Dana Milbank: Obama should listen to Rahm. Liberals don't know what they're doing

[ohiodemocratic]

Yesterday, the journalist who was stripped of a Washington Post section for calling Hillary Clinton a "bitch," has high praise for Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel:

Milbank (Washington Post) 2-22-2010: "The president would have been better off heeding Emanuel's counsel. For example, Emanuel bitterly opposed former White House counsel Greg Craig's effort to close the Guantanamo Bay prison within a year, arguing that it wasn't politically feasible. Obama overruled Emanuel, the deadline wasn't met, and Republicans pounced on the president and the Democrats for trying to bring terrorists to U.S. prisons. Likewise, Emanuel fought fiercely against Attorney General Eric Holder's plan to send Khalid Sheik Mohammed to New York for a trial. Emanuel lost, and the result was another political fiasco.

Obama's greatest mistake was failing to listen to Emanuel on health care. Early on, Emanuel argued for a smaller bill with popular items, such as expanding health coverage for children and young adults, that could win some Republican support. He opposed the public option as a needless distraction.

The president disregarded that strategy and sided with Capitol Hill liberals who hoped to ram a larger, less popular bill through Congress with Democratic votes only. The result was, as the world now knows, disastrous.

Had it gone Emanuel's way, a politically popular health-care bill would have passed long ago, leaving plenty of time for other attractive priorities, such as efforts to make college more affordable. We would have seen a continuation of the momentum of the first half of 2009, when Obama followed Emanuel's strategy and got 11 substantive bills on his desk before the August recess. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/19/AR2010021904298.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[zipplewrath]

1. Back handed rebuke of Rahm

This article is kinda funny. It is intended upon being an article supportive of Rahm. But really, in the end it basically says that Rahm can't execute Obama's agenda, and in fact argues against it. Maybe someone needs to point out who got elected. Better yet, maybe someone needs to get out of the way.

[panader0]

2. Fuck Dana Millbank

[whathehell]

3. Milbank is a smarmy dickhead...It doesn't surprise me that he's rooting for Rahm..another creep.

[hlthe2b]

4. Be sure to read Cenk Ughar's take on this as discussed here

yesterday... I don't necessarily agree with him that Rahm is imminently on the way out, but it seems clear that he dictated this to his willing stenographer, Milbank

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7765748

[Captain Hilts]

5. Milbank is a Yale/Skull and Bones privileged elitist.

And, by the way, calling women 'bitches' is okay with too many people.

[Bumblebee]

6. don't you see that he is sowing seeds of trouble on purpose because he knows

how much controversy, real or imagined, there is about Rahm? Feel free to fall for it, of course.

[jaxx]

7. I always remember when KO banned Milbank from Countdown

KO knew he had become a snake in the grass.