Bloggers reject White House ‘fringe’ denial, want ‘anonymous adviser’ outed

By Kathleen Miller
Monday, October 12th, 2009 -- 1:50 pm
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Barack Obama Bloggers reject White House fringe denial, want anonymous adviser outed

The Obama administration has disavowed statements from an "anonymous adviser" that, according to a CNBC reporter, said the White House feels bloggers need to ""take off their pajamas" but many in the blogosphere aren't buying the White House denial.

CNBC's John Harwood quoted the nameless White House adviser in a report Sunday night about whether Obama is concerned about criticisms of his administration from some in the GLBT community and other progressives.

Harwood said: "...If you look at the polling, Barack Obama is doing well with 90% or more of Democrats so the White House views this opposition as really part of the '"internet left fringe,'" in the Sunday night segement.  "And for a sign of how seriously the White House does or doesn’t take this opposition, one adviser told me today those bloggers need to take off their pajamas, get dressed and realize that governing a closely divided country is complicated and difficult."

White House Senior Communications Adviser Dan Pfeiffer shot down the unattributed statements in an e-mail Monday morning to The Plum Line's Greg Sargent, but some bloggers believe the anonymous statements reflect the true feelings of many Obama officials.

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Salon's Glenn Greenwald said in a post that the "only thing remarkable about the comments Harwood passed on is that anyone would be surprised by them."

Greenwald noted the administration's "particular disdain for any instruments -- blogs, marches and  protests -- which the White House cannot control, which exist independent of the tightly coordinated, Rahm-dominated "veal pen" messaging system to which so many leading progressive organizations have meekly submitted themselves in order to ensure their own continued access, funding and future career options within the Democratic establishment."

Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake notes the president himself has said "that blogs aren’t reliable, and dismissed bloggers as 'people shouting at each other across the void.'”

" In this case — as frequently happens — “anonymity” was requested by the White House for the purpose of saying something that they didn’t want to publicly own — for good reason," Hamsher wrote.

John Aravosis of Americablog echoed the same theme.

"There is a pattern of disdain for, and distrust of, the blogs that started with the Obama campaign two years ago, and now has extended into the Obama White House," he wrote.

Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend said the comments repeated by Harwood are "an insult to people like me (and readers), who know how complicated governing and legislating are."

"SOMEONE needs to take responsibility for the statement because it is someone's POV, one believed to be widely held by insiders about progressive bloggers, but never articulated so boldly," Spaulding said in her post.

"I blog and work a full time job, at the expense of my own health, not to be a muckraker, but to make a difference," Spaulding said. "If someone has a different perspective and dismisses me outright, I do have a right to be angry and demand someone own their statement. When I say something it's straight up, you mean to tell me no one has the stones to own their opinions up there? That's pathetic. Anonymous or not, the statement's out there now for all to see."

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Story comments are below...

  • trippin
    This mother fucker better start dancin with the people who brung him instead of kissing the ass of the people who didn't --- because I got some news for that anonymous source: my mother fuckin' clothes are ON, bitch, I vote, and I have a memory like a steel trap. Trust me.

    Don't fuckin' cry the blues about how hard it is: we gave your sorry fucking ass a supermajority in both Houses.

    If you don't start gettin some shit done and knocking some Democratic heads together to do it, you'll become what people wearing pajamas eat for breakfast, namely, TOAST. I don't live for Rahm Emanuel's love.
  • malikk
    AY I AGREE with you trippin, but check this mind blowing shit out i just learned THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS IN FACT A CORPERATION, INCORPERATED IN THE STATE OF DELEWARE and its headquaters are in the district of columbia.
    and the reason obama does nt listen to WE THE PEOPLE is because he does'nt have to answer to the people any more.

    lisa guliani wrote
    Instead of having absolute and unalienable rights guaranteed under the organic Constitution, we the people now have "relative" rights or privileges. One example is the Sovereign's right to travel, which has now been transformed (under corporate government policy) into a "privilege" that requires citizens to be licensed.

    By passing the Act of 1871, Congress committed TREASON against the People who were Sovereign under the grants and decrees of the Declaration of Independence and the organic Constitution.
    google the act of 1871 read it carefully .
    we are peasants.tenant farmers and slaves to this corperation called the united state corperation
    and dont believe me do your investigation. bet you did'nt learn this shit in school did you trippin or anyone else .
    I am not a religious man but THANK GOD FOR THE INTERNET with the internet these motherfuckers cant hide the truth from we the people anymore.
    these motherfuckers ,these rats, scumbags will run like roaches in the kitchen when the lights are turned on.
  • DeadFed
    I agree with you malikk, and have heard same. I do have a caveat for those that have betrayed the people through the aforementioned secret creation of the United States corporation.

    You see, they may operate as if their plot has worked. But it must at all times remain a secret. Today it does work for them. They beat us one at a time in court all the time.

    At some point though this whole charade of "land of the free" bullshit will have to overtly be stated by them. They obviously can't really can't do that. The information you have divulged if widely KNOWN (not as conspiracy) would change peoples minds about a lot.

    Maybe at that time differences on abortion, free markets, trade et. al. would dematerialize instantly and we'd become the united states again (lower not upper case on purpose, you can read up on that one too).
  • Yomama
    Here fucking Here. I'm sick of all this utter bullshit. We are the masters, they are our servants. The whole system is utterly corrupted to the core. I've had enough with the graft, the backroom dealing, the constant attack on WE THE PEOPLE. They should be pelted with rotten vegetables by millions of people every time these human jokes walk outside until we get what we want.
  • douvie
    Amen.
  • This is ridiculous! First, the cry is to have Obama magically and instantly get rid of DADT and DOMA as if he were a dictator who could change the law by fiat. And not 48 hours after he flatly declares that he supports the repeal of DADT.

    Then, they want some anonymous bozo who is said to have disparaged their activism drawn-and-quartered in public because they're angry.

    If the LGBT community wants to be treated like a civil rights movement, it should damned well start behaving like one. It took the Southern Leadership Conference over ten years to go from the Birmingham Bus Boycotts to The Civil Rights Bill of 1965. Sounds like someone needs to get a serious grip!
  • FunMe
    Oh please. Oh you might as well say STFU. Or "have patience". Or, it's only been ____ (fill in months/years). yada, yada, yada

    The fact of the matter is that this president is doing nothing to help move forward GLBT equality in this nation. Still today there are Gay soldiers being discharged, yet he refuses to have a stop loss. His own DOJ fights to keep DOMA and equates gays/lesbians to pedophiles.

    The GLBT is pressuring Obama to keep the promises he made.

    It's that simple. Yet now that he is President he does very little to advance the cause.

    You obviously learned nothing of the Civil Rights movement other than telling others how they should "behave".

    Get out of the way because people like you have no true understand of the Civil Rights movements.
  • basher72
    FunMe, you should understand - as Ron Drake pointed out - that the president cannot change the law by fiat - he can only suspend it through presidential executive order... then his successor - like another right-wing religious fanatic republican, can change it back.

    Real change comes when the Congress repeals the law permanently - which I'm sure is the route that Obama is taking.

    As Ron said, these things take time - the world doesn't revolve around your (or my) schedule.

    Resolution of LGBT issues in this country - and in the world - is as urgent a priority to me as it is to you. If you want to help, you have to be patient - and you have to be supportive. The other side isn't going to help you - ever.
  • AlanSmithee
    That's right! STFU, sit quietly and send your check when we tell you to. You fags are too stupid to understand how any of this works.
  • DeadFed
    Your movement is selfish and arrogant. You don't need a government to ordain you as a loving couple. You don't need validation of your sexuality to serve. Black civil rights was a far more brutal and violent affront to humanity. Your time will and is coming..... be patient. The impatience and in your face approach of your movement only illustrates the immaturity of it.
  • AlanSmithee
    Yeah! Who do you think you are anyway? STFU, faggots! HOW DARE YOU question Obama!
  • Yomama
    Whatever you say NeoCon Dem (TM). Obama himself supported what they are doing when he talked about urgency of now. Gay people have been thrown out of their homes, denied transfer of property, denied visitation rights for their spouses. Remember the HOLOCAUST? FUCKING TURD. There were thousands of gay people who were treated worse than Jews. Or how about the thousands of gay people who kill themselves every year? I guess their just cattle, right? They've been spat on by the media and ridiculed by podunk bigots like you. So why don't you shut the fuck up and go Bill O'Reilly.
  • damixaustex
    "The fact of the matter is that this president is doing nothing to help move forward GLBT equality in this nation."

    How can you say that? Doing nothing? Keynote at HRC is nothing?

    My retired mother emailed me today to say she was happy to finally see a President so openly discussing gay issues and that she supported his stance to repeal DADT. She called it silly and outdated. I told her to be sure and mention that in church and she said she would.

    That's nothing? I think it's a lot.
    I understand your impatience, but there's no reason to make shit up. You should understand, too, if GLBT community tries to tell the President how to do his job, it will backfire in terms of support.
  • AlanSmithee
    That's right, faggots! Now STFU and get in the back of the bus.

    And send your checks in to HRC. Stupid fags.
  • Yomama
    They've fought for thirty years you pathetic joke of a human being. The time is now, when the power of the Democrats is at it's apex. And yes he could change DADT with the sign of a pen idiot. It's called an executive order. How do you think Don't Ask Don't Tell got to be policy in the first place? It is military policy, not a law of the land or government. The president controls and adjusts MILITARY POLICY. Just as he controls and adjusts FOREIGN POLICY. You ignorant schmucks need to go back to school and read up on government.
  • michael
    Hey jimbo!
    imwc obviously does have the same "pov" for Bush you intellectually dishonest tool.
    He/she called for prosecutions of the Bush administration right in the comment.

    But you could see that, couldn't you?

    You could see the valid point was not partisan in nature, couldn't you?

    Is it your job to try to push any legitimate points of criticism into the Republican Vs. Democrat box?

    How much are you getting paid to reinforce the falsehood of opposition put forward by both lying parties?

    Or are you a fool who still believes Obama stands for anything he campaigned on?

    Or, perhaps you will call me a republican now?
  • damixaustex
    Erm, michael, can't you see that imwc had some bad grammar going on and jimbo misunderstood the post?
    It happens. Read it again. You'll see.
  • jimbo
    imwc, treason, precisely, for what? Did you have the same pov for the bush administration? Or are you just another republican fool?
  • "Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake notes the president himself has said "that blogs aren’t reliable, and dismissed bloggers as 'people shouting at each other across the void.'” "

    That didn't stop him from manipulating the bloggosphere to get all the bloggers he could to vote for him, though!

    Wha'd'up with that, Mr President? The blogosphere very RELIABLY brought you through the Senate to the White House!
  • dhfsfc
    Yeah, they only elected his sorry ass!
  • imwc
    i tune into raw every day, hoping the first headline i read says, the whole monkey administration has been arrested and charged with treason...but with obummer as president, i see that possibility fading farther and farhter away...making obummer an accomplice to said treason...
  • DeadFed
    I feel the same way but it was more like hoping the shrub was gonna get his due along with that whole criminal lot. I do hope to see that some time soon.
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