Posted by
Jennine on Monday, March 16, 2009 7:51:47 PM
Maybe Robert Gibbs is a nice man who is good to his family, loves kids and dogs, and volunteers time and money to people less fortunate than him. I hope so. Here is how he comes across to me as I have watched him through the campaign and now as the Press Secretary, glib, mean-spirited and not very articulate. Today when asked a question about something Dick Cheney said on the Sunday talk shows, Gibbs responded by remarking that Rush Limbaugh must not have been available so they drug out the next most popular person from the Republican "cabal". There was laughter in the Press Room. There are so many different disturbing levels to this response that there is no way to discuss them all. But a few really need some daylight. The first is the continued Obama Administration's campaign to make Rush Limbaugh the new George Bush as a focal point for the far left's vitriol. Let's just go ahead and call the Limbaugh campaign what it is, a Nixon-era dirty tricks campaign. It was abhorrent then, it is abhorrent now, especially coming from an Administration who got elected because they were going to rise above this kind of tactic. And, Robert, this just makes you look so small. It reflects poorly on your boss, who looks small as well, as it is obvious that he is at the very least tacitly encouraging this ridiculous game you boys are playing. It also makes you look like a bully, the kid in the schoolyard who stole other kids lunches, and made fun of those you felt weren't good enough to play with the popular kids. Grow up.
The second issue is the sarcastic response about the Bush Administration. If you disagree with Dick Cheney's remarks, be a big boy and tell the country why. Treat the Press Corps and the American public like thinking adults. I do understand the temptation to treat the Press Corps like children when they behave the way they did today, giggling as the bully kicks the victim. Still, when a question is asked, we, the American people, actually want an answer of substance. How and why do you disagree and what would you or are you, the Obama Administration, going to do differently.
I remember Tony Snow representing George Bush in the Press Room. He used humor, but it wasn't mean-spirited and sarcastic, and he didn't engage in the tactic of trying to look better by demeaning the former administration or the opposition party. From everything I have been able to find out about Tony Snow, he really was a nice guy who loved kids and helped people who were less fortunate. He was also a gracious person and a gentleman. He didn't engage in petty bullying or childish games. His boss, George Bush, was also a gentleman. Although he did inherit many extremely messy and dangerous situations from the Clinton Administration, I never heard President Bush use the blame game to deflect responsibility. Would that Obama could act half as graciously as his predecessor. Maybe when he grows up a bit he too will learn a little humility, and how to accept personal responsibility without the need to proclaim that nothing is his fault.
Robert Gibbs is just another daily reminder that promises and reality bear no relationship to each other. Timothy Geithner was billed as the smartest person in the country and the only person who could pull us out of the financial quagmire. Not so much. Robert Gibbs was going to be the best and smartest Press Secretary ever to step in front of the microphone in the White House Press Room. Not even close. Ah, Tony, I miss you.