Please, Santa, all I'm wishing for this year is that bipartisanship is dead dead dead:
It was billed as a high-noon cease-fire between President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans, but the rare, private Capitol Hill meeting instead shot holes in the notion of any bipartisanship this election year.
If true, this is terrific news.
"We want to see if we can get some more work done," Obama told reporters on the way into the session.
Soon enough, he had his answer, in bitter terms.
Good. But is he listening to that answer? Dear President Obama: THEY WANT YOU TO FAIL.
There were apparently a whole bunch of whiny-ass titty babies on the GOP side in that meeting, chief among them Bob Corker:
When Obama appealed for bipartisanship on legislation in the six months remaining before Election Day, freshman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., confronted him, the senator later told reporters.
"I told him I thought there was a degree of audacity in him even showing up today after what happened with financial regulation," Corker said after the meeting. "I asked him how he was able to reconcile that duplicity, coming in today to see us."
Keep in mind, Corker's the one with whom Chris Dodd spent months negotiating on the financial reform bill that just passed. But when even Dodd, who is in bed with the banks, couldn't make any more concessions, the talks were broken off.
Greg Sargent at The Plum Line has more from the weepy Corker:
I just spoke briefly to Senator Bob Corker, and he shed a bit more light on what happened: Apparently Obama got irked because Corker told him that he felt like the President hadn't been genuinely bipartisan, making Corker feel like a "prop."
The poor dear. Apparently, it is the duty of the POTUS and the majority party to make people like Bob Corker feel important. Cuz, you know, he's like the whole point of it all, right?
More sniveling:
"I felt like there was a degree of audacity in him being there today, after passing his third large partisan bill," Corker told me, insisting Republicans had been stiff-armed by the Whte House on financial reform, health care, and the stimulus.
"I told him I felt like a prop afer the actions they had taken regarding bipartisanship," Corker said. "It hit a nerve."
Corker added that Obama came back at him with "quite a lengthy response," but he declined to share what, precisely, the president said.
I very much hope that Obama's "lengthy response" to Corker included a thorough history of the past 16 months of nonstop Republican obstructionism. On, you know, everything.
Angry old man John McCain also shook his fist:
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he told Obama that he had mischaracterized Arizona's new immigration law as being "open to discrimination."
"I pointed out that members of his administration who have not read the law have mischaracterized the law — a very egregious act on their part," McCain said afterward.
White House spokesman Bill Burton said Obama told McCain that he has read the Arizona law himself and stands by his comments.
C'mon, John, you surely remember from the debates that Obama is a guy who does his homework. On the other hand, maybe you don't remember the debates.
One last bleat from Corker:
Corker told reporters, "I just wanted him to tell me how when he wakes up in the morning, comes over to luncheon like ours today, how does he reconcile that duplicity?"
There are a lot of things you can say about President Obama, and he's certainly come in for his share of criticism lately. But seriously, what sentient being can honestly assert that he hasn't bent over backwards (to a fault) to be bipartisan? The GOP, that's who. If you can call them sentient.
Honestly, there isn't enough Kleenex in the world to dry the tears of those whiny bitches.
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Thanks to jj32 in comments for this gem:
"The more he talked the more he got upset," Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) said. "He needs to [take] a valium before he comes in and talks to Republicans and just calm down, and don't take anything so seriously. If you disagree with someone, it doesn't mean you're attacking their motives -- and he takes it that way and tends then to lecture and then gets upset."
Seriously, can I add a WTF tag?