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Dean Fudges On White House 'Contempt' --
Conjures Obama 'At Heart A Reformer'

By Robert S. Becker

12 January, 2011
Countercurrents.org

Sorry, estimable Gov. Howard Dean, you can’t have it both ways, without contradicting yourself and insulting our intelligence. You can’t incisively condemn exiting top White House staffers for “contempt,” while letting the president off the hook, fantasizing “at heart he’s a reformer.” Either Obama picked his own staff, making him the most establishment-friendly “reformer” in our history -- or he would deserve moral impeachment for negligence in delegating his prime duty.

If Obama is any sort of true reformer, why then did he empower, and stay with, re-cycled Clintonistas plus Blue Dogs plus carryover Republicans like R. Gates and B. Bernanke? Why lavish praise on demonstrable failures, like Larry Summers, rushing to other pastures to spoil? Across job creation, rebalancing national wealth, or saving the middle class, this bunch sucks. Lucky Chicago, regaining Rahm Emanuel's foul moods.

That rarest of party leaders, Dean fearlessly skewered when and why the Obama Non-Miracle Workers flopped, naming names. Face it, Governor, Obama the pushover compromiser got exactly the team he wanted, with similar flaws, like readiness to take flight instead of fight. That really worked well against GOP sharks who eat weaklings for snacks. Look, presidents get the advisers they want, even I say morally deserve. Take W. the Delusional Decider, the most glaring example of the ill-prepared boob perplexed, then dissected and led by his deluded nose.

Perhaps antagonistic, base-slashing staffers co-opted the Obama who ran a brilliant campaign, promising fire and light. Does it matter? Where for Dean does the Obama buck stop -- or start, and why have we suffered two long years of serial crisis management and message failures/defensiveness? Despite Lame-duck gains, this president still doesn't induce leftwing confidence, and the new House majority confirms the GOP still rules, now well beyond the airways. Remember innocent end of life Medicare sessions perverted into “death panels”? All gone, poof, by executive fiat, defeated by Palin and her GOP ReLoaders.

Certainly, no sentient being concludes some Beltway revolving door determined Obama’s fistful of weathered Washington types to run the “reform” West Wing. Decidedly not Ex-Florida Congressman Grayson, assailing this White House as so “packed with Blue Dogs” the president gets no progressive advice on economic, military, or social matters, as the “professional left” said.

Dean Lost in Dreamland?

Nor can Dean get away with facile cheerleading, “The president is at heart a reformer,” when there’s so little push, nor genuine, legislated changes, instead mainly promised second-tier shifts. One biggie, Consumer Protection, could be clipped badly by the new chief of staff; DADT still depends on execution and monitoring, no done deal. "At heart" Obama’s heart is full of trade-offs. Apparently, Dean still yearns for the “audacity of hope” days, overly kind to Obama’s sustained right-centrist picks driving the Bush III whitewash on tax rates, crony capitalism, endless wars, warrantless wiretapping and rights violations.

Interestingly, Dean also fudges on the new WH Chief of Staff, William Daley, declared a winner simply for lacking Rahm infantile temper and divisive insularity. Daley may end up a better chief of staff (could he do worse for the left?), but he’s a duplicate master deal-maker, and more anti-reform than Rahm. Note the background, the top JP Morgan bankster who opposed Consumer Protection and Financial Regs, a NAFTA-loving ex-Clinton Commerce Secretary. Some rush of new blood, circa 1995.

"I don't agree with [Daley} on a lot of stuff politically,” Dean understated, “but I do think -- A), he is a grownup and B), he gets that you don't treat people like you know everything and they don't. If Bill Daley becomes the chief of staff, that is going to be a huge plus because he is outside of Washington, he sees things the way people outside Washington do. It is not a left or right issue." Is this the New Obama re-election mantra: more adult, less rancor, less reform?

Dean conveniently overlooks Obama as still the ultimate “devout non-ideologue.” Or that any reformer worth his salt must hold fast to the occasional principle. Putting the final lie to Dean’s third-down punt (he WANTS his WH calls returned) are Obama’s own surprisingly nasty brew of put-downs, displaying like-minded impatience, ridicule, and scorn to his staff insults.

The Commander of Contempt

1) Last September this president showed his colors, whining about Democratic critics, oddly months before the election:

If we get an historic health-care bill passed -- oh, well, the public option wasn't there. If you get the financial reform bill passed -- then, well, I don't know about this particular derivatives rule, I'm not sure that I'm satisfied with that. And gosh, we haven't yet brought about world peace and -- (laughter.) I thought that was going to happen quicker. (Laughter.) You know who you are.

“Gosh,” indeed. What a flat, off-key joke, like W. hunting up non-existent WMDs while cackling. We certainly know “who you are” -- a fervent war-enthusiast pushing surges and drones while ridiculing honorable peace activists -- whose mission is to stop the U.S. empire from further ignominy. Right, scorn of “world peace” from the very agent finishing the multiple Bush-Cheney crusades for oil, marketplaces, and geo-political leverage. Funny, if not tragic.

2) On the exit of the woeful Larry Summers, having missed every major economic target, the president’s tin-ear wiggled once more, echoing W. after Katrina, “Summers did a heckuva job." Ouch. To which Jon Stewart sheepishly quipped, "You don't want to use that phrase, dude." Or praise failure as if success.

3) Then came that infamous, cranky Rolling Stone interview when Obama, bypassing his own countless mistakes, in advance blamed us “inexcusable,” unserious, dissatisfied Democrats for his party's looming Mid-term losses:

It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election . . . The idea that we've got a lack of enthusiasm in the Democratic base, that people are sitting on their hands complaining, is just irresponsible . . . People need to shake off this lethargy, people need to buck up . . . if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place.

Right, from the compromiser-in-chief, WE have to buck up, stand by our man, and disregard his role is now Scolder-in-Chief? "Inexcusable" is one word, “self-defeating” is another.

Sanctimony Rules

4) Finally, the most judgmental slap of all, when in December Obama impugned leftists as purists, afflicted with "sanctimonious" pride. “Sanctimonious” means “feigned piety, virtue or righteousness,” thus providing the perfect example of the presidential pot, rippling with righteous pride and defensiveness, calling the kettle black.

Then, hyper-sensitive about HIS surrenders on health reform, as if no other choices existed (like fighting hard for the public option), Obama said, "Now, if that's the standard by which we are measuring success or core principles, then let's face it, we will never get anything done . . . I don't think there's a single Democrat out there . . . Take a tally, look at what I promised during the campaign. There's not a single thing that I said that I would do that I have not either done or tried to do.”

"Not a single thing"? Reports verify Obama never fought hard for the pubic option. This mind-boggling set of claims is as deranged as anything from careful Obama, full of tunnel vision, denial, and over-reaction from Mr. Cool. Finally, what sane Democrat, beside mesmerized fans, would not laugh that he's fulfilled everything he “promised during the campaign”?

In sum, this president orchestrated the rain (reign) of contempt towards critical Democrats. He chose enforcers of his right-centrist values and they delivered (even if politically costly). What heart-driven "reformer" wins support when simply equating good governance with the quantity, not quality of bills, with key provisions not yet enacted? Do not these unscripted moments reveal who Obama really is, why he hired on Emanuel, Axelrod, Summers, Gates, Geithner, and Gibbs -- and why we will see more of the same?

Best wishes to Gov. Dean, recovering from temporary lunacy, and we hope a quick return to his piercing criticisms, predictable after the next display of administration contempt or egregious blunder from what still feels lame-ducky.

 




 


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