Let's Play Guess the Anonymous Source!

[Frank Booth]

President Obama's advisers acknowledged Tuesday that they were unprepared for the intraparty rift that occurred over the fate of a proposed public health insurance program, a firestorm that has left the White House searching for a way to reclaim the initiative on the president's top legislative priority.

Administration officials insisted that they have not shied away from their support for a public option to compete with private insurance companies, an idea they said Obama still prefers to see in a final bill.

But at a time when the president had hoped to be selling middle-class voters on how insurance reforms would benefit them, the White House instead finds itself mired in a Democratic Party feud over an issue it never intended to spotlight.

"I don't understand why the left of the left has decided that this is their Waterloo," said a senior White House adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We've gotten to this point where health care on the left is determined by the breadth of the public option. I don't understand how that has become the measure of whether what we achieve is health-care reform."

"It's a mystifying thing," he added. "We're forgetting why we are in this."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/18/AR2009081803655_pf.html">Debate's Path Caught Obama by Surprise

I have a pretty good guess who this quote came from, but then again I'd assume he'd say it with a bit more force.

This administration sure has shown a lot of antipathy for the base of the party. I never even considered myself "left of the left," but apparently that's what wanting health reform that actually works makes me.

[tj2001]

1. We all know who it is

[DCKit]

2. Yeah, but without all the four letter words, he's not the first to come to mind. n/t

[tj2001]

3. Unedited version:

"I don't fucking understand why the fucking assholes on the left of the left have decided that this is their fucking Waterloo," said a senior White House adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We've gotten to this fucking point where goddamn health care on the left is determined by the breadth of the goddamn public option. I don't fucking understand how that has become the measure of whether what we achieve is goddamn health-care reform."

"It's a goddamn mystifying thing," he added. "We're forgetting why we are in this goddamn fucking shit."

[pyoom]

9. ROFL!! nt

[mascarax]

23. Yay! I knew it was him...thanks for clearing it up!

Because you confirmed my suspicions.

Gee, it's liking reading Nixon's White House transcripts without those pesky "expletive deleted" references!

[EFerrari]

4. There's a lot of things he doesn't understand, apparently.

[ConsAreLiars]

5. I see all the previous have come to the same conclusion, but I wonder how tj2001

was able to get the actual transcript.

Edit to fix and credit tj2001 instead of you. tj2001 should get 12 points of praise for my confusing something s/he wrote with something you might write.

[EFerrari]

7. That was tj. I have pets under five here and children next door.

lol

[ConsAreLiars]

8. Edited to fix the attribution error.

Hats off to tj2001 for getting the recording on record.

[OHdem10]

6. He should be careful--The truth lies somewhere between Center

and Center Left. Next is Far Left. Don't Mess with the "Lefties".
and for God's sake please sound like a Democrat and not some
right winger. Too long, you have presumed to ignore the Left
and just assume we would always be there. You have gotten
away with spinning excuses for why we always have to give
in. It is now time to think of the country and not the next
election. Please remember your base is a little to the left.

[snot]

10. And our Waterloo should have been

Obama's capitulation on FISA?
His capitulation on habeas corpus?
His bailout of the banksters?
His appointments to power of so many who helped create the messes we're in, including Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, Dennis Ross, Ed Whitacre, et al.?
His decisions to reward pretty much everyone who's done wrong, while ignoring pretty much everyone who done right?

[tavalon]

11. Oh, fuck you Rahm, and the horse you rode in on!

[tavalon]

12. You know what's hilarious?

I'm the first person to actually name the guy but we're all talking about the same asshole.

[tavalon]

13. It isn't this administration that has antipathy for the base, its Rahm

But, unfortunately, Rahm is nearly front and center, spouting his jackass shit.

[Lasher]

17. Same thing. Obama picked him.

He can't be singled out as someone who is not really part of the administration.

[Are_grits_groceries]

14. *snort* It is really the "the left of the left out."

They never talked to anybody in the left side of the party. They also are trying to discredit the effort by using the phrase "the left of the left." That makes it sound like a tiny group of malcontents.

The WH has had god and everybody in for meetings except for "the left of the left."

I don't care if they call it public option or the Betty Crocker recipe for Health Care Pie. It has to have a program that is an alternative to private insurers. There has to be competition in order to keep costs down.

I'll bet if somebody starts really looking, they might find some collusion between the big health care players on costs.

Call it Medihealth. It sounds like a program that people like - Medicare. Frame the message in the most positive way possible on every level.

[EFerrari]

15. What the hell is the Democratic president's chief of staff doing

using "left" as a perjorative? I guess "liberal" has already been taken.

What is that, low self esteem or what?

Geezus.

[Are_grits_groceries]

16. My guess is that it is a strategy

to make the LL's sound like an insignificant group just out to cause trouble for no real reason.

They also want to make us seem like the enemy to true reform. That gives them the cover for fighting us, and making it appear that the WH is battling hard for the Amurikun people. After all, we LLers are known to be a clear and present danger.

Never mind the TeaStrainers and their guns. The Left has been a bogeyman to a lot of people for a long time. We all know that John Reed and Emma Goldman are our models. *SNORT*

[Frank Booth]

20. They're acting like they don't even care about the center of the left.

Imagine Karl Rove using the phrase "extreme right wing" pejoratively to describe Bush supporters. This is essentially how Rahm characterizes mainstream Democrats.

[Better Today]

18. 'I never even considered myself "left of the left,"'... +1

[WeDidIt]

19. Rahm's just pissed off that he doesn't have a cadre of mindless robots that agree with anything

Obama says or does as did Obama's predecessor.

Sadly, Rahm has failed to recognize that the base of the Democratic Party actually have the ability to reason, and thus formulate opinions for themselves rather than being told what to think.

The Republican base is comprised of mind numbed robots.

The Democratic base is comprised of intelligent human beings.

[Motown_Johnny]

21. It is a shame that senior white house people don't understand the "left of the left"

their base...

[abumbyanyothername]

22. I don't really care who it was.

No public option, no abumbyanyothername supporting anyone who helped wipe it out.

Mandatory coverage without Medicare for all is crap.

I am not all that happy with HR3200.

[musette_sf]

24. could it be...

i assume this is the regard in which he holds the alleged "left of the left"

[Orsino]

25. You can waste time in recriminations, Rahm, AFTER you get us some goddamned reform. n/t