Our good friend Barely Partisan decided to help us start the new year with a bang. As usual, his insight from atop the Hill provides us with a lil bit of perspective on what's being talked about in the cloakrooms at the Capitol. We now yield the floor to the distinguished gentleman from the Beltway.
The United States is engaged in two wars, the Middle East is embroiled in a conflict that is as traditional as it is alarming, and our economy is not getting any better soon. However, our news media this week dedicated a disproportionate amount of time to concocting a story: President-elect Obama's 2009 mis-steps. The real spotlight should have been on Congress.
While it is true that the working conditions of the Obama team have changed, they have adapted rather well to Washington so far. With a hefty dose of hubris, which is forgivable given the margin of victory, they have crafted a star studded cabinet. In the last few days, we have seen the media turn too much attention towards embellishing the few perceived mis-steps the Obamians have made. Let's take a look, because it is not the Obamians who are at fault.
First, Barack Obama won with a larger margin than President Clinton... ever did. It was an Electoral College landslide that showed his coattails in every state besides Tennessee, yet he still wants Republican support for his economic stimulus. Trust me, he does not need it, and Republicans are frankly flattered he is still offering tax cuts. He spent the last two months calling them individually and wooing them; now he is going to ask for their votes and ideas. While that sounds like a campaign promise fulfilled, we see now that Democrats miss his attention. They want the Obama stimulus to be theirs, and now they want to amend it, tinker with the tax cut, and frankly slow down the process. Bottom-line: he ran, he won, and now they need to get in line. Sure Congress is a co-equal branch of government, but that is only really true when the President and the Congress are from different parties. It is likely that congressional Democrats will cause the President-elect more heartburn than will the loyal opposition as we get started. That's not his mis-step, that's House Speaker Nancy Pelosi losing a grip on her gavel and Sen. Reid just being himself.
Next, if there was a story, it was the withdrawal of Governor Richardson from Secretary of Commerce contention because of a grand jury investigation. Sure, he should have known we would all find out about this earlier, but neither was he was not forthcoming nor did the Obamians do their homework. So, he pulled his nomination, turning a molehill into a mountain. However, I am almost glad he did. He was overqualified to head the Commerce Department anyway. If he was the "one" all Latinos wanted to have a hefty role in the new Administration, they should all be clamoring. (How can you tell if a government post is important? Name people that had the job before. How many secretaries of commerce can you name? Slim pickings after Ron Brown, right? Maybe that post isn't so important, right? OK.) However, instead of more attention given to the governor, he became a cog in the perceived Obama unwinding wheel this week. This time, the media just chasing the wrong story.
Last but not least, Obamians want Leon Penetta to head the CIA. Good for them; when you win an election, you get to decide who works for you. The Senate gets to advise and consent. However, incoming Select Intelligence Committee chairwoman Diane Feinstein made a media event of the fact that she was not consulted. Fine. Even if no one called her, does she want to tell the media that? Why didn't she just call the Obamians to express her outrage? Attention. It wasn't that the former congressman and Clinton White House chief of staff isn't qualified. So, instead of waiting on her turn to give consent at the confirmation hearings, she takes her case to the media. Embarassing the man whom will become her president and painting a bleaker picture of herself, Sen. Feinstein added to the media frenzy that the President-elect is stumbling at the start.
There are lots of legitimate stories that the media could focus on in this process, but it just seems like they are hell-bent on reaching for stories that are shallow. The Obamians are going to get their economic plan because he has the mandate, and congressional Dems would be stupid to allow the Republicans to deliver the President-elect the votes while they struggle to handle the change they asked for. Richardson will probably be indicted sometime in the distant future, but that is not the story. The story was that Labor and Commerce was all a loyal constituency received for delivering the election. If Latino voters ever wake up to realize that, then the Obama electoral victory map will become a dinosaur. The problems with the Penetta appointment are contrived, and in the future Sen. Feinstein should use the phone not a press release. The real attention should be paid to the unfair grilling that Attorney General designate Eric Holder will receive next week. So, while there are stories out there, to say that the President-elect is fumbling early is not one. To say that congressional Democrats are victims of their own success (that they received only as Obama carried them) is really the way of looking at it. In the long run, they will only hurt themselves: no one can hurt a Democrat like a Democrat.
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