Obama Throws Pelosi Under a Bus for ‘Un-american’ Rant
11 August 2009 9:55 am by Taylor Marsh
“I think there’s actually a pretty long tradition of people shouting at politicians in America,” White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters on Air Force One when asked about the comments. – ABC News
Well, this was predictable. After yesterday’s op-ed, where Pelosi and Hoyer went out on a very long limb calling the town hall brawl inciters “un-American,” today we get the White House sawing off the branch.
…and launching a new website to counter the crazies: Health Insurance Reform Reality Check. The New York Times instant review gives you how traditional media will frame it:
But in introducing the Web site, White House officials were tacitly acknowledging a difficult reality: they are suddenly at risk of losing control of the public debate over a signature issue for Mr. Obama and are now playing defense in a way they have not since last year’s campaign.
Predictable.
As for Obama and Pelosi-Hoyer, I used the same term the other day, labeling Eric Cantor’s rhetoric in Israel un-American, because on foreign soil he offered an opposing foreign policy to the sitting commander in chief. I stand by it and think that’s fitting, especially when you’re doing so in the Middle East, which is fraught with danger on policy. No doubt the White House would disagree, though I have no intention of making a softer statement about what Cantor did, as I know exactly what would have happened if a Dem would have done such a thing to a Rep. president.
But as much as we need to label, ostracize and shame the wingnut town hall mob crew, calling them un-American just sets up their people higher up in the conservative food chain. Peter Daou made that very argument yesterday.
You also have to expect the White House to say something like they did, with Burton’s full statement, he was clear to offer caveats on what he called “our pretty long tradition.”
Now, if you just want to come to a town hall so that you can disrupt and so that you can scream over another person, he doesn’t think that that’s productive.
Last week Robert Gibbs labeled the brawlers as “manufacturing” their outrage.
As I said earlier, labeling the town hall crazies won’t be enough. The “un-American” line simply succeeded in fueling conservatives up the political food chain, got the President involved, who felt he had to cut Pelosi and Hoyer loose.
We’ll see how the President feels after his next town hall.
