Obama on This Week

First order of business on January 20th:
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Call Reid and Durbin to the White House, and kick their asses!
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Once accomplished, Harry Reid will start acting like a Democrat and do what a majority leader is supposed to do:
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Facilitate the Presidents' agenda in congress.

Joe, I couldn't agree more that rumors of the demise of the Obama administration are grossly exaggerated, but I don't know why you're picking on Pajamas Media. Your sainted hero, the Irreproachable Dowager Broder, wrote the same thing two days ago.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/09/AR2009010902354.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
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No surprise to those of us who see the world through a different lens than Villagers' CW that Broder and the rightwing cranks who employ "Joe The Plumber" as a foreign correspondent are largely in agreement.

Agree: the Pajamas gang and J Rubin will spend a lot of time being whingy and windy. Guantanamo and Israel-Palestine will be getting attention: even if not direct I see signals that the status quo ante will not remain for long. Hillary Clinton may well end up carrying the load on both. George Will and Newt did not disappoint: idiots! Friedman: does this guy have an original idea. Noonan: what is she taking for all those flights of fancy? One of the worst panels for some time.

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Rubin is a right-wing propagandist, so she has a stake in Obama's failure, but I've seen plenty of similar behavior among more mainstream journalists desperate to gin up a story.
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Does the name Politico ring any bells for you? Those gossiping fishwives are badly in need of a couple of *real* journalists to show them the way.
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The thrill of seeing a smart and serious man at the helm is being overshadowed by the depth and breadth of the challenges he faces.
 
Is there anything Bush didn't break and leave for Obama to put back together?

thank you, Joe, for talking about the journalists who are so obsessed with ginning up rather everyday news.
The Blago was just another corrupt pol. One of many over the years. And yet, these people acted like it was the biggest story of their career. And are still obsessing.
Where were they when it came to the Bush crimes and misdeeds? Asleep or busy rolling over for him and his party? Where were the screaming headline and 24/7 cable nonstop talking about whatever crime Bush was committing.
Even when a few good journalists did their job and came out with important information about what Bush was doing, most of the rest ignored it and it never got out to the public.
Oh, but a little known corrupt Gov gets arrested for corruption and it's full steam ahead! Weeks of insinuations about Obama and smearing the man's character. Nice.
We can see what the next 4 years will bring in midst of the numerous and urgent problems Obama has to deal with. Many that could have been stopped if the traditional media stopped playing poodle for George and did their job.

Ditto with James and his apt description of the "gossiping fishwives" of Politico. They are the new Drudge without the sirens. Unfortunately,I've seen many of your colleagues follow Politico's chicken littleism tone. Politico is somewhat transparent in their political agenda to undermine Obama when they can. Other MSM journalists may not have a partisan agenda but are addicted to sensationalism at the expense of substance. I give you a lot of credit for resisting those impulses.

"The guy has grown."

Actually, he's always had the depth and intellect to express what he did today, but he communicates so effectively that he is able to wear multiple hats. He's gone from communicating as a candidate, to communicating as a PE in transition, and in 9 days he will communicate to us as a leader. His message hasn't changed.

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The Blago was just another corrupt pol. One of many over the years. And yet, these people acted like it was the biggest story of their career. And are still obsessing.
Where were they when it came to the Bush crimes and misdeeds? Asleep or busy rolling over for him and his party?
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Bush's crimes weren't a fun and entertaining story, and the beltway journos didn't lovelovelove that story. They lovelovelove the Blago story. They revel in their entertainment, which they inflict upon the rest of us only because they have a national platform. They end up writing this stuff for their own entertainment, and for the entertainment of their Beltway colleagues, leaving us readers in the national audience out in the cold.
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Someday after they retire or are otherwise unemployed, maybe they will ask themselves whether what they did in their career was ever very important and meaningful. Because, with respect to political journos, I can't see, personally, how they are actually contributing much that is useful. But, leave them to have their fun!
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Have you read this piece of journo criticism: In the Crisis, the Journal Falls Short : CJR? It's an excellent piece and the criticism there applies more widely to the way Beltway journalism covered the Bush Administration. They all fell short, on their hamster-like little wheels, entertaining themselves mainly with trivia. I'd say the only thing they did well, as a profession, these past 8 years, was in their coverage of the first six days of Katrina. A catastrophe. I place the major part of the blame on the managing editors.
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Darn. I was going to say what JamesLA said, but he already said it. This, I mean: Bush's crimes weren't a fun and entertaining story, and the beltway journos didn't lovelovelove that story. They lovelovelove the Blago story. They revel in their entertainment, which they inflict upon the rest of us only because they have a national platform. They end up writing this stuff for their own entertainment, and for the entertainment of their Beltway colleagues, leaving us readers in the national audience out in the cold.
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Kudos to Joe again for taking on media stupidity, even if it's faux media like the PJs crowd. Question: when your stablemate Halperin commits the same stupidity (he will, you know), what will you do?

Commentariat:
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I have plenty of problems with Joe Klein, his methods and his ideology (Centrism), but he's doing something valuable that his colleagues are revoltingly reluctant to do: he links to his examples of bad punditry, and refers to those with whom he disagrees by name. This is an important step forward for him, and we should be applauding. He's breaking Village rules by doing so, and it's actually quite shocking, even more so when the incompetence highlighted is that of the perpetually silly old Broder. Remember this flawless piece of political wisdom in the Washington Post?
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Bush Regains His Footing
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By David S. Broder
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Friday, February 16, 2007; Page A23
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It may seem perverse to suggest that, at the very moment the House of Representatives is repudiating his policy in Iraq, President Bush is poised for a political comeback. But don't be astonished if that is the case.
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...just as Clinton did in the winter of 1995, Bush now shows signs of renewed energy and is regaining the initiative on several fronts.
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More important, he is demonstrating political smarts that even his critics have to acknowledge.
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His reaction to the planned House vote opposing the increase he ordered in U.S. troops deployed to Iraq illustrates the point...

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It seems like the height of lunacy to us, but actually holding a fellow Villager accountable for mind-boggling ineptitude is against all Beltway cocktail party circuit protocol, and Joe's courage in this regard is shocking.

Joe Klein:
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Thanks so much for linking to those with whom you disagree, so that we may judge for ourselves whether your depictions of their arguments are accurate. It's really helpful and honest of you!

We've become so accustomed to Bush scandals that most of the press have convinced themselves they're not doing their job if they're not finding a scandal.
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The crisis mode seems very similar to the campaign, when some of the press and some bloggers were prognosticating disaster for Obama if he didn't follow their advice.
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Some of the right does indeed seem to be hoping Obama will fail, and the idea of hoping for that is eye-poppingly mendacious. This would benefit anybody how? I'll give W. a rare thank you for saying that he hoped Obama would succeed "because we all love our country" and sounding like he meant it.

WASHINGTON – The Senate's second-in-command, Sen. Dick Durbin, said Sunday that he is moving away from resisting former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris as President-elect Barack Obama's successor and hopes a resolution to the disagreement will be reached soon.
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For his part, Burris said he and his lawyers will be in Washington on Monday to begin paving the way for him to join the Senate. But Durbin said lawyers still need to sign off on Burris' paperwork and review his testimony before the Illinois House, which later impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges.
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"I started off obviously skeptical, as all of the Democratic members did," Durbin, D-Ill., said on "Face the Nation" on CBS. "But as time has gone on and we've looked closely, we want to be fair to Roland Burris. If he has the proper certification and papers, then we're going to take one look at the process and move forward from there."

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I want my internet bucks

What Stuart said. Broder has been out of the loop for quite some time now.

linkage
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090111/ap_on_go_co/senate_burris

sq-the bucks are yours.

Kathy:

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I'll give W. a rare thank you for saying that he hoped Obama would succeed "because we all love our country" and sounding like he meant it."


I hope your right, but it's kinda hard to believe since he's simultaneously handing Obama absolute wreckage caused by his “love” for 1% of the country, oh yea and god.

kathy
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What else could he have possibly said? "I hope this darkie fails?"

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45350
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WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (IPS) - Contrary to Israel's argument that it was forced to launch its air and ground offensive against Gaza in order to stop the firing of rockets into its territory, Hamas proposed in mid-December to return to the original Hamas-Israel ceasefire arrangement, according to a U.S.-based source who has been briefed on the proposal.
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The proposal to renew the ceasefire was presented by a high-level Hamas delegation to Egyptian Minister of Intelligence Omar Suleiman at a meeting in Cairo Dec. 14. The delegation, said to have included Moussa Abu Marzouk, the second-ranking official in the Hamas political bureau in Damascus, told Suleiman that Hamas was prepared to stop all rocket attacks against Israel if the Israelis would open up the Gaza border crossings and pledge not to launch attacks in Gaza.
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The Hamas officials insisted that Israel not be allowed to close or reduce commercial traffic through border crossings for political purposes, as it had done during the six-month lull, according to the source. They asked Suleiman, who had served as mediator between Israel and Hamas in negotiating the original six-month Gaza ceasefire last spring, to "put pressure" on Israel to take that the ceasefire proposal seriously.
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Suleiman said he could not pressure Israel but could only make the suggestion to Israeli officials. It could not be learned, however, whether Israel explicitly rejected the Hamas proposal or simply refused to respond to Egypt.
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The readiness of Hamas to return to the ceasefire conditionally in mid-December was confirmed by Dr. Robert Pastor, a professor at American University and senior adviser to the Carter Centre, who met with Khaled Meshal, chairman of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus on Dec. 14, along with former President Jimmy Carter. Pastor told IPS that Meshal indicated Hamas was willing to go back to the ceasefire that had been in effect up to early November "if there was a sign that Israel would lift the siege on Gaza"

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I am not 100% sure of the veracity of this report because I don't use this source usually but if true this is pretty damming.

Broder was tittering as he teased this column during his online chat at WAPO on Friday. The currency of his opinion is next to nil outside of a shrinking beltway cocktail circuit.
The column SZ cited is Broder's version of Frist's diagnosing Terry Shaivo by watching a tape and pronouncing her alert. The final, easily remembered, nail in credibility.

PNNTO
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To be fair the nail came after the autopsy results came out. Have no doubt that but for that these people would still be claiming she was murdered. People here in Tampa were so pissed about it. I called in to a radio show and proposed that instead of having a living will, every conservative be presented with a real "living" will starting with Jeb Bush. In a "living" will you assert that if you are ever reduced to any vegetative state you want to stay hooked up to machines forever or until your organs fail no matter what the cost or emotional problems it poses to your family. BTW they have dug up some dirt on good ole Rick Warren and him saying Terry Schiavo's husband may have been trying to kill her so she wouldn't wake up and tell the police something about him.

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JK: You've got to wonder what planet Jennifer Rubin is living on.
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Hard to understand how Rubin could describe anything, considering the close-up view of her colon she has from having her head shoved up her a....I mean, if Feinstein gives a disapproving statement, then it's game over...
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SG, I saw that Warren quote-Digby I think-the guy is a nice, friendly, palatable tool.
On a much nicer and off topic note I just read the Tuskeegee Airmen will ride in the Inaugural Parade.
http://www.tuskegeeairmen.org/

Great analogy, PNNTO.

Time magazine "reporter" Nina Burleigh declared that she wanted to get on her knees and perform felatio on Boy Clinton because Clinton was such an enthusiast of abortion. Joe Klein wants to get on his knees and service the thoroughly unqualified, clueless, terrorist fraternizing, community organizer because of his mere existence.