Norvell Rose
The hilarious hypocrisy of Obama's Mr. Axelrod
By Norvell Rose
Sometimes, a Washington whopper is just too big and juicy to resist. It absolutely begs to have a bite taken out of it. Such is the case with the interview David Axelrod gave during the most recent edition of the NBC News show Meet the Press.
In the course of the conversation with host David Gregory, Mr. Axelrod, the Senior White House Advisor, served up a heaping helping of raw hypocrisy. Allow me to set the scene for you.
As you know, during his State of the Union address, President Obama created a doozie of a dustup by harshly, directly and inaccurately criticizing a recent Supreme Court decision. In defending his boss' in-their-face critique of the Justices' ruling on campaign finance reform, Axelrod intended to condemn the supposedly undue influence of big corporations and foreign interests. You know, those evil, un-American entities with so much money they could buy anything or anyone.
But in trying to put forth his argument on Meet the Press, the shameless Chicago spin doctor botched the operation.
Here's what Axelrod said to Gregory: "One of the things that we face, David, and one of the things the American people recognize is that we have too much influence of special interests in the decision making here in, in Washington."
What, at last a true confession? Hardly. Instead, a sloppy demonstration of the audacity of hope.
Axelrod had the audacity to hope that we wouldn't immediately spot the hilarious hypocrisy in his statement. Does he really believe that piece of pious rhetoric dished up to justify Obama's off-base criticism of the Court? Doesn't he realize that he simply underscored the two-faced nature of the President's cozy coddling of special interests? What gratuitous balderdash.
Need we remind Mr. Axelrod of the President's special interest relationship with unions — SEIU, the Teamsters, the UAW? Need we remind Obama's Special Apologist, uh, Adviser of another recent dustup — the one involving the sweetheart deal for loyal union members negotiated into the so-called "health care reform" legislation? Need we remind the Axe-man of the President's meaningless pledge to keep registered lobbyists at bay, all the while reserving honored seats at the presidential power table for campaign contributors?
As Joel Jankowsky wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece last November: "At the same time that the White House has demonized lobbyists, it has allowed itself to be infiltrated by a different army — one made up of campaign contributors. These individuals can breeze past defenses designed to repel lobbyists."
Jankowsky went on to say, "If the administration truly wants to address its stated concerns about the influence of special interests, it should focus on what the public actually cares about: the influence of money on the policy-making process."
Given Mr. Axelrod's celebrated, but quite possibly over-rated, expertise at crafting and delivering convincing arguments on behalf of the liberalista, you might think he would have stopped with just one glaring Meet the Press faux pas. But he didn't. He compounded his error by doubling down on the premise of his bankrupt argument.
Continued Mr. Axelrod, "If you're going to deliver a message on the State of the Union, then one of the things you have to address is how do we get — how do we free our government from the grips of special interests?"
And yet again, with all the sincerity he could muster, he strove to persuade Mr. Gregory and the audience that the Administration truly wants to diminish the influence of special interests — when in fact Obama and his extreme team are increasing the access afforded special interests and elevating their status. As long as they are, like yesteryear's friends of Bill, buds of Barack.
Witness, ladies and gentlemen, an unprecedented illustration of historic incompetence as Axe blurted his way from the ridiculous to the sublime. Stepping in it for a third time, he declared with a straight face, "We have to take some steps to protect our, our government, our democracy from the overweening influence of special interests."
Utterly contemptible is the blatant hypocrisy in David Axelrod's indefensible defense of the Administration. This sort of feeble attempt at a flimflam should embarrass even a rank amateur.
One has to ask the question: Could this be deliberate and purposeful obfuscation? Is there method to the madness? Or is it a symptom of some bizarre and uncontrollable addiction to the heady game of deceptive doublespeak? Can you believe the gall, the nerve, the chutzpah? Pretending that the very thing Obama righteously renounces is not the same thing he routinely practices?
No isolated incident is this. If it were, maybe you could forgive the guy his rhetorical rambunctiousness. It it were, making such a big deal out of the attempted duplicity might not be warranted. But this is the kind of non-stop nonsense Axelrod and his Chicago con gang commonly peddle. It's another cock-and-bull bombast adding to the Obama Administration's increasingly unwieldy and unpopular big lie. Say it enough and maybe, just maybe, the masses will swallow this rotten fare.
And what's even more astounding about this episode is the timing. It comes on the heels of Obama's State of the Union speech in which he lamented the public's loss of faith in Washington and chastised officials for "sowing further division among our citizens, further distrust in our government." Somehow, I don't think this laughable performance by Mr. Axelrod will help restore that trust.
Well, I titled this piece, "The Hilarious Hypocrisy of Mr. Axelrod." So I guess I should try to maintain my sense of humor about this most recent attempt to feed us a big, fat bullburger. I should just consider Mr. Axelrod's latest insult to America's intelligence as yet another prime-cut example of why the joke will ultimately be on him and the flailing liberal spin machine.
One more thing that's as revealing as it is revolting: how Axe fed this delicious triple-stack whopper to the accommodating host of the news show, Mr. Gregory — served it up on a silver platter. And you know what? Gregory didn't say a word — not a word — about this bold and blatant quackery of the Senior White House Minister of Hypocrisy.
I guess you could say that, in terms of the integrity of this sorry episode, both men obviously "choked."
© Norvell Rose
February 1, 2010
Sometimes, a Washington whopper is just too big and juicy to resist. It absolutely begs to have a bite taken out of it. Such is the case with the interview David Axelrod gave during the most recent edition of the NBC News show Meet the Press.
In the course of the conversation with host David Gregory, Mr. Axelrod, the Senior White House Advisor, served up a heaping helping of raw hypocrisy. Allow me to set the scene for you.
As you know, during his State of the Union address, President Obama created a doozie of a dustup by harshly, directly and inaccurately criticizing a recent Supreme Court decision. In defending his boss' in-their-face critique of the Justices' ruling on campaign finance reform, Axelrod intended to condemn the supposedly undue influence of big corporations and foreign interests. You know, those evil, un-American entities with so much money they could buy anything or anyone.
But in trying to put forth his argument on Meet the Press, the shameless Chicago spin doctor botched the operation.
Here's what Axelrod said to Gregory: "One of the things that we face, David, and one of the things the American people recognize is that we have too much influence of special interests in the decision making here in, in Washington."
What, at last a true confession? Hardly. Instead, a sloppy demonstration of the audacity of hope.
Axelrod had the audacity to hope that we wouldn't immediately spot the hilarious hypocrisy in his statement. Does he really believe that piece of pious rhetoric dished up to justify Obama's off-base criticism of the Court? Doesn't he realize that he simply underscored the two-faced nature of the President's cozy coddling of special interests? What gratuitous balderdash.
Need we remind Mr. Axelrod of the President's special interest relationship with unions — SEIU, the Teamsters, the UAW? Need we remind Obama's Special Apologist, uh, Adviser of another recent dustup — the one involving the sweetheart deal for loyal union members negotiated into the so-called "health care reform" legislation? Need we remind the Axe-man of the President's meaningless pledge to keep registered lobbyists at bay, all the while reserving honored seats at the presidential power table for campaign contributors?
As Joel Jankowsky wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece last November: "At the same time that the White House has demonized lobbyists, it has allowed itself to be infiltrated by a different army — one made up of campaign contributors. These individuals can breeze past defenses designed to repel lobbyists."
Jankowsky went on to say, "If the administration truly wants to address its stated concerns about the influence of special interests, it should focus on what the public actually cares about: the influence of money on the policy-making process."
Given Mr. Axelrod's celebrated, but quite possibly over-rated, expertise at crafting and delivering convincing arguments on behalf of the liberalista, you might think he would have stopped with just one glaring Meet the Press faux pas. But he didn't. He compounded his error by doubling down on the premise of his bankrupt argument.
Continued Mr. Axelrod, "If you're going to deliver a message on the State of the Union, then one of the things you have to address is how do we get — how do we free our government from the grips of special interests?"
And yet again, with all the sincerity he could muster, he strove to persuade Mr. Gregory and the audience that the Administration truly wants to diminish the influence of special interests — when in fact Obama and his extreme team are increasing the access afforded special interests and elevating their status. As long as they are, like yesteryear's friends of Bill, buds of Barack.
Witness, ladies and gentlemen, an unprecedented illustration of historic incompetence as Axe blurted his way from the ridiculous to the sublime. Stepping in it for a third time, he declared with a straight face, "We have to take some steps to protect our, our government, our democracy from the overweening influence of special interests."
Utterly contemptible is the blatant hypocrisy in David Axelrod's indefensible defense of the Administration. This sort of feeble attempt at a flimflam should embarrass even a rank amateur.
One has to ask the question: Could this be deliberate and purposeful obfuscation? Is there method to the madness? Or is it a symptom of some bizarre and uncontrollable addiction to the heady game of deceptive doublespeak? Can you believe the gall, the nerve, the chutzpah? Pretending that the very thing Obama righteously renounces is not the same thing he routinely practices?
No isolated incident is this. If it were, maybe you could forgive the guy his rhetorical rambunctiousness. It it were, making such a big deal out of the attempted duplicity might not be warranted. But this is the kind of non-stop nonsense Axelrod and his Chicago con gang commonly peddle. It's another cock-and-bull bombast adding to the Obama Administration's increasingly unwieldy and unpopular big lie. Say it enough and maybe, just maybe, the masses will swallow this rotten fare.
And what's even more astounding about this episode is the timing. It comes on the heels of Obama's State of the Union speech in which he lamented the public's loss of faith in Washington and chastised officials for "sowing further division among our citizens, further distrust in our government." Somehow, I don't think this laughable performance by Mr. Axelrod will help restore that trust.
Well, I titled this piece, "The Hilarious Hypocrisy of Mr. Axelrod." So I guess I should try to maintain my sense of humor about this most recent attempt to feed us a big, fat bullburger. I should just consider Mr. Axelrod's latest insult to America's intelligence as yet another prime-cut example of why the joke will ultimately be on him and the flailing liberal spin machine.
One more thing that's as revealing as it is revolting: how Axe fed this delicious triple-stack whopper to the accommodating host of the news show, Mr. Gregory — served it up on a silver platter. And you know what? Gregory didn't say a word — not a word — about this bold and blatant quackery of the Senior White House Minister of Hypocrisy.
I guess you could say that, in terms of the integrity of this sorry episode, both men obviously "choked."
© Norvell Rose
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