Posted on 08/23/2009 2:00:43 PM PDT by SmithL
Just got back from Washington, where I emceed the swearing-in of Rosie Rios as the new U.S. treasurer.
Rosie was part of my mayoral team, and we've been close ever since. My job was to introduce both her and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Geithner was incredibly restrained although very generous with his time, letting everyone take their picture with him.
All I asked in return for my duties was a tour of the Treasury and a few minutes to be left alone so I could pick up my own personal stimulus package.
No such luck.
Washington itself was pretty much a political ghost town. Every elected official but the president was gone for summer break, and even he was headed to Martha's Vineyard. The only people left were lobbyists, who it was pointed out to me now refer to themselves as "special interest representatives."
The conversation in the bars and restaurants was all about health care, and there was not a lot of optimism about the prospects of any of the plans passing in their present form.
I agree, but don't think pushing President Obama on the subject is a bad thing. Hell, if Howard Dean wasn't kicking his butt, he'd have to pay someone to do it.
Attacks from the left, like those coming from Dean, and attacks from the right, like those coming from the shouters at town halls, will ultimately produce support for something in the middle. And that is just where Obama plans to run this health care ball, right up the middle.
What he really needs to do now is set up the play with one of his Jeremiah Wright speeches, and then let it roll.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
If these arrogant slimes pass the DeathCare/AuschwtizCare, they will have declared WAR on the American people. Not gonna be pretty, IMO. They will all be TOAST in 2010 and 2012. These Socialist Elitists can count on it.
Willie Brown already has stolen enough from the public trough.
Willie, I hope brain transplants are covered in the Pelosi health care plan. If they are contact your proctologist ASAP.
Oh come on, Willie isn't THAT bad, he is a step ahead and just had his sucked out negating any need for a transplant.
It's cheaper. ; )
I'm getting to like you a lot! : - D
But I dunno if Willie needs a brain transplant. I know many San Fransicans weren't thrilled with him in the mayor's office, and conservatives in Cali loathe him for when he ruled the Assembly but strangely enough I often find his take on politics in the SF Chron a breath of fresh - and very savvy - air, as long as you keep in mind where he's coming from. He's certainly unusual for a dem in that he actually has a pretty decent sense of humor, that's for sure.
Having watched Willie in action for a long time I can say he's VERY savvy. Frighteningly savvy. And he loves to laugh at conservatives' expense -- and I do mean expen$e!
Willie Brown is one of the few liberals I have respect for. I’d love to have a beer with him.
This is a variation on the ploy that got conservatives to abandon culture wars in the 1980s-1990s. Back then, the Left falsely alleged that the Right’s protesting was turning controversial movies into hits. (It wasn’t, “The Last Temptationof Christ” couldn’t’ve paid its caterers with its box office take.)
The message is: “Give up, Town Hall protesters, you’re only helping it pass!” It’s nonsense.
Bad joke, Willie. Everybody knows that every damned bag man in Gay Bay knows you by your first name. You've slept in all their houses, and they babysat your kids.
The house of Armani would be broke except for your buys in the 80's and 90's.
By the way, did you ever subdivide your old suit-closet for housing? Should be a good idea.
Respect? That's an odd term to use for Ole Willie. You'd be much further ahead to drink with a decent liberal like Nat Hentoff. At least you wouldn't be stuck with the beer bill -- and probably Willie's accumulated tab to boot.
That’s exactly why I like Brown. He’s a Democrat in an Eddie Murphy type of way.
LOL! And his mortgage! And after you get home & check your credit car statement, you'll find out you've picked up his car payment too!
He's a wily one, that man. ;-)
Are you in SF? Didn't he alienate lefties there too by sucking up to developers in that town?
I’m in the LA area, but every conservative in CA knows how Willie works his “magic.” Term limits in CA were invented just to dump him from the Legislature. But like all liberal bad pennies (Jerry Brown’s another) they keep worming their way back into politics. My biggest fear lately is that Brown may be headed to D.C. to “assist” with “hope and change.” That is a scary possibility indeed. He does Chicago-style politics squared.
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