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Even Small Steps Matter for Barack Obama and Partisan Washington on Stimulus Package
Tweet Share on Facebook January 30, 2009 Comment (5)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Bonnie is rather dismissive of what she describes as the "veiled myth of post-partisanship" in the Obama years, based on the fact that no House Republicans voted for the stimulus package. "If Mr. Obama's definition of post-partisanship is a more cordial, less harsh atmosphere in which to discuss partisan disagreements, then certainly he's done better on that front than President Bush," Bonnie writes, going on to note that she expected post-partisanship to be bi-partisanship.
I think she's got it wrong—even tonal changes can be significant.
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Bush-Rove-Cheney Democrats and Lying Republicans--a Stimulus Pox on Both Houses
Tweet Share on Facebook January 30, 2009 Comment (6)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I don't know who has bugged me more during the debate over the stimulus bill, the Democrats or the Republicans. Americans, we are constantly reminded, voted for change, but both sides have been playing familiar roles in this legislative process.
Let's start with congressional Democrats, who seem to be operating from the Bush-Rove-Cheney playbook: Declare that the country faces a crisis and then meet it with whatever hoary policy proposals you've been touting anyway. Granted in execution it's also a classic legislative maneuver: When a bill is bound to pass you pack pet projects on for the ride. But for sheer scale and chutzpah, the shady characters from the 43rd presidential administration must be proud. (Ron Brownstein compares the move to Ronald Reagan in 1981.)
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Another Lobbyist Enters the Obama Administration
Tweet Share on Facebook January 29, 2009 Comment (2)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Another former lobbyist enters the Obama administration ...
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Yes, Sarah Palin Is Running for President, Or Getting Ready to Anyway
Tweet Share on Facebook January 29, 2009 Comment (30)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Asked if her new political action committee was an early signal that she is running for president in 2012, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin replied: "No, not at all, not at all, no. It's helpful to have a PAC so that when I'm invited to things even like to speak at the Lincoln Day dinner in Fairbanks, to have a PAC pay for that instead of have the state pay for that because that could be considered quasi-political." Uh-huh. She's being something less than completely honest here, but we can forgive her.
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Sarah Palin, Misunderstood Intellectual? Bring Ideas Back to the Republican Party
Tweet Share on Facebook January 28, 2009 Comment (49)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Sarah Palin has started a PAC, a sure first sign that she plans on maintaining her national profile for at least the next few years (read: Palin '12). A couple of prominent Republican thinkers I saw Tuesday had some interesting comments about Palin and what has come to be identified with Palin-ism (my word, not theirs).
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Why Sarah Palin Has Launched Her New PAC, SarahPAC
Tweet Share on Facebook January 28, 2009 Comment (80)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
What can we deduce from SarahPAC, the new political action committee affiliated with the Alaska governor? That she's not going to go quietly back to Land of the Midnight Sun. SarahPAC is a leadership PAC, a fairly common (the Center for Responsive Politics counted 340 of them in the last election cycle) vehicle for pols who want to play on a national stage. Obama had one, as did Hillary Clinton, and all of the leaders of both parties.
They serve two purposes: Leadership PACs give politicians a fund from which they can make contributions to candidates around the country, building political chits for down the line (a sure sign that Palin is gearing up specifically for a presidential run will be SarahPAC making contributions to New Hampshire and Iowa state-level candidates and parties); and the leadership PAC will also cover her expenses as she flies around the country fundraising and campaigning for Republicans, again stockpiling political chits.
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McCain Adviser Holtz-Eakin Blasts Bush Administration on Editing Climate Change
Tweet Share on Facebook January 27, 2009 Comment (4)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The New American Foundation had an interesting panel this morning on "Repairing the Republican Brand." I'll blog a bit more on it later on, but one comment at the end particularly struck me. The panelists were asked about the Bush-Cheney (or maybe that should be Cheney-Bush) imperial presidential doctrines—not letting White House staff testify before Congress, etc.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, most recently the senior policy adviser for the McCain presidential campaign, made an interesting comment about the Bush administration's practice of rewriting, for example, climate change-related documents: "I don't think there's anything with the Bush administration's censoring of documents that has helped them make their case for their stance on climate change," Holtz-Eakin said. "It's a disgrace. Have the information out, have the debate, and win on the merits. Don't win on the editing process."
Like I said, more later.
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Rush Limbaugh Thinks American Voters Are Fools When He Attacks the Obama Plan
Tweet Share on Facebook January 27, 2009 Comment (40)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Rush Limbaugh thinks the American voters are shortsighted, blindly selfish fools.
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Looking for Loopholes in the Obama Administration Lobbyist Ban--Saving the Sinners
Tweet Share on Facebook January 26, 2009 Comment (3)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
These questions are making the rounds in Washington right now: Can sinners repent and be saved? Can they, through penitent labors for an appropriate amount of time in purgatory, redeem their mortal souls and once again be welcome in the heavenly host? Is this a resurgence by the religious right? No—just the wonderings of those damned souls we in Obama's Washington call Democratic lobbyists.
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The Barack Obama Inaugural and Courtesy to George W. Bush
Tweet Share on Facebook January 26, 2009 Comment (4)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I commented last week on the notion that Barack Obama was mean—or at least insufficiently courteous—to his immediate predecessor in his inaugural address. (Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson, for example, dings Obama for this, among other perceived failings with the speech.)
But as the New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg points out (and as a quick look at previous inaugurals bears out), obligatory expressions of thanks to one's predecessor are a relatively new, post-Watergate phenomenon.
