I see that we somehow forgot to discuss this today, so here’s the NY Times spinning this as a handjob for our Galtian overlords:
And now William M. Daley, the son and brother of Chicago mayors and a behind-the-scenes political player himself, will hold one of the most powerful jobs in Washington: chief of staff in the White House, where he will help decide who gets into the Oval Office and what President Obama’s Capitol Hill agenda should be.
Mr. Daley’s recruitment to Pennsylvania Avenue from the corporate boardroom is seen as a smart step by some in Washington, who argue that Mr. Obama has long needed a White House confidant who has the ear of the business community and a record of bipartisanship that might help the president negotiate with Republicans in Congress.
I never understood the need to attack Rahm, and I won’t understand the need to attack Daley that I am sure is out there. The President is his own agent. All these attacks on Rahm felt like people were suggesting Obama can’t think for himself. He can, he does, and the decisions rest with him. Period. Hell, I don’t even remember who Bush’s Chief-of-Staff was, and Bush probably wasn’t making decisions. I’m sure that won’t stop the usual suspects from a two-year bitchfest, though. Besides, things are naturally going to shift more to the center/right regardless (is that possible), because we control one less chamber. That’s not defeatism, that’s reality.
Regardless, considering the rogering Wall Street has given us the past couple of years, it’s been hard enough taking it in the ass while also having to listen to their perpetual whining. If Daley is the reach-around that finally shuts these jackasses up, I’ll be happy. Not to mention, Howard Dean and Robert Reich are down with the appointment, and that is good enough for me.
This is where you start the circular firing squad.
AxelFoley
Oh, they’re already ripping this choice on DKos. And saying Dean threw himself under the bus by supporting the President’s choice.
That place is so comical at times.
Suffern ACE
Andy Card?
Cacti
I just can’t get myself very exercised over who the POTUS chooses for his Chief of Staff.
But if it pisses off the professional left, that’s worth a brief smile.
The Dangerman
Circular firing squad, circle jerks, seems to be nothing but circles, which, of course, gives us pi.
OK, I’ll leave you with (slightly better) math humor:
There are 10 kinds of people in the world; those that understand binary, and those that don’t.
Moses2317
Daley is far more centrist than I would like, but I agree that this is not something to get too upset about. The Chief of Staff is charged with getting things done – which, reportedly, Daley is great at – not deciding what it is that should get done.
I would note, however, that there is no reach-around that will finally shut the Wall Street jackasses up.
Winning Progressive
schrodinger's cat
@The Dangerman: That’s a good 01!
Liberal Sandlapper
I have no doubt that the Firebaggers are whipping themselves into a frenzy and His Almightyness Glenn Greenwald of Assholia will be miffed, but I could give a flying fuck who Obama’s CoS is. The guy works for Obama and will do his best to support Obama’s agenda. So, whoopdedoo!
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
DEAN AND REICH HAVE SOLD YOU OUT!
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@Liberal Sandlapper:
Meh. They’re not gonna vote for obama anyways. How can they make demands when they’ve already announced they won’t vote for him.
Tim
At times, Cole, your politically codependent nature still amazes me.
You are, at long last, the perfect establishment Dem’s bitch.
So there is nothing about Daley or his background that might be taken as an indicator of Obama’s mindset or nature? O just needed someone who is good at “getting things done,” and Daley is the best person for that. His financial and Wall Street ties have nothing to do with anything and are no indicator of anything at all, other than maybe a meaningless “hand job” for the people who just fucked the country over?
OK, well, how about the fact that Daley was Gore’s campaign manager in 2000 and was one of the first spineless twits encouraging him to concede to Bush, despite everything? Does that indicate anything, anything at all?
Is there nothing Obama can do that you will not twist yourself into a pretzel rationalizing or making excuses for?
Weird. I mean, why? What do you get out of it?
Other than the endless, bitchy thread we’re all going to enjoy now…OH, THAT! :D
Karen
Isn’t appointing Daley a natural choice considering that Daley and Chicago are one and the same? Besides, the only way GOS wouldn’t complain would be for Obama to commit sepuku live. Daley has ties to the Democratic party and knows how to get things done. Obama is going to need all the help he can get with this new Congress. Much more than a knife at a gunfight. He’ll need a grenade..
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Suffern ACE: I think Andy Card was followed by the guy who had a series of photographs of Bush’s hands, and bragged about having spanked Bush’s scottie (not a euphemism, but I tried to make it sound like one). Josh Bolten?
St Howard jumped under the bus? Hilarious.
de stijl
Scooter Libby and then David Addington.
Cacti
@Tim:
Your tears taste so yummy and sweet.
Dave
Dean and Reich getting tossed away by firebaggers reminds me of the story of the Communist-aligned newspapers in the US on the eve of Germany invading Russia in 1941. That morning they ran with stories saying the US should be neutral since Germany and Russia had a treaty and were “friends”. By that evening, after Germany invaded, the late editions were demanding the US join with Russia to defeat the fascists.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@AxelFoley:
And this is different than any other weekday?
dr. bloor
You’re not really that naive, are you?
Citizen Alan
I think a lot of unease over things like “who is the Chief-of-Staff” comes from the idea that a President is unlikely to appoint close advisers who will advise him to do things he doesn’t want to do anyway. Accordingly, the backgrounds and personalities of high-ranking advisers are seen as tea leaves in which you can read what the President really wants to do, as opposed to what he actually does, which may be more the result of bending to political realities than actually achieving desired goals.
For example, when the President appoints someone as Chief of Staff who later refers to progressive activists as “fucking retarded” and then apologizes to the Chairman of the Special Olympics, presumably for slurring mentally handicapped people by comparing them to progressive activists, it is taken as a sign that the President might share that view.
lllphd
agreed on all these points, though i do take seriously digby’s concerns about daley’s role in damping down gore’s enthusiasm in FL in 2000.
i see daley as yet another example of obama’s tendency to keep his friends close and his enemies closer. he needs to keep these folks at least thinking they have a say in matters, folks like the evil of all evils CofC. otherwise they spend all their time badgering you, can’t get a thing done.
as for the circular firing squad, i do believe the republicans and their rogue teabaggers are going to give us the full monty entertainment in that arena. i mean, missing the swearing in on day one for openers? i’m investing in popcorn futures!
and by the by, bush’s CofS was card, andy card. then josh bolten.
Cacti
@Citizen Alan:
Tissue?
superking
Yes, the president is his own agent. Like everyone though, he has a limited amount of time, and he’s busier than the rest of us, supposedly. What I don’t know right now is who works in the west wing, talks to the president on a daily basis, and actually wants to help the middle and lower classes in this country. Who in Obama’s “circle” of advisers is fighting for us and not the bankers? I honestly can’t name anyone.
Also, I think we need a Black Billy Carter tag. I’m not sure for what, but it would be awesome.
JBerardi
Can we back up a second here? Because I can’t be the only one not getting this.
When did the chief of staff’s job description become setting the president’s policy goals? Why should we care who it is? What particular powers does the chief of staff have that everyone makes him so damned important? I really have no idea. Seems like it’s more or less just a glorified administrative position.
de stijl
@lllphd:
I stand by my earlier answer. Libby & Addington
@Citizen Alan:
Never go full retard.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Citizen Alan:
The relentless, endless snivelling and wannabe-martyrdom over that two-year-old, off-hand remark has me sharing that view, also, too.
Cacti
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Truth hurts.
AxelFoley
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff):
Good point.
Dave
@Citizen Alan: Maybe if some of those progressive activists didn’t act that way, Rahm wouldn’t have said it.
Nick
@AxelFoley:
and to think I thought Dean would have to get elected President before he loses DailyKos.
AxelFoley
@JBerardi:
You don’t understand–Barack Obama can’t make decisions. He has to have someone in his administration lead him along.
At least, that’s what “progressives” say.
lllphd
@de stijl:
ah, but of course; bush ruled in truthiness. the big dick did dicktate in their “reality.”
Cacti
He should have nominated Russ Feingold.
I hear he has a lot of free time these days.
de stijl
@lllphd:
I think we both know who wore the pants in that relationship.
geg6
A president should have the CoS we wishes to have. Daley IS Chicago and Obama knows him well, so it makes sense for him, I’m sure. Personally, I detest ALL Daleys as I cannot separate them in my mind from their thuggish, corrupt father and the memories I have of ’68. In addition, I have a hard time having any respect for his role in Gore’s capitulation to electoral theft. But I’m not hiring him, so it really doesn’t matter what I think. And Obama will do what he wants whether I agree or not, as he has made abundantly clear over the last two years. So my take is that there is nothing to discuss. I’m much more interested in whether he’ll actually hire an effective press secretary as I will have to listen to that person on a regular basis. It would be nice if he could find someone who is an actually effective communicator as I believe that has been an area in which this administration has been extraordinarily incompetent.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
I can’t believe he didn’t appoint alan grayson chief of staff.
Nick
@Citizen Alan:
I HOPE he shares that view, because, well, they are.
Cacti
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff):
Or Dennis Kucinich.
Now that’s a guy who can get things moved through Congress.
AxelFoley
@Cacti:
Oh, snap!
Lol, Russ can’t do it. He has to prepare for his primarying of President Obama to satisfy the GOS.
Citizen Alan
@Dave:
“Act that way?” The specific incident that provoked that remark from Rahmbo was Moveon.org running ads encouraging voters in Blue Dog districts to call their Blue Dog representatives and urge them to vote for the policies that Obama said he wanted. Rahmbo thought that was “fucking retarded” because it might alienate all those people who voted against us anyway once they believed (mistakenly, as it turned out) that they would face no electoral consequences for doing so.
Third party candidacies are bad because that will ensure that Republicans win. Running primary candidates against conservative Democrats is bad because that will weaken the conservative Democrat and ensure that Republicans win. Are we really now at the point where even calling into to a Blue Dog’s office to complain about his votes is bad because it will hurt the Blue Dog’s feelings and cause him to vote against the party? Has our democracy really reached such a nadir that running ads encouraging politicians to do what their own constituents want is “fucking retarded?”
Apparently so.
General Stuck
Jeebus fucking christ. Nearly 40 comments in and this is all the quantity and quality poutrage our usual suspects can muster.
If this all they have, we are going to have to get some new usual suspects.
P.S. Cole, you might should drop an email to Nobody Special since he/she has been jonesing all day for a Death to Daley thread
AxelFoley
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff):
Heh, he’s got time on his hands, too.
The Raven
You do understand that Obama is hiring Daley away from J. P. Morgan, one of the banks that made the on-going financial trainwreck?
What am I missing here?
J.W. Hamner
I think the issue here is that too many progressives’ and reporters’ view of the White House is informed solely by All the President’s Men.
JGabriel
John Cole:
No matter what, I just can’t get the image of Wall St. sodomizing us and getting a reach-around simultaneously to fit in three dimensions.
Am I missing something?
.
Cacti
@The Raven:
I’ll bet you feel betrayed, don’t you?
Tell us all about it.
Ana Gama
Apparently, prior to Nixon, the Chief of Staff position was titled Secretary of Appointments. Takes a bit of the shine off that job…
Omnes Omnibus
@The Dangerman: Ok, that was funny.
Anya
@Citizen Alan:
i am beginning to believe Rahm was on to something when he called the firebaggers “fucking retarded.” What a bunch of freaking whiners!
AxelFoley
@J.W. Hamner:
I think a lot of progressives model it after The West Wing. No, seriously, there was diary at DKos a few weeks ago with the diarist saying how much they miss it and wish President Bartlett and his administration were real. I shit you not.
de stijl
@JGabriel:
You’re forgetting the ball cupping. Never forget the ball cupping!
WarMunchkin
Here’s the thing – I think it isn’t too controversial to suggest that the chief of staff does two major things – (1) exists as an authority on matters of organizational effectiveness as it pertains to the running of the executive branch and (2) exerts control over who gets to see the President.
That latter (2) is what concerns me; yes, the President is a grown-up and can make his own decisions about policy, and it is the CoS’s job to implement it, but it’s also the case that the way Washington operates is primarily through a social structure and social connections (aka the village). What’s relevant to me is who the chief of staff views as having important, appropriate or merited voices and his or her role in assigning weight to those voices as it pertains to the office of the presidency.
Ideologically, Daley strikes me as an economic conservative who unsurprisingly advocates for reforming social security. That’s something, while disturbing, I could care less about because, as you say, it’s the President who gets to decide policy. But Daley’s personal connections and his view of who is important and who is not is ultimately more important, and if it’s the case that he only cares about access for our Galtian overlords, then I’d be concerned about that.
One more thing – It seems to be the running conventional wisdom that there aren’t any progressives with executive level experience, so Daley was the best pick. I don’t know how much of that is a valid criticism and how much of that is simply a manifestation of the predominant Washington protocol that shuts out liberals, but the personnel/talent shortage is something that Progressives will need to somehow address in the coming years if that’s true.
de stijl
@The Dangerman:
I cast a hex on you!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@AxelFoley: I remember when The Pantload wrote a column complaining about some plot development in 24 (didn’t wathch the show, so I don’t know what), “The real Jack Bauer wouldn’t do that!” So I guess the the fat-brained right and the dopey left have come full circle-jerk.
Anya
Is the Chief of Staff a glorified secretary?
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@The Raven: show us on the doll where J. P. Morgan touched you
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@Anya: no, Daley doesn’t look good in a pencil skirt and stilettos.
PIGL
@Cacti: you are way out of line.
There seem to serious objections, or at least objections that should be taken seriously, to this appointment. Your attempts at withering contempt are, well, contemptable.
Mike in NC
From Wikipedia:
I had a lawyer friend who grew up with Andy Card and was a big time supporter. I met the guy one time (c.1980) and immediately decided he was a total asshole and weasel. No surprise he landed a job in Dubya’s White House.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@PIGL: Judge Howard Dean and Judge Robert Reich overruled those objections.
General Stuck
@Anya:
Usually more than that. They control access to the POTUS, and have traditionally been something like a therapist/conciliary , depending. So it is an important and and quasi powerful post. But for anyone who hasn’t figured out that Obama mostly follows his own instincts after all is said and done, has not been paying attention.
And i would bet the mistakes he’s made, like maybe the Deficit Commission, were when he let others do the planning.
Nick
@AxelFoley:
Ironic considering much of the Bartlett Administration was “how much can we compromise with Republicans on,” so much so that it inspired characters like Amy Gardner, Roy Ashland and Tabitha Fortas to call him out on it.
Plus, we all want Presidents who will order the assassination of foreign leaders.
BombIranForChrist
This doesn’t bother me that much.
I think some of the bitching about Rahm was really a proxy for people like myself to vent about Obama’s general all around spinelessness and selloutitude. Since Obama is his own man, Rahm was disliked as much as for being a symbol of Obama’s fall from grace than for the substance of many of Rahm’s personal actions.
But a lot of what the Dems managed to pull off in December + healthcare reform + some other goodies makes me personally feel less the need to really sweat this particular staff choice. Maybe I’m just not drunk enough yet.
It would be nice, however, if Daley refrained from hippie punching. I know he won’t be able to, because hippie punching is a necessary part of being a Pragmatic, Realistic Not Defeatist Person Unlike All You Unwashed People Out There Who Actually You Know Believe in Stuff, but it would be nice.
Nick
@PIGL:
When aren’t there “serious objections” or “objections that should be taken seriously?”
Tim
@WarMunchkin:
Don’t waste your breath Munchkin, the BJ kool kids know all this this; they are just to cool to admit that it matters or that it tells us anything about their leader, the big O.
Anya
@General Stuck: I am assuming the CoS will not restrict access for people or groups the President wants to hear from. Didn’t the President meet with Andy stern more than 10 times (not sure where I read)? I am guessing Rahm was not too friendly with labor.
Davis X. Machina
Gore himself doesn’t seem to harbor any grudge towards Daley for 2000….
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@BombIranForChrist: show me on the doll, where the hippie punchers touched you
General Stuck
@Anya:
Well, no. If the president wants to see someone, then he is president and will see that person. But there are small armies of other actors with this or that gripe, or cause, or idea, that the president doesn’t know about, and a CoS can get some face time for if he or she thinks it’s a good idea.
AxelFoley
@Tim:Show me on the doll where Daley touched you.
WarMunchkin
@Tim: Hey, I like the commentariat here, that’s why I’m here. At any rate, I don’t think Daley’s nomination is something to go to the mat about, but it does strike me as generally sad that the talent pool of people we’ve deemed appropriate to serve in the executive branch are comprised exclusively of those who were raised in and identify with the Galtian aristocracy.
General Stuck
@BombIranForChrist:
life is hard
then you die.
better someone else
a firebagger
than I
JGabriel
@BombIranForChrist:
… a Daley tradition dating back to the Chicago Seven and the ’68 Democratic Convention, at least.
.
Tim
@WarMunchkin:
I agree, Munch, but you aren’t supposed to say those things here…it’s not looked upon favorably to do so.
General Stuck
@WarMunchkin:
I officially don’t care who Obama picks as this or that staffer. I do care what Obama ends up doing.
As for the notion of getting an outsider to deal with the big mess of finance and economic matters in this country, I am reminded that only other Apaches could catch Geronimo. That may be an off the wall assessment, and totally wrong, but there it is.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@JGabriel: the right screams at obama for paling around with bill ayers. the left screams at obama for paling around for dick daley’s kid.
i think the statue of limitations on 1968 has long passed.
and the chicago seven case was a federal wrap, not local, that was initiated by lefty icon, LBJ
Suck It Up!
@Tim:
THAT’s on Gore. Rahm encouraged Obama to put off HCR or do it in increments – Obama kept on with his own plan. Gore made his choice and I assume that he can think for himself also. Don’t put your frustration over that loss on Daley.
slightly_peeved
@PIGL:
I haven’t seen much evidence that J.P.Morgan is culpable for the financial crisis, when in fact J.P.Morgan did very well during that period. Them and Barclays did very well buying up the other banks that screwed up.
Even if J.P. Morgan were culpable, there’s no reason to think Daley was culpable.
Given that, the fact Daley was working at J.P. Morgan before becoming Chief of Staff is not a serious objection to his appointment here. Certainly without providing some more evidence as to any involvement in financial irregularities.
Suck It Up!
@Tim:
Why don’t we see articles/posts and comments about how people like Hilda Solis, Elizabeth Warren, Donald berwick (and other appointees that the left approves of) are a reflection of what Obama believes? Why was Alan Simpson’s own opinion used to determine what Obama believes but not the Democrats/Progressive on the panel?
Berto
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff):
It worked for Republicans.
maxcat07
Does the entire Democratic establishment have to approve the President’s choice of Chief of staff? Give it up, people! If the President can get some things done (and he’ll have to do it through the Executive Branch the next two years), then let him pick people he thinks will help. I agree with John; if it doesn’t bother Reich or Dean, far be it for me to criticize, and I believe I’m pretty liberal, progressive, or whateverthehell you want to call it.
I’ll leave the fight to Jane Hamsher.
amk
The dkos is full of 1500 odd posts of poutrage progressivism. At this rate, they’ll poutrage if Obama as much as even goes to the loo without taking their permission.
Buncha narcissistic fucksticks.
amk
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff): I wish the firebaggers would take their ball home and just stay there.
lol
@slightly_peeved:
Daley has been employed, that’s reason enough to suspect him. Obama needs to hire more people who have only blogged for a living while receiving money for “consulting” from fraudulent PACs.
maxcat07
Yeah, and then they’ll vote for him, and maybe even campaign for him, in 2012. I’m tired of “purity tests”; let’s leave them to the Tea Party.
lol
@Suck It Up!:
The same reason the Professional Left/Firebaggers/etc keep representing Simpson’s powerpoint presentation as the (albeit non-voted upon) recommendations of the deficit commission.
maxcat07
No one notices that Obama hasn’t taken up Simpson’s powerpoint presentation either? He is also the one who went to bat for Elizabeth Warren. It’s amazing what “through the rabbit hole” things they focus on.
amk
@Tim: The dkos dahling, elisabet warren, indulged in her own ‘hippie punching’ today. Looks like you’re running out of people to throw under the proverbial bus. Did rachel, ed, olbermann, hartman & co have a collective heart attack today ?
Uloborus
@Tim:
…who’s twisting into a pretzel here, Tim? Your implication is that this is some kind of true vision that Obama… is secretly on the side of the banking industry? Given how pissed they are at him and finreg passing and him putting one of the toughest most consumer-friendly activists around in charge of enforcing it, that’s pretty much flat-out disproven. That some of his staff have ties to the banking industry – enormously common – really doesn’t stand up for a second in the face of his concrete actions. If that’s not your implication, what is?
Fallsroad
This is profoundly wishful thinking. Nothing will make those assholes shut up. They have no fucking limits to their entitled-ness and infinite sense of victimization.
The word “enough” isn’t in their Galtian vocabulary.
FlipYrWhig
@Suck It Up!: The same reason professional Christians have to act like Christians are always being mistreated. What’s more real, the War On Christmas or the War To Punch Hippies? Some people really enjoy martyrdom, to the point where they’d rather make themselves out to be victims of imaginary slights and symbolic persecution than just shut the fuck up already.
60th Street
DAWN JOHNSSSEEEENNN!!!!!!!
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@maxcat07: well the very latest conspiracy theory is that he’s secretly working to gut social security and he will announce the surprise during the state of the union address.
they’ve devolved into an end-times like cult, constantly predicting the end of the world and then changing the goals posts when it doesn’t happen.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@60th Street: I like tubbs better than crockett.
Karen
@AxelFoley:
Considering that the whole Cheney/Bush (and yes it’s in the right order) based their administration on 24, it’s not so weird at all.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@FlipYrWhig: there’s also a self-centered (whole world revolves around me) element involved. for instance, rachel maddow said tonight that obama picked daley solely to spite the left. That’s just sad. I imagine there is paranoia involved (obama is out to get me).
LikeableInMyOwnWay
I support your post John.
Obama was hired to be president for four years. For some reason a bunch of shitheads on the blogs and comments seem bent on convincing people that they know how to do Obama’s job better than he does.
Well, I suppose there is a mathematical possibility that one or two of them is right now and then. So what? Fuck it, and fuck them. I don’t care. I didn’t vote for them. I didn’t vote for Markos Moulitsas to tell me what a better president he could be for four years. I don’t give a flying fuck or rat’s ass.
Obama is my hire, he is doing his job well enough for me, and in two years, some Republican sociopathic shitforbrains will run against him, and if there is a Dog, he will be reelected, and then the blogmouths can spend another four years telling me that they, just they, would do the job better. So fuck them in advance, and in every way and in every orifice possible.
AxelFoley
@LikeableInMyOwnWay:
I’m AxelFoley, and I approve this post.
60th Street
So when does Daley hold the first round of showers with Progressive bloggers? Will Cole be invited?
*awkward*
Mac G
Can I detest the pouters and dislike Daley? The fact all the village gasbags loved the pick is concern enough. This DWT post is pretty revealing on mindset of the new COS.
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2011/01/yes-he-can-find-someone-as-bad-as-rahm.html
Mnemosyne
I’m sorry, but I just have to laugh and point at the people who seem to think that Bill Daley got this job because he worked for JP Morgan for a few years.
Seriously? That’s the only possible reason you can come up with that Obama would appoint someone he’s known for years who’s from a very powerful political family in Chicago? That he worked for JP Morgan for three years?
Jesus, people. There is a world outside of Wall Street, you know.
Marc McKenzie
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: You’ve definitely earned the gold star for this….
…Of course, I’m quite sure that if any of these bloggerheads actually tried to face what Obama faces each day, if they tried it for an hour, they would be out of the White House in two seconds with hot liquid running down their legs.
JGabriel
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff):
Wasn’t really suggesting that the younger Daley should be prosecuted for the sins of the elder; just jokingly pointing out a long tradition.
.
JGabriel
@Mnemosyne:
Not after you’ve joined it. You can check out anytime you like, but …
Okay, seriously, I don’t have a major problem with the guy, or with him as Obama’s choice. Yet. I don’t really know enough about him.
I find most of the criticisms, so far, to be of the hmm, that could be problematic type, rather than of the dealbreaker variety.
.
Uloborus
@Mac G:
I know I don’t have a problem with you disliking Daley. I only have a problem with A) thinking it’s some giant issue, or B) thinking it’s a Secret Sign that Obama is siding with (Wall Street/Conservatives/Communists) against us. Position A is silly, and Position B is conspiracy theory thinking that would be annoying enough if people supposedly on our side didn’t show up here and scream it at us angrily every five minutes.
Berto
@LikeableInMyOwnWay:
Don’t take it so hard. They said the same thing about W too.
FlipYrWhig
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff): I’m not sure it’s personal psychodrama as much as it is Bill Donahue-esque. Find an offense against orthodoxy, rally your minions, act like you’re the most important defender of all that is good and true in the world, and eagerly await the next outrage. Ants on a cross! President’s choice of functionary! Press one for English! What an insult! Rrraaarrrr!
maxcat07
@Jane
I’d love the Bartlett administration, too. I’d also love world peace, and the Mega Millions winning numbers.
Until then, I think I’ll settle for President Obama and whomever he’d like to choose as Chief of Staff.
Thanks for the laugh!!
The Raven
@Cacti: “I’ll bet you feel betrayed, don’t you?” Nah. Hoping for more meals. @Uloborus: “thinking it’s a Secret Sign that Obama is siding with (√ Wall Street/Conservatives/Communists)” Oh, there doesn’t seem to anything much secret about it. Seems perfectly plain and open. Baseline Scenario on JP Morgan Chase. We corvids are delighted, and hopeful of more hominid flesh for dinner…though starving hominids are a bit tough.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Marc McKenzie:
Right as rain. I mean, can we imagine Markos Moulitsas being president for 15 minutes? Shit, that’s funnier than imagining Sarah Palin being president for 15 minutes.
And to the person who said “Don’t take it so hard?”
I am not taking anything hard. I don’t give a fuck what any of these morons say. There is a logo for this blog that depicts the hot air of speech lifting a balloon. That’s about the way it works. It’s all just hot air.
slightly_peeved
@The Raven:
Here’s a quote from the baseline scenario article:
So the problem with the head of JP Morgan (which isn’t the person being considered for chief of staff) is that.. he’s good at his job, and that might lead him to expand the business he is running.
Hate to break it to you, but if that makes JP Morgan a company to view with suspicion, it makes almost every big company that has ever existed the object of suspicion.
amk
@Citizen Alan: @Citizen Alan:
Yes, That must be it. A President, who took on the establishment and won big, must be in a group think.
Rahm was perfectly right when he called the new left retarded.
slightly_peeved
(Note: blockquotes and posting were borked; the paragraph after the blockquote is also part of the blockquote. Dammit).
amk
@JBerardi:
When a black dood got into the office. Whites can’t help themselves yelping.
amk
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff):
That must be why grayson was bitchin’ and moanin’ on msnbc. What a clown.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
@PIGL:
.
.
PIGL, take it easy on Cacti, aka “Prick Pere” – he and President Obama do not need any rational or fact-based criticism, they need to share a lace hankie to soak up their whiny tears of impotent poutrage at all you non-idolatards.
.
.
Dick Kunc
@Nick: You sure resent the people who push harder and shoot for the moon so you can settle for half a loaf. Is it really more fun to be mad at people who asked for a whole loaf or to really play up how great the crumbs you settle for are?
The Raven
@slightly_peeved: “it makes almost every big company that has ever existed the object of suspicion.”
That is generally why there are anti-trust laws, an FTC, an FCC, an NLRB, an SEC, …
Tattoosydney
@LikeableInMyOwnWay:
Sometimes I love you.
NobodySpecial
I like this thread, makes it easy to tell who the Republicans are.
amk
@NobodySpecial:
Oh, wise one. Please enlighten us.
I, for one, call you a firebagger.
NobodySpecial
@amk: That’s nice.
amk
@Tim: Stop whining. You have been saying ‘what you’re not supposed to say here’ all the time. This routine victimhood is annoying.
Martin Gifford
John Cole wrote:
Then…
Hm, I wonder way the jackasses will be happy? Maybe it’s just because they like him as a person.
slightly_peeved
So no-one who’s ever been worked for a business can work for Obama?
None of those groups deal with individuals expect in cases of personal criminal activity. They regulate the business, not the person. So they have no rational relationship to the subject of this thread; a short-term employee of JP Morgan, in an as-yet undescribed capacity, working for the Obama administration.
alwhite
John – Have you been paying attention at all over the last two years? Has Obama gotten and credit, any return, any reward for bending over backwards for the master of the universe? They gladly take the money. They smirk at the joke of weak regulation. They bask in the tongue bath of sweet words. Then this piss all over Obama, fund Republicans and demand more-more-more.
This latest sop will not make them happy. No matter how much further he retreats he is still the enemy to them.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
@FlipYrWhig: That makes so much sense it hurts.
stevie314159
Don’t you need a new tag, since “show me on the doll where Rahm touched you” doesn’t work anymore?
I suggest, “Won’t you go home, Bill Daley”.
kay
I say this a lot, but I feel as if people are missing something crucial here.
Here’s Dean:
Howard Dean isn’t backing Daley on ideological grounds. He’s backing Daley because he knows and likes him.
A lot of these scuffles are about personal relationships, and trust, or the lack of trust. That’s just natural and inevitable in any organization, and the Democratic Party is an organization.
That’s been my experience in a county and state party, and I just think it’s true of human beings. Obama has suffered for not having a huge web of personal associations, built up over 30 years. I knew it was a risk when he was nominated, because I knew there would be set-backs, and he’d need it. He doesn’t have that long a history, or a metric ton of goodwill to trade on.
It was a risk Hillary Clinton kept pointing out (in so many words) and she was right. It’s real. It exists.
Nick
@Dick Kunc:
who are these people? I’d like to meet some.
Nick
@kay:
Imagine that, Howard Dean throws issues aside for his own personal feelings. He should definitely primary Obama.
Merkin
@kay:
Pretty sure that was part of the reason he WAS nomination
kay
@Nick:
See, Nick? How you rephrase what I wrote to fight the same old battle? That isn’t at all helpful, and it isn’t what I meant.
Trust and personal relationships make work easier. They aren’t incidental or unimportant.
I’m not talking about some sort of clique. I’m talking about a working history, and mutual respect.
When Howard Dean starts talking about “people who think they know everything”, it’s personal, but that’s a real problem for Obama.
It was a problem in the primary and it will continue to be a problem until it’s addressed.
kay
@Merkin:
Absolutely. That’s the catch 22 there, right?
What I don’t like to do is pretend it doesn’t exist. It does. It’s valid, and real.
It’s not even “bad”. It just is.
amk
Shorter kay. We needed a beltway insider political hack for prez.
kay
@amk:
Well, that isn’t true. I was an Obama delegate. I made a careful choice to support him at the state level. I caucused to be a delegate (it wasn’t hard, because there are very few active Democrats in this county, just to be clear). I was the only female who pledged Obama in my CD.
I respected the Clinton supporters here, about half of the local Democrats, and that’s why we didn’t spend months sniping at each other, and it’s why we don’t hate each other. I didn’t think she was an “insider hack”. They felt they knew her. They trusted her. She had a history with them. That’s important. It shouldn’t be dismissed.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
And once again, most of America will go “huh?” and continue to think Obama’s doing a decent job, and his ratings will climb. The only time most of them will look up is if the Republicans default the government or shut it down, and the Republicans will get the blame, because most people do know that bills have to be passed by Congress.
The CoS position will not register on any radars other than for people who blog a lot.
A Humble Lurker
@Citizen Alan:
I know this thread is pretty much dead but: bull fucking shit. Moveon.org wanted to run commercials against Blue Dog Dems who were against the bill. And that is stupid. Because gee, it’s not like we might need their help later on on other bills. I mean, we can just pull votes off from Republicans, right?