The whole story

By GottaLaff

An interesting tidbit from Greg Sargent:

Jane Hamsher calls for the resignation of Rep Lynn Woolsey as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, partly because Woolsey told me she’d back the Senate bill with a good reconciliation fix even without the public option.

I want to clarify one point I should have made the other day: Woolsey also told me she’d introduce a bill creating a public option on the same day as voting for the Senate measure.

Communication is everything.

Geithner is "at his most impressive when the cameras are off."

By GottaLaff

I'd rather he have ability and fix things than look pretty or have the oratory skills of, say, President Obama:

Margaret Carlson says Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is "at his most impressive when the cameras are off."

"Here's Geithner's problem: He's an Inside Man. Inside Man has the brain of Einstein and the presence of a flea. Inside Man can't catch a break in our telegenic age."

She makes a good point. Telegenics plays way too big a role these days. On the other hand, it does help to be able to communicate effectively.

Sidebar: Is Prez O getting credit for this? Because, when it drops, it's all his fault:

(At the time of this post, it was at about +155)

Obama plans regular press conferences

By GottaLaff

Prez O is best when he communicates his own ideas, because he does it better than anyone else by a longshot. Looks like he's up for a lot more of that:

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that President Obama enjoyed his first prime time news conference Monday evening — and plans to stick with a campaign promise to hold them regularly in the future. [...]

Gibbs also confirmed that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited Obama at the White House Tuesday morning and formally invited Obama to speak before a joint session of Congress February 24, and the President accepted that invitation.

This is a very good thing. Keep the lines open, say what you mean, be inclusive. Very impressive.

National Security Adviser Jones: "It's my job to make sure that minority opinion is represented...I'm going to tell him what I think."

By GottaLaff

What a difference one election makes. Never, ever again do I want to hear that one presidential candidate is the same as another, so it makes no difference which one gets someone's vote. Think about Bush's time in office. Now take a look at what you get with President Obama:

President Obama plans to order a sweeping overhaul of the National Security Council, expanding its membership and increasing its authority to set strategy across a wide spectrum of international and domestic issues.

The result will be a "dramatically different" NSC from that of the Bush administration or any of its predecessors since the forum was established after World War II to advise the president on diplomatic and military matters, according to national security adviser James L. Jones, who described the changes in an interview. [...]

Jones, a retired Marine general, made it clear that he will run the process and be the primary conduit of national security advice to Obama, eliminating the "back channels" that at times in the Bush administration allowed Cabinet secretaries and the vice president's office to unilaterally influence and make policy out of view of the others.

"We're not always going to agree on everything," Jones said, and "so it's my job to make sure that minority opinion is represented" to the president. "But if at the end of the day he turns to me and says, 'Well, what do you think, Jones?,' I'm going to tell him what I think." [...]

New NSC directorates will deal with such department-spanning 21st-century issues as cybersecurity, energy, climate change, nation-building and infrastructure. Many of the functions of the Homeland Security Council, established as a separate White House entity by President Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, may be subsumed into the expanded NSC, although it is still undetermined whether elements of the HSC will remain as a separate body within the White House. [...]

The national security process, he said, will also be "transparent to its clients" inside the administration, with meeting agendas and outcomes made available to "the whole community" in real time. [...]

Jones said he sees an administration filled with colleagues rather than competitors. Since Jan. 20, "I've had more meetings with the secretary of state and the secretary of defense than I've had in my entire lifetime," said Jones, who served as Marine Corps commandant, NATO military chief and, under Bush, a special Middle East envoy.

You can almost hear the smile in his voice, even in print.

Change we can comment about

By GottaLaff

Froomkin:

Sometimes, the change is enough to make your head spin. This is one of those moments.

Here's the status quo: A president who has overt contempt for public opinion, who shields himself from opposing views and whose idea of White House Web site interactivity is a video of his dog.

And here's the change: The Obama transition team is actually soliciting public comments on its Web site, reading them and responding to them.

Whenever someone expresses doubts that Obama will bring change to this country, tell them it's not limited to cabinet members, Clintonesque or otherwise. We, the people, are as responsible as anyone for making a difference, as is evidenced by our choice for president.

If we are consistently loud and clear, we can make things happen. We already have. Now Obama has opened a door, providing us with a wonderful opportunity to vocalize.

While that, in itself, is a very welcome contrast/change, we have the responsibility to follow through, make our opinions known, and keep the communication lines open.

Obama Trying to Keep His Blackberry

I can't even imagine trying to wean yourself off that kind of communication. Via Taegan-

An excerpt of the Barbara Walters interview with President-elect Obama to air tomorrow night on ABC News:

WALTERS: How are you going to get along without your Blackberry?

OBAMA: (Laughs). This is a problem. I, you know, one of the things that I'm going to have to work through is how to break through the isolation, the bubble that exists around the president. And I'm in the process of negotiating with the Secret Service, with lawyers, with White House staff.

WALTERS: You might have a Blackberry?

OBAMA: Well, I'm, I'm negotiating to figure out how can I get information from outside of the ten or 12 people who surround my office in the White House. Because, one of the worst things I think that could happen to a president is losing touch with what people are going through day to day.

For background: Why Obama has to give up email.

200,000 resumes + a cell phone = No small change

By GottaLaff

There are a lot of unemployed people out there:

An Obama transition official tells NBC News that they've received more than 200,000 work applications through the official transition web site, www.change.gov. since it went operational shortly after the election.

The same official points out: "There was an incredible amout of enthusiasm in the campaign and people all across the country are carrying that same energy into the transition."

And they don't seem terribly surprised by the influx of applications coming their way -- pointing out, after all, that more than three million people donated money to the campaign.

And to amend this earlier post:

Incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, on Capitol Hill today to meet with House and Senate Republicans, says that the lines of communication will run across the aisle in an Obama administration.

Senate Republicans say that promise includes the famously outgoing Democrat's digits.

I baking powder? Ex-squeeze me? Leave Rahm's digits outta this.

"He gave us all his personal cell phone," said newly-selected Republican Policy Committee Chairman John Ensign, who met with Emanuel today. "He said he promised to get back us on issues within 24 hours."

Oh. Those digits. Wow, all that and a 24 hour turnaround time? That is impressive.

Incoming NRSC Chair John Cornyn praised the fact that Emanuel took the time to reach out to Republican leaders. "He thought it was important enough to come over and spend an hour with us," Cornyn said. "[That] speaks volumes, more than just what he said." The Texas senator added that he's anxious to see "whether the actions match the message." [...]

Ensign, who said that he was "very pleased" with today's conversation with Emanuel, was optimistic about the incoming administration's intentions. "His words were basically 'this is not a head-fake on bipartisanship. This is real.' They really want to work in a bipartisan fashion and it's not about just saying it, they actually plan on doing it," Ensign said. "Those are exactly the right words to use."

Hmmm, I remember a time not so long ago when someone said all Obama had were his words. It seems our new president has already succeeded in bringing change to Washington.

BFCE: Obama camp reaches out to record number of voters

By GottaLaff

BFCE:

In the ABC News / Washington Post poll of Ohio, 37% of those who made it through the likely voter screen said they had been contacted by the Obama campaign in some way or another. That's ten points higher than the number who say they've been contacted by the McCain campaign.

And adding in e-mails or texts, the Obama figure rises to 43% of voters -- probably a record for a presidential campaign.

It's all about communication.

We should be all a-Twitter

By GottaLaff

I get e-mails, and this one was of particular interest. It's from my pal Karoli over at Drumsnwhistles, verbatim:

[E]vidently some in Congress are making an effort to restrict Congress people's access and use of social media sites like Twitter and Qik. Unfortunately it comes from Democrats, but I suspect it would be the same with Repubs in the majority too. At any rate, no political bloggers are picking this up and running with it, sadly. John Culberson has been remarkably engaging and willing to have a conversation about some pretty major subjects, including FISA.

Here are some excerpts from her post:

Congressmen John Culberson (R-Tx) and Tim Ryan (D-OH) are on Twitter, and regularly send updates to Twitter directly from the House floor. [...] I view this as a huge leap in political communication. No longer constrained by the “official” responses, these representatives choose to directly speak to anyone who follows them on Twitter, and tell us what’s going on.

Unfortunately, there are some Democrats in Congress who take a dim view of any communication with voters that isn’t “official communication”. This includes video and text communication, evidently. Earlier today this came through Twitter from Rep. Culberson:

I just learned the Dems are trying to censor Congressmen’s ability to use Twitter Qik YouTube Utterz etc - outrageous and I will fight them.

Based on the rules set forth in the document below, every communication any House member sent to Culberson would have to be vetted and disclaimed before it could be posted. Obviously that’s not acceptable. [...] If we don’t protest this obvious violation of the First Amendment they’ll succeed at silencing someone who is attempting to actually do what he was elected to do — represent the people in his District and communicate with them. The fact that his communication is in real time makes it more meaningful than any vetted and disclaimed statement would be.

Please go read the rest here.

I suggest writing Nancy Pelosi and Michael Capuano to let them know that the Congress should not be BANNING social media; it should be embracing it.

Thank you, Karoli. Excellent post and one that we should take seriously.