in both parties believe that tax cuts in the stimulus package will deliver far less bang for the buck than, say, infrastructure spending. The tax-cut stimulus embraced a year ago by the G.O.P. induced next-to-no consumer spending as Americans merely banked the savings or paid down debt.

We also now know conclusively that the larger Bush tax cuts, besides running up record deficits and exacerbating income inequality, were also at best a placebo on our road to ruin. In a January survey of economists, including former McCain advisers like Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Mark Zandi, The Washington Post determined that the job growth the Bush administration kept bragging about (“52 straight months!”) was a mirage inflated by the housing bubble. Job growth — about 2 percent — was in fact the most tepid of any eight-year period “since data collection began seven decades ago.” Gross domestic product grew at a slower pace than in any eight years since the Truman administration.

But even if tax cuts alone could jump-start a recovery, they couldn’t do the heavy lifting that Obama has promised and the country desperately needs: a down payment on a new economy to replace our dilapidated 20th-century model and bring back long-term growth. The Republicans don’t acknowledge the need for this transformation, or debate it in good conscience, preferring instead to hyperventilate over the contraceptives in a small family-planning program since removed from the stimulus bill. All it takes is the specter of condoms for the party of Vitter, Foley and Craig to go gaga.

The Republicans’ other preoccupation remains Rush Limbaugh, who is by default becoming their de facto leader. While most Americans are fearing fear itself, G.O.P. politicians are tripping over themselves in morbid terror of Rush.

These pratfalls commenced after Obama casually told some Republican congressmen (correctly) that they won’t “get things done” if they take their orders from Limbaugh. That’s all the stimulus the big man needed to go on a new bender of self-aggrandizement. He boasted that Obama is “more frightened” of him than he is of the Republican leaders in the House or Senate. He said of the new president, “I hope he fails.”

Obama no doubt finds Limbaugh’s grandiosity more amusing than frightening, but G.O.P. politicians are shaking like Jell-O. When asked by Andrea Mitchell of NBC News on Wednesday if he shared Limbaugh’s hope that Obama fails, Eric Cantor spun like a top before running off, as it happened, to appear on Limbaugh’s radio show. Mike Pence of Indiana, No. 3 in the Republican House leadership, similarly squirmed when asked if he agreed with Limbaugh. Though the Republicans’ official, poll-driven line is that they want Obama to succeed, they’d rather abandon that disingenuous nicety than cross Rush.

Most pathetic of all was Phil Gingrey, a right-wing Republican congressman from Georgia, who mildly criticized both Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to Politico because they “stand back and throw bricks” while lawmakers labor in the trenches. So many called Gingrey’s office to complain that the poor congressman begged Limbaugh to bring him on air to publicly recant on Wednesday. As Gingrey abjectly apologized to talk radio’s commandant for his “stupid comments” and “foot-in-mouth disease,” he sounded like the inmate in a B-prison-movie cowering before the warden after a failed jailbreak.

“It’s up to me to hijack the Obama honeymoon,” Limbaugh soon gloated, “and I’ve done it.” In his dreams. He has hijacked what’s left of the Republican Party; the Obama honeymoon remains intact. The nightmare is that we have so irrelevant, clownish and childish an opposition party at a moment when America is in an all-hands-on-deck emergency that’s as trying as war. To paraphrase a dictum that has been variously attributed to two of our most storied leaders in times of great challenge, Thomas Paine and George Patton, the Republicans should either lead, follow or get out of the grown-ups’ way.

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