Remember how the Clintons used to rent the Lincoln Bedroom out to fat cat donors? And then how Bush came in and cleaned the place up and kicked out all the lobbyists and made us all proud again? Well, Obama’s turning out to be even worse than Clinton.
I can’t wait til Tim Pawlenty gets in and restores some dignity to the place.
gizmo
I notice that article is in the Washington Post. There was a time when my immediate reaction wouldn’t have been so cynical about the reliability of the report. Nowadays, I have no idea what to believe, given that our major news sources like the Post and the NY Times have been so badly discredited.
schrodinger's cat
Remember how the Clintons used to rent the Lincoln Bedroom out to fat cat donors?
Hey don’t make fun of Tunch. He is off-limits.
BFR
Pikers. Why rent out just the Lincoln bedroom when you can rent out the entire White House.
/Cheney
cleek
nine out of ten GOP lizard-brains agree: evil black man is evil!
LD50
It’s fascinating how for Republicans, 2001-2008 just never happened.
Svensker
Because there was absolutely NO relationship between being a rich contributor and the visitors to George W. Bush’s White House. I mean, why would Dubya or Darth give special access to rich oil men, or Enron folks, or, well, you get the idea. Never happened.
Sasha
Democratic donors are getting hosed.
When a Dem president is in office, a large donation will get them a night in the White House. When a Repub president in in office, a large donation will let them write legislation.
cleek
at least they’re recycling!
asiangrrlMN
Great. Now Ratface Pawlenty is going to be the punchline to every joke until the next prez election. Super.
anonevent
They’re just jealous that Obama has friends that aren’t trying to stab him in the back. Or maybe not jealous, maybe they’re disappointed.
Martin
Didn’t the Bush White House invite a gay prostitute to come in on a daily basis?
I guess when the WH pays for the visitors it’s a different story.
beltane
During the Bush inauguration I clearly remember Cokie Robert’s breathless swooning about the “adults” being back in charge and the “mystique of the Bush family”. The beltway media loves Republicans because they are as soulless and empty-headed as they are.
How will we rid ourselves of these simpering, vacuous courtiers?
bemused
I really, really wish you hadn’t put the image of Pawlenty in the WH in my mind. As much as I can’t wait to see the last of that smirking, arrogant mean-hearted bastard as guv, the thought of him actually in the WH is making me queasy.
DougJ
During the Bush inauguration I clearly remember Cokie Robert’s breathless swooning about the “adults” being back in charge and the “mystique of the Bush family”. The beltway media loves Republicans because they are as soulless and empty-headed as they are.
You know, now that I try to pay some attention to what people say on those Sunday shows, as awful at they are, Cokie is much worse than the vast majority of the other idiots.
My usual response to what the pundits say is “that’s really dumb” but with Cokie, it’s “she can’t be serious.”
valdivia
I think this calls for an investigation. This is white water people. get outraged!
MattR
@LD50: But see, there’s proof about who Clinton and Obama were seeing because they followed the law and disclose that info. Since Bush hid that info from the public, it’s not fair to criticize him for giving donors special access.
beltane
@DougJ: My mother, who was watching with me, heard Cokie’s comment and said: “She must mean the mistake of the Bush family.”
Gotta love Mom.
Cat Lady
Shorter Shear: Abramoff who? Energy task force what? Clinton!
Brachiator
Wow. And just like Nixon. Or was that Hitler? Wait a minute, how could a soc i al ist sell access to the Lincoln bedroom to donors?
My God, this means that Obama might just be a closet
capitalist!
Had Hillary been elected president, she would have had free pajama parties. And co-ed basketball.
The Grand Panjandrum
This is excellent news for John McCain!
Napoleon
I like the thread title.
jibeaux
I just want to be clear on the controversy here. Setting aside the fluff and getting to the meat of the complaint: He’s letting longstanding friends come over and watch movies, and low level staffers can sign up for the bowling alley.
Do I have that right? Oh, the horror.
bemused
@beltane:
Aha, now I see. Mystique was really a code word for messiah. Georgie didn’t turn out to be a republican god even better than Reagan as they hoped so accusing Obama of acting like a messiah is a vent for their disappointment & riles up the base at the same time.
Jack
Hats off to Scalzi for highlighting why this, and the latest tussles with
the political organ of revolutionary fascismFOX News, are good for Obama and the country in general:http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/10/27/what-obamas-doing-with-fox-news/
It’s longish, but worth the read (I write, as a very obviously Not-In-The-Obama-Camp liberal).
Ann B. Nonymous
I see someone else remembers Jeff Gannon’s special access to the White House.
The whole thing still leaves me flabbergasted. A gay escort moonlighting as a rightwing reporter used to deliver easy questions at presidential press conferences.
He wasn’t even stylish! If we’re going to have rent boys and courtesans at court in our decadence, can’t we at least have attractive ones? I know Washington is Hollywood for ugly people. But there are planes.
beltane
@bemused: Their adulation of that rogue’s gallery known as the Bush family tells you everything to know about what passes for morality in Washington.
geg6
How dare he invite his friends who may also have contributed to his campaign to visit him!
Why not just have secret meetings where they draw up new legislation with the VP instead?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501842.html
jl
How about let’s go look at all the Washington Post and Washington Times and NBC exposes of corruption during the Dub administration and see which administration is worse. I’m sure there must be plenty of investigations over those eight years.
freelancer
Yeah,
Obama’s so corrupt by allegedly giving out lavish perks to donors. It’s so much more beyond the pale than installing donors’ kids into government positions like deputy AG, or putting them in charge of Baghdad’s traffic infrastructure.
OC
@asiangrrlMN: Ratface…what a great name for our beloved MIA governor. I’m not sure if that beats “Governor Mullet” though.
Steve V
I recall Somerby pointed out some time ago (with a link to a Washington Post article, I think) that Bush had exceeded Clinton’s Lincoln bedroom usage by the sixth or seventh year of his presidency. Funny how that was never covered.
Notorious P.A.T.
They say that if America wants to reduce its CO2 emmissions, we will have to lower our standard of living.
Right now, there is a loud buzzing outside my apartment and my home is filled with an acrid stench because someone is using a gas-powered leaf-blower to clean leaves out of the PARKING LOT. Now, if that were to not happen ever again, it would be a surpreme sacrifice, but I am willing to make it if that stops our planet from being ruined.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
And to think one of the reasons why I supported Obama over Hillary is because I thought there would be less of this shit. I figured that Hill and Bill would just invite too much “Hillary killed Vince Foster-type crap” and “Bill is chasing every intern skirt in the White House-type crap.”
Boy was I wrong. Michelle’s mother is practicing teh voodoo and Barack hates teh women and is leasing the Lincoln bedroom to tehACORN!
What the fucking fuckity fuck is wrong with this country?
RedKitten
beltane’s mom FTW!
licensed to kill time
I think they’d all be happier if Obama just stayed in those little shacks out back like he’s spoze to. His friends could come over after they finished pickin’ that cotton in the fields.
licensed to kill time
Ok, trying to figure out what triggered moderation in my last comment. Searching for hidden forbidden words….
Anne Laurie
@beltane:
To misquote Roman Hruska, “Simpering, vacuous, rich starfvckers like Cokie deserve representation too! ! !”
Otherwise, I would suggest coating the entire Beltway area in a thick layer of mayonnaise and wrapping it in plastic. That’s the usual treatment for head lice, right?
Zifnab
ORLY? Was he all, fo-shizzle pissed off word your mama about it? See, if that headline was “Michael Steele alleges…” you’d have people flipping to the next page in a heartbeat. Funny how some names go unmentioned.
Hey look! Someone just defined a lobbyist!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in politics, its that big shot politicians always stay as far the hell away from their primary campaign donors as physically possible.
:-p
bemused
@beltane:
I guess that says it all. From what I’ve read/seen of the whole Bush bunch over the years aside from politics, none of them appear to be particularly bright or in the least bit interesting to meet & talk to in a social situation. Power, certainly not personality or intelligence, must have been the attraction for Cokie, Noonan & the rest of the in crowd.
Cain
O/T comment: Someone on the internets made a good point. Why is the GOP blocking the Obama’s Surgeon General in the middle of a pandemic?? Isn’t that like really stupid?
cain
Warren Terra
Gotta love this part:
The decades-long friendships were just a cunning scheme to cover a plot to rent out special administration perks for campaign contributions!
kay
The Washington Times is now officially to the left of the Washington Post.
The Washington Times put this in the context of “all of them do it”.
Not the Post. No context. To read this, it’s unprecedented.
They really suck at this journalism thing.
Zifnab
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: There’s absolutely nothing special about Hillary Clinton except the (D) in front of her name. Put anyone else in her place and the GOP will be just as vicious and asinine.
I thought the last five or six election cycles would have drilled that in. Between Al Gore’s Love Boat and Internet Invention and kissing his wife too much, and Howard Dean’s scream, and John Kerry’s French wind surfing, and Nancy Pelosi’s San Fransisco values, and DKos being slightly to the left (re: worst side) of the KKK, and Ned Lamont being the bastion of a gay immigrant communist terrorist takeover, the play book should be pretty well spelled out.
Everyone to the left of Joe Lieberman is an unholy spawn of Karl Marx, Saddam bin Laden, and the South Park gay Satan. Everyone.
Zifnab
@Cain: We should check with Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck. I’m pretty sure Obama’s Surgeon General is the last piece he needs in place before he declares mandatory autism-inducing vaccinations and death panel camps for all Americans.
Martin
California toyed with banning leaf blowers. Some cities have done it already. It’s just a matter of time before 2-stroke engines (or those above the model airplane/car size) get banned altogether.
The problem is how to prevent the landscaping trucks from just bolting a generator to the back of them to charge up electric leaf blowers, which would probably be almost as noisy and polluting.
Hann1bal
To: The Post
RE: Favoritism
Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by your own “National Editor”. That is all.
geg6
@Zifnab:
Thank you, thank you, thank you. That is the first LOL I’ve had ALL day.
MNPundit
I have never got why this is a big deal. Though I think Obama and family should live in the Lincoln bedroom for poetic justice reasons.
Malron
Doug,
I must be slipping. It took me forever to realize your post was snark. Love the title though.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Zifnab:
I know, it was silly of me to think that things might be better. I just hoped things would be better.
I’ve just about had all the hope beaten out of me.
geg6
Ruh roh.
Malevolent Malkin and her friends may have bitten off more than they can chew:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/is-aarp-the-gops-new-acorn.php?ref=fpblg
Martin
Just building the Obama is worse than Clinton narrative. Just a matter of months before the villagers are speculating about which room Obama gets his extramarital blowjobs in. Await the headlnes…
“Obama getting intern blowjobs in the Map Room? After all of the other ways in which the Obama administration has followed the lead of the Clinton administration – Lincoln Bedroom, health care obsessions, and so on, it would be irresponsible not to speculate.”
geg6
@geg6:
Oooops. Forgot to say OT.
licensed to kill time
My comment at #34 is still in moderation after 45 minutes – it was a joke! a dumb joke, true….but why? …are the moderation gods….not…laughing? The helicopters would.
Martin
@geg6:
I love the message discipline here. Defend and suck up to Medicare to keep the senior citizen base in place, and attack Medicare and AARP because because Obama must be defeated at all costs.
Sad_Dem
Will Obama let fat cat donors play with nuclear submarines and sink Japanese boats carrying high school kids? And keep the names out of the liberal media, ’cause, you know, national security and all?
geg6
@Martin:
Yeah, you’d think they’d all be in neck braces from the whiplash.
Comrade Dread
In other news, the Washington Times reported that it was shocked. Shocked! to find evidence of gambling going on in Rick’s bar.
If you didn’t already know this and didn’t know it was happening regardless of whether the president was an R or a D, then you should go and take a shower with your TV set right now and just let Natural Selection take it’s damn course.
Garrigus Carraig
Why would Bush donors wish to stay in the pissant Lincoln Bedroom when the money they’re making off the war allows them to stay in much posher accommodations?
Ed Drone
@licensed to kill time:
ONLY if they have the proper permits to be off their own plantations, and don’t travel after dark.
@Cain:
Yes. Your point?
Ed
TenguPhule
.357 hollowpoints do the job nicely.
gwangung
@Comrade Dread: Not just POTUS…this is a perk given to ANY major donor to a large non-profit. I think they have to come up with a better argument; if it’s OK for a state university, they better explain why it’s bad for a political party.
I’da thunk that a blade across the throat is neater and quieter…
ds
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
I don’t understand how anyone could think that Republican craziness about the Clintons was something isolated to just the Clintons, and that they wouldn’t react to same way to any other Democrat.
But apparently that line of thought was pretty common, even in the Obama administration. Remember when they were talking about getting 80 votes for the stimulus?
Admittedly there haven’t been many Democratic presidents since the Republican party turned absolutely, completely crazy, and it’s hard to make accurate conclusions based on a sample of one, but doesn’t your state have a local Republican affiliate?
I’ve seen shit on the local level that makes the teabagger/birther/death panel circus look tame and almost rational, and I live in a supposedly liberal state. Secret Mexican plot to reconquer the southwest, forced conversion to Islam as part of the state school curriculum, forced gay sex as part of sex education. Those were the rumors that went wild on talk radio and even made the local news when Gray Davis became governor.