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They just can’t stop themselves:
After Obama rips lobbyists, K St. insiders get private briefings
A day after bashing lobbyists, President Barack Obama’s administration has invited K Street insiders to join private briefings on a range of topics addressed in Wednesday’s State of the Union.
The Treasury Department on Thursday morning invited selected individuals to “a series of conference calls with senior Obama administration officials to discuss key aspects of the State of the Union address.”
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The invitation, which is addressed to “Friends,” emphasizes in bold and italics that “this call is for background information only and not intended for press purposes.” It advises callers to tell the operator “you’re joining the ‘White House Briefing Call.’ ”
Apparently everyone in the White House learned the wrong lesson from the Massachusetts election. It’s not that the country loves Republicans, it’s that they hate DC insider deal making. You can’t claim that you’ll “end the outsized influence of lobbyists” one night and then give them exclusive access you consciously try to hide from the press the next day, and expect that people will find it credible.
UPDATE: Dave Johnson from Seeing the Forest emails that the Hill article is a mischaracterization of the call:
I joined two of these calls. The invite came to me through a progressive organization. They were not secret. They were not organized by the Treasury Dept. There were no “lobbyists” asking questions on the calls unless you consider progressive organizations that are C4s to be “lobbyists”.
The calls were following up with details on specific issue areas from last night’s speech. Nothing more.
I have been very critical of Obama in the past and continue to believe that having Geithner in the Cabinet undermines his Presidency and progressives. But this story is completely false and is clearly intended to undermine the Obama Administration’s credibility with progressives.
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That didn’t take long.
Obama is a chimera.
Inspiring in people whatever they hope to see.
Give them a few days, Jane, to hope or dream …
But please, keep on as you are, for soon enough, I suspect, the high spirits will be crash-landing …
Obama cannot resist healing “rifts” because “change is hard”.
Thank you, Jane.
DW
“invited selected individuals”
Damn Jane.. go get them. What do you want us to do. what was that he said?
“To close that credibility gap we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; and to give our people the government they deserve.
That’s what I came to Washington to do. That’s why – for the first time in history – my Administration posts our White House visitors online.”
It’s the way of politics. Obama may be more blatant but the establishment-party is for the dollar not the people.
Consider earmarks and the reference to have “earmark reform”… Why? What is the result? To eliminate them and instead leave these unallocated approved buckets of money for the unelected bureaucrats do what they will?
It’s all a joke. We need to start to recognize and follow the money behind ALL MSM including Fox and realize real change can only be found with people like Ron Paul that are For the People not the Party.
Figures. After the SOTU I get invited to send money and lobbyists get invited to discuss. What a hypocrite. I can’t get over how I fell for his BS hook, line and sinker. Thanks for letting me vent.
if the administration really thinks MA loves Rs, then they have lost all touch with reality.
Oh dear! selise;
I had been hoping that they had only partially lost touch …
Danged hopiness.
Keep on keepin’ on, selise.
You know I like the cut of your jib.
;~DW
LOL. i can’t believe they really think that. as far as i can tell, MA only votes R in statewide elections when the Ds have pissed us off in some way that is too much to take.
must be just the story line they are putting out (i hope! — hopiness lives on here too. *g*). what i’m really watching for is what the progressives in the house do in response to MA (and now, OR votes).
fwiw, i didn’t vote coakley either:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/25143
Exactly. Thank you Jane!!
O campaigned on excluding lobbyists. Did *nothing.* Now he trots this out again. AND. DOES. THE. OPPOSITE. Again.
How many hours did that take …. *twelve?* Is that ONE news cycle? Or just one half?
Like selise says … Too. Much. To. Take.
We are getting the word out pups!
re “invited to send money” …
Mine was from Nancy Pelosi for the DCCC, asking to help meet a $100,000 end-January goal so that the Republicans couldn’t argue that the public didn’t support President and Party.
And House members would match 2:1 … making contributions to themselves. Incumbency has its benefits.
And I’d thought I was as pissed off as I could get.
Well done Jane, good job in correcting the story, unfortunately most newspapers or other journalists wouldn’t bother issueing a correction, you did swiftly and those shows a lot of integrity.
OT – Rep. Jim Moran said on MSNBC’s The Ed Show this hour that he expects the House to get nothing more than a national exchange as a “fix” to the Senate bill and that he expects Pelosi to get the votes to pass it. He explicitly said there will be no public option. Implicit in what he said was that the mandate will remain.
Ditto
The Hill article may have mischaracterized the conference calls, but this statement about the lesson from the Massachusetts election is still correct:
Obama and congressional Democrats should take note.
Jane, can you post an image of the invitation?
It’s kabuki democracy. Publicly beat up the people with whom you are privately in cahoots. That way the public couldn’t possibly think you were corrupt because you said those bad things.
Nancy Pelosi did the same thing — said bad things about the insurance industry, then went to a huge fundraiser held in her honor by the medical insurance industry.
Here’s whats going on. Obama has a split personality. Sometimes we see Barry the white Harvard educated Corp. lawyer who plays golf and is from the Mid-west, he’s the cool unflappable guy that mets with the Corp. lobbyists etc. The other guy is the one we all voted for is Barak Obama the passionate Black community organizer and liberal activist lawyer from the South side of Chicago that likes a game of pick up Basketball. They both exist inside the head of this man but the guy running the show in the WH is Barry. Does anyone else have a better explanation for the total disconnect between what Barak says in public and Barry does in private?
As if they had any credibility left.
Ha ha beat you to this one Jane!!
Although your time is obviously earlier but not posted. Isn’t it great how that feel good speech meant absolutely nothing? Sad. This guy is so in bed with corporations that he makes Bush look honest. Who the heck keeps giving him this great advice, Cheney or Rove? Guess he had to calm down his corporate buddies and tell them all his speaking last night was just rhetoric and not to worry…*wink wink*
Your theory would work just as well without any racial descriptors. They actually detract from the theory since the reader is left wondering why you thought they were necessary.
Yes, I can think of a better explanation than multiple personality disorder. Barack Obama is a lying politician.
Dave Johnson from Seeing the Forest:
I think this was a great speech. He spoke to Americans as adults. He didn’t use any gimmicks.
He scolded Democrats for being chickenshits, and the Republicans for blocking everything.
George:
Anyone know Mr. Johnson? Please invite him to FDL. I would love to debate him on whether or not this was, in fact, “a great speeech”.
You too, right?
We could tie the discussion into a debate over whether or not Obama gave “great speeches” on the campaign trail. Then we could discuss the gap between the rhetoric of candidate Obama and the reality of President Obama.
Finally, we could compare and contrast the Bush administration’s foreign and economic policiy with the Obama administration’s. We could tie this in turn into how the Bush administration and the Obama administration approached K Street.
Talk about missing the forest for the trees.
So, Jane, by all means, invite him over.
Agree with ratfood, shorter answer: he’s lying.
Bluto’s explanation sort of exonerates (or reads that way) BHO in a way cuz it kinda implies a personality disorder over which he may have no control or something. I think Rahmbama knows exactly what he’s doing and why. And I don’t think he loses one wink of sleep over it. Money talks.
I thought the speech completely sucked on every level. But then again, my stomach turns when I’m being blatantly lied to.
But even taken on the level of a still starry-eyed constituent who somehow is able to believe that BHO “means well” and/or is “really their president” or whatever, I still thought the speech sucked. It was crappy. Not his finest hour. For all his numerous faults, BHO can be a great orator. The SOTU last night did not exemplify even the skills that he does have.
Obama may be the Great Svengali. People see and hear what they want to see and hear. Perhaps he thinks people will be so mesmerized by his rhetoric that they won’t pay attention to what he actually does.
Authorizing drone strikes on defenseless villages in a third world country is not a sign of a person knowing what he is doing. It’s a sign of a person teetering over an abyss of madness.
Had a BIG argument tonight with some “centrist” friends. I backed them into a corner when I asked them to name the major issues and policies in which Obama differed from Bush. They snarfed and goorpled.
Wish I’d known about his meetings with health insurance lobbyists and execs, and his efforts to hide those meetings; then I could have asked them who wanted to try to put lipstick on THAT pig.
Not that it matters. I don’t think we’ll be having dinner again anytime soon. They said: “It’s people like you who are tearing the democratic party apart.”
I said: The new democratic party campaign slogan: “Vote for us. We’re not as bad as the republicans.”
We left it at that and I came home…sad but also angry that so many democrats are willing to play the the perpetual victims yet again.
Right now on Rachel Maddow, Maddow is deconstructing the SOTU. Her analysis reflects in so many sad [even pathetic] ways the utter limitations of the “liberal” attack against Obama and Wall Street.
Basically, Maddow is embracing Obama’s speech. She sets him up as someone who is truly opposed to “the banks”. She embraces the absurd narrative that all the problems in our country can be reduced down to the good Democrats versus the evil Republicans.
Complete bullshit.
Obama has amasssed sixteen million dollars from the “securities and investment” industry….over the course of a very short political career. He accepted six million dollars from the bankers for his Inaugguration galas. He stocked his economic team solely with men and women of, by and for the big banks on Wall Street.
Why does Maddow refuse to connect these dots?
Now she has Senator Robert Mennendez from New Jersey on to shore up her argument that it is the evil Republicans who facilitate Wall Street and the banks in gouging Main Street.
Here are the top ten corporate contributers to his campaigns:
Lawyers/Law Firms $2,733,877
Real Estate $1,786,146
Construction Services $1,089,649
General Contractors $964,532
Securities & Investment $891,587
Transportation Unions $535,881
Health Professionals $519,869
Insurance $491,079
Business Services $478,524
Retired $382,765
Lobbyists $380,140
How is this Congressman not just another DLC Wall Street Democrat?
I try to give Madow the benefit of the doubt here. I try to convince myself she is as fully aware of how the Bilderberg world works as I am am. I try to convince myself she is embracing Obama and the Democrats now only because she fears a BeckWorld ascendency in the Fall. Something, it can legitimately be argued is many times worse.
Maybe.
But then again maybe not. Maybe she, just like her buddy Al Franken [who just voted to reup Bernanke at the Fed] is just as duped as most other Ammericans regarding how “democracy” really unfolds between New York and Washington.
Oddly this thread seems to have “disappeared” from FDL.
At least for now.
That was not my statement, looks like you hit the wrong reply button.
It was meant as a joke. Of course he knows what he’s doing.
Rachael, Ed, Keith are all ok as far as it goes but they don’t want to lose their access to the DC crowd either so they can only push so far.
I have to download Keith and Rachel’s podcasts to watch them, but Rachel isn’t really worth the trouble anymore.
Her abhorrent cheerleading over the Haitian earthquake debacle is utterly distasteful and less than truthful, and she’s doing it more often all the time. Jon Stewart even called her out on it.
Keith’s is more of a tabloid show, but he doesn’t stoop to the level she’s descending too, even if he rants.
In the end, do they all become starfuckers?
That’s what I’ve noticed with Maddow. A descent. But why? That really puzzles me. Has she tasted fame and fortune and deecided not to pursue politica angles that might jeopardize it?
It doesn’t matter who you put in front of the telepromptor…. our main stream media has much the same problem as our banks. Bigness. Both need a breakup and size regulations. I think Maddow would rock in a smaller format where she had a bit more room to move.
As for Obama’s SOTU, it was fine but words have to start being matched with action or they’re going to be a backlash against incumbants in the upcoming elections.
And oh yeah, they need to drop the Orwellian naming of government programs. If you have a 75 Billion dollar program to help banks with an ugly realestate market then please name it “Help for Bankers”. Don’t call it “Help for Homeowners” because those aren’t the folks that the program is helping.