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Jewish World Review
July 26, 2011
24 Tamuz, 5771
Obama and Boehner take on Washington
By
Dana Milbank
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
President Obama and House Speaker John Boehnerresumed their wrestling match Monday night in front of a national television audience. But this time, they were united by a common foe.
The president, in his address to the nation from the East Room of the White House, warned of "a deep economic crisis, this one caused almost entirely by Washington."
The speaker, in his response, complained that "in Washington, more spending and more debt is business as usual. Well, I've got news for Washington: Those days are over."
Obama said Americans are "fed up with a town where compromise has become a dirty word."
Boehner complained about "phony accounting and Washington gimmicks."
There is something rich about the president of the United States and the speaker of the House pretending that they are somehow not part of Washington. If these two aren't Washington, what is? The International Spy Museum? Ben's Chili Bowl? Wolf Blitzer?
Actually, the ones really bollixing up the debt-limit talks are the newest arrivals in town, the freshmen Republicans who have handcuffed Boehner and prevented him from striking any sort of deal with Obama. The president and speaker shouldn't be blaming Washington; they should be blaming Utah (which sent us Sen. Mike Lee) or Florida (which gave us Rep. Allen West).
But Boehner and Obama won't get far campaigning against Salt Lake City. And they can't wring much more out of their old talking points. (Obama revived his crusade against corporate jet owners, oil companies and hedge fund managers, while Boehner attempted to argue that five Democratic votes for his "Cut, Cap and Balance" bill made it a "bipartisan.")
With polls showing that four out of five Americans are displeased with the federal government, campaigning against Washington is a no-brainer. Obama presented himself as the protector of average Americans, so they don't "become collateral damage to Washington's political warfare."
Americans see "the same partisan three-ring circus here in Washington," Obama-the-outsider said. "They see leaders who can't seem to come together and do what it takes," he said - as if he held no position of authority in this town.
Boehner then said that, when he came to Washington, "I was amazed at how different Washington, DC, operated than every other business in America." He didn't mention that he arrived in Washington 21 years ago.
Sorry, gents, but the president and the speaker don't get to campaign against Washington. You are Washington.
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Previously:
• 07/21/11 Why Americans are angry at Congress
• 07/20/11 The new party of Reagan
• 07/18/11 Rob Portman, the boring Midwesterner who could bring sanity to the debt debate
• 07/13/11 John Boehner's bind
• 07/04/11 Stephen Colbert, Karl Rove and the mockery of campaign finance
• 07/01/11 President Puts Up His Dukes, As He Ought To
• 06/28/11 Rod Blagojevich verdict: All shook up
• 06/27/11 Progressives voice their anger at Obama
• 06/24/11 ‘Mission accomplished,’ Obama style
• 06/22/11 Jon Huntsman's first step toward oblivion
• 06/21/11 Scott Walker finds making bumper stickers is easier than creating jobs
• 06/20/11 A day of awkwardness with Mitt Romney
• 06/06/11 Hubris and humility: Sarah Palin and Robert Gates on tour
• 06/02/11 The Weiner roast
• 06/01/11 Congress clocks in to clock out
• 05/30/11 Hermanator II: No More Mr. Gadfly
• 05/24/11 How Obama has empowered Netanyahu
• 05/24/11 Pawlenty bends his truth-telling
• 05/20/11 Default deniers say it's all a hoax
• 05/18/11: Gingrich gives voice to moderation
• 05/17/11: Donald Trump and the House of Horrors
• 05/16/11: The medical mystery of Mitt Romney
• 05/12/11: The body impolitic: Schock photos should tempt lawmakers to cover up
• 05/10/11: Muskets in hand, tea party blasts House Republicans
• 05/09/11: The GOP debate: America -- and the party -- needs the grown-ups
• 05/05/11: Mitch Daniels, an alternative to scary
• 05/03/11: Obama's victory lap
• 05/02/11: How the journalist prom got out of control
• 04/28/11: Obama's birther day: Why did he lower himself by appearing in the briefing room?
• 04/27/11: Obama, lost in thought
• 04/24/11: Andrew Breitbart and the rifts on the right
• 04/22/11: Ten Commandments for 2012
• 04/21/11: Obama likes Facebook. Facebook likes Obama.
• 04/18/11: Without Nancy Pelosi, Obama is adrift
• 04/15/11: If progressives ran the world
• 04/14/11: Faith in political apostasy
• 04/13/11: One man's revolution is another's political expediency
• 04/11/11: Shutdown theatrics
• 04/06/11: Paul Ryan's irresponsible budget
• 04/05/11: Robots in Congress? Yes, we replicant!
• 04/04/11: Robert Gibbs, Facebook and the White House corporate placement service
• 04/01/11: Haley Barbour, the fat cats' candidate
• 03/31/11: Republican freshmen in House shut down compromise, and possibly the government
• 03/30/11: Coburn and Durbin, the dynamic duo of the debt crisis
• 03/28/11: The Obama doctrine: A gray area the size of Libya
• 03/24/11: Dems as Weiners
• 03/23/11: Obama's quick trip from tyrant to weakling
• 03/17/11: Who's afraid of Elizabeth Warren?
• 03/15/11: The underwear flap over Bradley Manning
• 03/10/11: In Senate's debt debate, talk isn't cheap
• 03/09/11: With Obama's new Gitmo policy, Administration officials had some 'splainin to do
• 03/02/11: Issa press aide scandal is like bad reality TV
• 02/25/11: Jay Carney: Mouthpiece for an inscrutable White House
• 02/14/11: The Donald trumps the pols at CPAC
• 02/09/11: Arianna Huffington's ideological transformation
© 2011, Washington Post Writers Group
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