Transcending the Pettiness

Obama tried to kill two birds with one stone today. He has been accused of not listening to the GOP's ideas, so he had a meeting with their leadership today. He's also been accused of not meeting the White House press corpse of late, so he met them to discuss meeting the GOP. His theme--"transcending petty politics".

Good deal. Maybe he's starting to listen to Rahmbo. Tacking right could inject some stability into the business climate and allow expansion. Coupled with some targeted tax cuts it might save our investments, the economy, and his presidency to boot.

But if he's really serious about transcending petty politics why send Gibbs out to mock Palin at the outset? If the "purpose is important" shouldn't Gibbs be spending more time with the family soon?

As to the actual presser, the WH press corpse showed they weren't missed over the past six months. Not one question about terrorism, and this after his deputy NSA all but called GOP'ers treasonous for complaining about Abdulmichelob. Or did Brennan chill the air? Here's his comment, from earlier in the day:

Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill. They will, however, be dismantled and destroyed, by our military, our intelligence services and our law enforcement community. And the notion that America's counterterrorism professionals and America's system of justice are unable to handle these murderous miscreants is absurd.

Nice strawman; nobody is saying we shouldn't use all our tools, just that the administration was all over the map and lied, and it still took about a month to get anything, and they might have made a plea deal, etc.

That's why it would have been nice had somebody asked Obama to explain the reason he's trying the Cole bombers in a military commission if Article III courts are so wonderful. Or how KSM can get a fair trial after the POTUS and his subordinates have already proclaimed him guilty in the press and sentenced him to meet judgment with Allah soon.

Obama even played with the reporters at the end, asking for one more question, which was again about health care, so he broke down and took one more, which was on jobs. All pretty much softballs with typical filibluster answers. It was so tame he ended with:

All right? Thank you, guys. That was pretty good, thanks.

A solid B+, maybe? Did 'pretty good' also include Gibbs' opening act hand puppet?

Doing the Job

This is making the rounds today. Funny, the headline, "White House reporters hector Press Secretary" should be a dog bites man headline. Instead it's the reverse.

Click to view.

Thomas' comment was as follows:

..the point is, the control from here, we have never had that in the White House.

She said "from here", meaning the press office. That produced a few laughs, to which Gibbs immediately seized upon in an effort to wiggle out of his rope but Thomas amended and continued her assault:

I'm amazed at you people, who call for openness and transparency..

Of course she believes the administration is not being liberal enough but she serves a noble purpose--if Helen Thomas is charging them with being more controlling than Bush then they have a problem.

The question is whether the outburst was an aberration of something real. Does it mark a new tone in the press room, one reminiscent of the Bush or Reagan years? Have some in the press room finally awakened to realize their job isn't to sit laughing at Gibbs' goofy humor while scribbling talking points but to actually challenge him?

Whatever the case, with the House locked up and a super-majority in the Senate (and with an opposition party that's a pitiful cartoon of itself) the press corps is the only body standing between Obama and the truth (most bloggers don't count). Let's hope this fire spreads.