"... are spilling out into public, and how resigned many seem that the relationship will never improve,"
reports the NYT.
In private meetings, Mr. Reid’s chief of staff, David Krone, has voiced regular dismay to lawmakers and top aides about White House operations and competency across a range of issues, according to several Democrats on Capitol Hill....
Asked to characterize his relationship with the president, [Senator Joe Manchin III, of West Virginia], a centrist Democrat who has often been a bridge builder in the Senate, said: “It’s fairly nonexistent. There’s not much of a relationship.”
Few senators feel a personal connection to the president.
ADDED: This article is another sign that the media agenda refocused onto 2016 and Hillary Clinton. Note the 3 references to Bill Clinton:
Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat, said that compared with Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Mr. Obama “is more self-contained, less gregarious.”...
Unlike Mr. Clinton, who worked hard as a candidate to court every Democrat he could...
Mr. Obama would never be a “creature of Washington” like Mr. Clinton. “I don’t think that was ever in the cards, and I still don’t,” Mr. Durbin said.
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57 comments:
What more do you want from the Chosen One? You want him to lift his exalt divine hand and pat you on your head? He's already given the order and his speeches. You (the Democrats) are supposed to carry out his divine will to the best of your ability. You will NOT question him in anyway.
Harry Reid and Barack Obama. History will not be kind even when they die as rich men.
Our "pragmatic" president in action.
It only took them six years?
Not very perceptive for the "World's Greatest Deliberative body".
Shortcomings?!?
....and to think that just six years ago, he was the smartest man in the room!!
One of Harry Reid's Dobermans is not my idea of a reliable source. Harry Reid's Senate has ducked nearly every tough issue and demagogued whenever possible. Reid is a far greater disgrace than Obama, and it's hardly surprising that his staff (and through them he) are acting disloyally to Obama.
And the New York Times can not come out and say what they apparently think in an editorial, so they put it out there in a news story quoting second level players.
Weasels all.
But he is the Dear Leader. Congress persons know they are left the unpleasant task of explaining where the Dear Leader lead us to after it's too late.
Why anyone complains about dire poverty, runaway inflation, food price riots, famine and plagues following lived out in a wind powered electrical grid that fails us despite three times the cost are just ignorant as the Congress persons they elected.
Dear Leader has to Lead.
I do not know that Harry Reid or his staff should be the ones to complain about Mr. Obama being a poor political communicator.
I do not know how it happened, but Harry Reid seems to rule the Senate more autocratically than Lyndon Johnson ever hoped to, and LBJ worked hard at it, while Harry Reid just is.
Watch them run away from the President. I mean, any Democrat who wants to be re-elected has to be reading the tea leaves.
Mr. Reid’s chief of staff, David Krone, has voiced regular dismay to lawmakers and top aides about White House operations and competency across a range of issues, according to several Democrats on Capitol Hill....
No one that works for Reid has any right to talk about anyone else's competency on any issue...
and for no apparent reason.
Shortly after the healthcare cramdown in 2009 his fellow Dems started to inch away. At first they made dismissive comments about how their particular race didn't warrant the president's attention, and then after the 2010 debacle it was clear other Dems were actively voicing linking themselves or their policies with the president. Then the elder members of his party started retiring, choosing to leave the job rather be faced with wrathful voters or a petulant chief executive. This off-year election is proving more of the same.
So now, FIVE YEARS into the slow-walk away from Mr. Heal-the-Oceans the NYT deigns the matter worth noticing? Yet another reason the "paper of record" has become just another failing enterprise in the Democrat-Industrial-Media complex.
The third line should read "avoiding" not "voicing" but I failed to catch it. Could be Obama's fault.
Why would Obama bother working with Congressional Democrats?
He knows nothing significant is going to get passed by a divided Congress. He knows the odds of Democrats retaking the House this year are essentially nil. He has already stated his intention of relying on executive orders in lieu of legislation. He knows Senate Democrats will vote for his nominees even if he ignores them.
So what's there to talk about?
At this point it is painfully obvious that the President knows only one card trick...agitate to divide.
Uniting people is simply not in his skill set.
LarsPorsena: "It only took them six years?"
My assumption is it only took them six months, but they waited until it was safe to start looking ahead to the *next* liberal messiah, before they started deprecating this one.
You have to be careful not to undermine the current Great Leader, unless it's part of your strategy to get people hyped for the next Great Leader.
Obama should have realized himself that he shouldn't be President. Failing that, someone in the Party should have.
Durbin's comment was redundant in the same sentence.
Joe Manchin (D-Coal Country) is going to be asked to leave the Senate. He's in a position that requires he talk ill of President Obama because he's going to lose in November.
The inclusion of the Reid staffer is to give Manchin cover. Now the article is about many democrats moving away from President Obama. If it were only Manchin, it would be too naked a political move.
Also, the inclusion of the Reid staffer makes it obvious to the NYT that this is a negative story that the NYT should run. The staffer is signalling the paper that it wants the story run.
Because Joe Manchin is going to lose.
If I were a cartoonist, I would draw a picture of Obama's Vaunted Bus driving over a big pile of still moist, wet horse manure and splashing it all over Hillary and her campaign wagon.
Cause any dem candidate in 2016 will be smeared and hindered by the Obama's piss-poor prez performance.
@Birkel, Manchin won his reelection in 2012 and will not be up for reelection until 2018. Friends in West Virginia tell me that Manchin is wildly popular in the state.
The 2014 Senatorial election in West Virginia is to fill an open seat. This election is interesting because it pits two women against each other: Shelley Moore Capito is the Republican and she enjoys a double-digit lead over Democrat Natalie Tennant. Tennant has been reported to want Elizabeth Warren to come to West Virginia to campaign for her -- apparently in the hope that out of work mineworkers (thanks to Obama's war on coal policies) will listen to a prog who is even more against coal-fired plants than Obama is.
Lotsa luck with that one, Natalie.
Mr. Obama would never be a “creature of Washington” like Mr. Clinton. “I don’t think that was ever in the cards, and I still don’t,” Mr. Durbin said.
Hard to get much higher praise than this.
Reid is a racist who claimed Justice Thomas' opinions were poorly written. These damn Democrat racists and their staffers make me sick.
The fact this jerk is in a leadership position means the racism in the Democratic Party never ends and is celebrated by the Satanist freaks.
America needs to do better if she is to live up to her (attainable) ideals.
What is he hiding? That is a question I have had since he ran in 2008. And I don't mean the BC.
notquiteunBuckley,
Reid is a racist who claimed Justice Thomas' opinions were poorly written.
It was worse than that. He said that Thomas' opinion in a particular case was at the level of "an eighth-grade dissertation," while Scalia's was brilliant. IIRC, Thomas wrote a one-graf concurrence in the case, and Scalia didn't write at all.
ETA:
http://www.volokh.com/posts/chain_1104865807.shtml
Never a creature of Washington?
How about a creature of Palookaville, State of Klutz?
"Hard to get much higher praise than this."
Oh, there are plenty of putzes in the hinterland, too.
Who writes a "dissertation" in 8th grade?
Thank you for the info MDT.
ARM: "Hard to get much higher praise than this."
Strange comment indeed from someone whose political desires require the total consolidation of political power at the federal level.
Big Mike:
Thank you for the correction.
You are right as to the year.
But I believe an off-year election in WV sees Manchin lose the next time he's up.
The old theory of Obama as Narcissist has a ridiculous amount of explanatory power.
Obama is pathologically averse to situations where he can be exposed as less than perfect or judged and found wanting. That manifests as being aloof and above it all. He avoids interactions with equals, briefings, or the normal give and take of negotiations.
I bet that David is among the 12% that believe the IRS too.
Obama didn't fail to court Washington pols--Washington pols failed to court him! This magical genius was just too pure for the dirty world.
It's normal for Republicans to complain and grumble about a Republican president.
It's only Democrats who can't think for themselves.
As Prof. Althouse's post perceptively notes, this isn't really about dumping on the old guy, who'll be even more emasculated next year than he is now (yes, I know, that's a clumsy metaphor, but it's late and you get my point), and will be gone two years after that. This is prepping for the new guy, or gal. Even if it's not Hillary!, the Dem. candidate has to persuade some non-base voters that the disaster of the Obama Presidency was the fault of Obama's personality, or lack of political skills, or something -- just not the fact that liberal policies don't work.
But I do hope that Obama's disastrous performance will lead some well-meaning people, who should have known better, to think twice before voting for a feel-good ersatz messiah in 2016. You know who I'm talking to.
Brando, there no one his equal. He'd be better if he ran everything remember? Better chief of staff, yada yada.
"Mr. Obama would never be a “creature of Washington” like Mr. Clinton. “I don’t think that was ever in the cards, and I still don’t,” Mr. Durbin said.
Hard to get much higher praise than this."
This is a rare time when I agree with you. The problem is that the praise is similar to the praise of Jimmy Carter in his first two years.'
Democrats who are not "creatures of Washington" are failures. No surprise that you would miss that,.
Serious Race Men aren't out glad-handing DC's transparent political natives, getting drunk in public, and falling all over themselves to corral the usual perks being an asshole brings whites. (He's the President, come on.) They don't even trust white Democrats. Ah, white supremacy. Such a nasty business.
Have you noticed whites can't reach him, but he's spoken with Ta-Nahisi Coates a few times? Author of The Case For Reparations? The President? How much you wanna bet Eric Holder's read it, too?
Obama's disengaged? Please. How many times have I made the point that, just because whites say something is important, that doesn't mean it is?
How many "phony scandals" have you guys chased - for months or years - while blacks yawned?
We've watched you. Examining nothing, from every angle, like homeopaths at the office.
And you think, because Obama doesn't join you, he's not paying attention. You forget something:
A major part of the 4-century black experience is merely watching what whites "do."
And, just as Darren Wilson did, I think Obama's letting whites do what they'll do:
Smearing the dead, turning tragedy into politics, treating blacks crudely, and basically blowing their game.
Eric Holder sees "a nation of cowards" - Obama's got him on the Michael Brown case. Why? They're cowards.
And Michael Brown's become a curious symbol:
Whether a college-bound student on his way to visit his grandmother with a friend, or an intimidating thug stealing cigars from a local convenience store, he appears to be "innocent."
Why? How? Come on, white people, THINK!
“On May 4, 1970, National Guard troops killed four students and wounded nine others on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio. This tragedy was burned into the collective memory of most Americans who lived through those turbulent times.
Eleven days after the Kent State shooting, another shooting incident occurred on a college campus. But unlike Kent State, the shooting at historically Black Jackson State University in Mississippi, has not received the same attention from historians. After a night of racial unrest in the city, dozens of city and state police officers unloaded more than 460 rounds of gunfire into Alexander Hall on the campus of Jackson State University,...every window on one side of the building was hit by police gunfire. Two students were killed and 12 were injured. Despite an investigation by the FBI,...no charges were ever filed in the case.”
Ahem.
“On February 18, 1965, a civil-rights worker named James Orange was arrested in Marion, Alabama,..
That night, four hundred people gathered in Zion’s Chapel Methodist Church, in Marion, and prepared to walk to the jail, about a block away, and sing freedom songs. They left the church at nine-thirty and ran into a police blockade. Ordered to disperse, they were attacked by fifty or more state troopers and other law-enforcement officials wielding clubs. Street lights had been turned off or shot out; white vigilantes were on the scene; reporters were attacked and cameras were smashed. No photographic record of the night survives.”
Um-hm.
“A few weeks ago I received an anxious text from my wife informing me that a group of young men were fighting outside of our apartment building.
My wife wanted to know what she should do. She was not worried about her own safety—boys like this are primarily a threat to each other. What my wife wanted was someone who could save them young men from themselves, some power which would disperse the boys in a fashion that would not escalate things, some power. No such power exists. I told my wife to stay inside and do nothing. I did not tell her to call the police. If you have watched the events of this past week, you may have some idea why.”
Overseers.
HR40 will be reintroduced in January,...
We are being told that Michael Brown attacked an armed man and tried to take his gun. The people who are telling us this hail from that universe where choke-holds are warm-fuzzies, where boys discard their skittles yelling, "You're gonna die tonight," and possess the power to summon and banish shotguns from the ether. These are the necessary myths of our country, and without them we are subject to the awful specter of history, and that is just too much for us to bear.
I prove this, here, every day,...
Reid is a far greater disgrace than Obama
That was my take, too.
Mr. Reid complained that Senate Republicans were spitefully blocking the confirmation of dozens of Mr. Obama’s nominees to serve as ambassadors. He expected that the president would back him up and urge Mr. McConnell to relent.
Oh yeah, cause telling Republicans they are spiteful and mean works wonders. Always has. Just call us spiteful and mean!
Apparently Harry Reid's master plan of persuasion is to get the New York Times to tell Obama to call the Republicans spiteful and mean. "I just need some authority to tell the Republicans they are spiteful and mean! But he's too damn detached to do it."
What's really dumb is leaking this story (and it's so obvious Harry Reid is the leak) to the NYT. What is that thought process?
"If the NYT tells Obama that the Republicans are spiteful and mean, he will tell the Republicans they are spiteful and mean, and then something will be done! I'm not sure what. Damn I want to go nuclear again. But first I want to call that NYT reporter and blast him for not calling the Republicans mean. He said they were spiteful. But how could he leave out mean! Mean and spiteful, mean and spiteful. I was very clear on that."
Mr. Obama quickly dismissed the matter.
“You and Mitch work it out,” Mr. Obama said coolly, cutting off any discussion.
"And he's on a first name basis with the Republicans! Calling him 'Mitch' like we are buddies or something. Spiteful and mean! I distinctly said spiteful and mean. Put that in the paper, damn it. Spiteful and mean."
You got to be brilliant to leak a story that makes you look bad.
Imagine if Joe Biden was Senate Majority leader and Harry Reid was Vice-President. The Vice Presidency would be a warm bucket of piss that Harry Reid throws on Republicans at every opportunity. More piss for you!
Meanwhile, the Senate would be a happy and congenial place, with beer summits every Friday and ambassadors getting confirmed.
Serious men scroll right past the bleatings of deranged hate filled bigots.
Good Lord. Who voted for the incompetent boob?
"...on the superficial basis of looks, dress, and patois, Obama was reassuring to a particular class of white guilt-ridden grandees and to such a degree that what he actually had done in the past or promised to do in the future was of no particular importance.
Now I understand.
The Crack Emcee wrote:
"They don't even trust white Democrats."
Query:
What work does the word "even" do in that sentence? It's an astounding admission by The Crack Emcee that he sees Democrats as the natural ally of blacks, even as he rails against all whites, despite the long and tortured history of Democrat racism.
That history is too well known to need repeating, of course. But repeat a short bit of it I will.
The JIm Crow South was dominated by the Democrat party. Allegiance to Democrats was hereditary. LBJ was an avowed racist who spoke in racialized language. Vice President Biden has at some length talked about blacks, latinos and asians in racialized terms -- even President Obama when he was candidate Obama.
Through all that the word "even" is used to describe The Crack Emcee's (and in this case he is representative of a vast majority of blacks) feelings toward Republicans. This means that Republicans must do a better job relating concern for the history blacks perceive which simply is not so. That means a refutation of the lies Democrats tell to keep the voting patterns of American blacks static. But it also means acknowledging the unfounded fears of blacks in emotional language that peels off support for the Democrat party.
And all that in the face of a determined MSM that will not easily yield control of the narrative that Democrats use to unjustly enrich themselves to the detriment of Americans -- blacks and whites.
Birkel,
"What work does the word "even" do in that sentence?"
Race Men don't "even" trust Democrats - the people white racists scream are our "natural ally" - it just proves they know nothing about blacks.
"It's an astounding admission by The Crack Emcee that he sees Democrats as the natural ally of blacks, even as he rails against all whites, despite the long and tortured history of Democrat racism."
The President is black - and a Democrat - and he doesn't trust them. And you're not too bright.
"That history is too well known to need repeating, of course. But repeat a short bit of it I will."
The part about Republicans adopting The Southern Strategy - will you tell that one next?
"The JIm Crow South was dominated by the Democrat party."
I wonder if Republicans know when they're patronizing, and if they would stop if they knew no one will vote for a group that's dumb enough to talk to people like this?
"Allegiance to Democrats was hereditary."
Obviously, based on this speech you're making, so was fucking your sister.
"LBJ was an avowed racist who spoke in racialized language."
And took the blacks away from the Republicans, which is why you're whining like a stuck pig.
"Vice President Biden has at some length talked about blacks, latinos and asians in racialized terms -- even President Obama when he was candidate Obama."
Awww - Birkel noticed this is America and whites are gross. Just not Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, and the other people who offend blacks more than Democrats, etc.
"Through all that the word "even" is used to describe The Crack Emcee's (and in this case he is representative of a vast majority of blacks) feelings toward Republicans."
That's right - we don't "even" trust Democrats. Despite white Republicans claiming they're our lovers and saviors, no - blacks are our lovers and saviors.
"This means that Republicans must do a better job relating concern for the history blacks perceive which simply is not so."
Now he's calling my parents liars. Great strategy for winning my vote, there, Berk.
"That means a refutation of the lies Democrats tell to keep the voting patterns of American blacks static."
Sure, start with red-lining and work your way back through time, to whites raping blacks and making us have really light skin. Is that true?
"But it also means acknowledging the unfounded fears of blacks in emotional language that peels off support for the Democrat party."
Yep - don't change a thing but "emotional language" - we'll never notice. Geez.
"And all that in the face of a determined MSM that will not easily yield control of the narrative that Democrats use to unjustly enrich themselves to the detriment of Americans -- blacks and whites."
That's right - we're all going to crush you, Berk:
Just as I always said,...
Michael K said...
This is a rare time when I agree with you. The problem is that the praise is similar to the praise of Jimmy Carter in his first two years.'
Democrats who are not "creatures of Washington" are failures. No surprise that you would miss that,.
You seem befuddled by the meaning of the word 'agreement'.
Dictators don't need legislators.
"But I do hope that Obama's disastrous performance will lead some well-meaning people, who should have known better, to think twice before voting for a feel-good ersatz messiah in 2016. You know who I'm talking to."
Remember the motto of the American progressive: "This time it will be different! What we're trying has just never been done right before by anybody!
Once you notice that Obama has decided to rule by decree you will understand why he ignores the legislature, and judiciary and public opinion as well.
Mental health issues are no laughing matter.
He's not a creature of anything except himself. Not Washington, not Illinois, not the University. Just himself.
Oh, wait, "Himself". My bad. The Secret Police catch things like that. . . . .
Referencing the only other living two-term president isn't really a sly pivot.
Heyooyeh:
Did either Bill Clinton or George W. Bush die?
"How many "phony scandals" have you guys chased - for months or years - while blacks yawned? "
Dont same blacks yawn even more when the school teacher tried to explain to them how to do math? As I remember, very few black students know basic math, mane can't graduate from American high school, and even those who do, often lack basic math skills.
So their yawning does not strike me as something special.
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