Washington Extra – Beware of frank
When officials in Washington describe talks as “frank,” the usual translation is: “didn’t go my way.”
President Barack Obama emerged from a meeting with congressional leaders on the deficit and proclaimed: “People were frank.”
Uh-oh. Doesn’t sound like the president’s persuasive personality prevailed.
So they’re all going to meet again on Sunday, when Obama said he wants to see everyone’s “bottom lines” so they can engage in “the hard bargaining that’s necessary to get a deal done.”
Deals on issues of this magnitude usually go to the wire in this town, and Aug. 2 is still more than three weeks away…
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Washington Extra – Tweet tweet
President Barack Obama’s Twitter Townhall would have been more interesting if he had answered tweet for tweet.
Instead it looked a lot like an old-fashioned interview except the questions came over the transom on Twitter.
Of the tens of thousands of questions posed at #AskObama the ones chosen allowed the president to chew over long-standing talking points but offered little new insight. It might have been worth asking at least one fun question off the well-trodden policy path.
The White House did get into the novelty of it, inviting 140 guests to match the 140 characters allowed in a tweet. And Obama started off the event by tweeting from a laptop with a presidential logo set up on a stand.
But that was the last time during the event that he issued anything so brief. If his spoken answers had been tweeted in full they would have gone way past the red zone that signals over the limit on Twitter.
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Washington Extra – Comfort zones
Senators are talking. The president is talking. But whether they are talking at or with each other is another question.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled a Libya resolution so that senators could focus on debt issues this week, which after all was the reason why they cancelled recess.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell invited President Barack Obama to Capitol Hill to hear why a debt deal with tax increases won’t fly. And then he accepted an invitation from Obama to meet at the White House on Thursday with other congressional leaders.
Obama updated his schedule to comment on debt negotiations. He urged both parties to get out of their “comfort zones” and to leave ultimatums and political rhetoric at the door.
That’s a tall order, but herding everyone into the same room is at least a step.
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Washington Extra – Waiting for fireworks
Will we see fireworks in the debt talks next week?
So far the White House and lawmakers have been cranky about the state of negotiations, but no one has actually drawn a firm line in the sand – still hoping for a compromise.
Senators and staff can’t be happy about having their Fourth of July recess cancelled next week over debt talks, setting up a perfect environment for tempers to flare.
And no matter how much critics try to pooh-pooh the deadline for avoiding default, Treasury is sticking with Aug. 2 as the drop-debt date.
White House economic officials are expected to attend meetings on Capitol Hill next week. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have been invited but it’s unclear whether they will venture over to that end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
They may have to tread carefully to avoid tantrums after Obama likened Congress to children earlier this week.
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Washington Extra – Farewell to arms
Some memorable lines in the farewell tribute for Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
President Barack Obama said when he took office, Gates had already served seven presidents and when asked by a reporter whether he might stay on, Gates replied “inconceivable.” (Turned out to be a case of famous last words…)
Gates, true to his reputation as a plain-spoken guy, said his views about the State Department “evolved” over four decades. “For much of my professional life, the Secretaries of State and Defense were barely speaking to one another,” he said.
But that changed. “In the case of Secretaries Rice and Clinton, I’ve not only been on speaking terms with these two formidable women, we’ve also become cherished colleagues and good friends.”
Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen revealed this gem: “He can throw a barb with the best of them. Like the time he called Washington the only place in the world where someone can walk down lover’s lane holding their own hand.”
Be sure to read Reuters interview with Gates.
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Demonized in Damascus? Kucinich protests
One of the Obama administration’s sharpest critics on the left is coming in for some sharp criticism himself after what appeared to be a friendly visit to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich — an Ohio Democrat who has proposed ordering Obama to halt U.S. participation in NATO airstrikes in the Libya conflict — sat down with Assad in Damascus over the weekend and emerged to face accusations that he was getting too cozy with an autocrat whose security forces have killed some 1,300 people as they attempt to crush a revolt against his rule.
Kucinich said he made the trip, which also included a stop in Lebanon, on his own accord after being requested to go by his constituents.
“I don’t support the violence, I don’t condone the violence and by direct appeal to President Assad and in supporting those who are seeking freedom and serious reforms, I am working to end the violence. I appealed to President Assad to remove his forces from the cities. He told me he would, and today we learned that he has begun to do just that,” Kucinich said in a statement on his official website .
Kucinich’s statement came one day after the Washington Post’s editorial board accused him of “taking the side of Syria’s murderous dictator” in an editorial that blasted him as being too quick to believe Assad’s vague promises of reform.
“The only people who take the regime’s rhetoric seriously are those who wish to defend it, who excuse its horrendous crimes and who oppose genuine democracy in Syria. Mr. Kucinich has just made himself one of the more conspicuous members of that camp,” the Post said.
Rare agreement on Capitol Hill over confirmation process
Stop the presses!
A man-bite-dog moment at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
The normally grid-locked U.S. Senate — Democrats, Republicans, independents — came together and overwhelmingly passed a bill to reduce its workload, curb its power and perhaps even decrease partisan fighting.
Drafted by the chamber’s party leaders, the measure, which now goes to the House of Representatives for anticipated final congressional approval, would slash the number of presidential appointees who need Senate confirmation.
More specifically, it would eliminate the confirmation requirement for about 200 of the 1,200 posts in the executive branch as well as for more than 2,800 members of the U.S. Public Health Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Officer Corps.
Judicial nominees, along with senior department personnel, so-called policy makers, would still need Senate confirmation.
But it would no longer be required for those on part-time boards or commissions or for lower-level adminstrators.
Washington Extra – Breaking glass
The new IMF chief is an accomplished negotiator, an international relations expert and a European finance minister.
The newly elected managing director also made history, and it had nothing to do with credentials. Christine Lagarde in 2011 becomes the first woman to head the IMF.
This is also the year when two women might start vying for the 2012 Republican nomination for president — Michele Bachmann is running, Sarah Palin has yet to reveal her intentions.
Hillary Clinton raised more than a few eyebrows when she broke the first lady mold and ran for Senate after leaving the White House. But when she ran for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president, few batted an eye.
Still, the novelty of women presidential candidates is unlikely to wear off until one takes office.
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Washington Extra – Her Waterloo
It takes some political derring-do to launch a presidential campaign from a town named Waterloo.
After all, in another time, on another continent, that was the locale of Napoleon’s final defeat, from which sprang the term “met his Waterloo.”
Tea Party conservative Michele Bachmann chose Waterloo, Iowa, her birthplace, to announce a run for the Republican presidential nomination. And she wasted no time in going on the offensive.
“Make no mistake about it, Barack Obama will be a one-term president,” Bachmann said.
At the moment her star is rising — a poll of Republicans in Iowa showed her almost even with Mitt Romney, and her strong performance at the New Hampshire debate got people to do a double-take.
If she is able to capture voters outside her conservative Tea Party base, then perhaps “her Waterloo” will come to mean something different.
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Washington Extra – In abeyance
Some say impasse, some say abeyance.
But whatever they call it, debt negotiations between Vice President Joe Biden and lawmakers hit a brick wall.
After two days of meetings this week, Republicans decided it wasn’t worth going to the third session today and walked away.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor took the harsher line, saying the talks were at an “impasse.” Dictionary definition: a situation from which there is no escape or a deadlock.
The White House took a gentler line describing the talks as in “abeyance.” Dictionary definition: temporary inactivity or a suspension.
So now they kick it upstairs. President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid will take over, according to Reid.
That’s two Democrats and one Republican at the table. Does one golf game (Obama and Boehner last Saturday) a compromise make?
