Posted on 02/04/2010 5:19:32 PM PST by jazusamo
Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats.
Five sources who were in the room tell POLITICO that Franken criticized Axelrod for the administration’s failure to provide clarity or direction on health care and the other big bills it wants Congress to enact.
The sources said Franken was the most outspoken senator in the meeting, which followed President Barack Obama’s question-and-answer session with Senate Democrats at the Newseum on Wednesday. But they also said the Minnesotan wasn’t the only angry Democrat in the room.
“There was a lot of frustration in there,” said a Democratic senator who declined to be identified.
“People were hot,” another Democratic senator said.
Democratic senators are frustrated that the White House hasn’t done more to win over the public on health care reform and other aspects of its ambitious agenda — and angry that, in the wake of Scott Brown’s win in the Massachusetts Senate race, the White House hasn’t done more to chart a course for getting a health care bill to the president’s desk.
In his public session with the senators Wednesday, Obama urged them to “finish the job” on health care but did not lay out a path for doing so. That uncertainty appeared to trigger Franken’s wrath, and the sources in the room said he laid out his concerns much more directly than any senator did in the earlier public session.
The private session was set up in a panel format, with Axelrod joined at the front of the room by Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine and Democratic strategist Paul Begala.
A Democratic source said that Franken directed his criticism solely at Axelrod.
“It was all about leadership and health care and what the plan was going to be,” the source said.
Franken — a comedian turned liberal talk show host — vowed to keep a relatively low profile when he arrived in the Senate over the summer after a protracted legal battle with former GOP Sen. Norm Coleman. But he has developed a reputation among his colleagues as one of the more aggressive personalities on the Hill.
Last November, after Tennessee Republican Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander authored an op-ed in a local paper defending their opposition to a Franken amendment, Franken confronted both men on the floor — and grew particularly irritated with Corker.
He lashed out at Corker and a staff member in a follow-up meeting about the matter, several people said. Franken also clashed with South Dakota Sen. John Thune, No. 4 in GOP leadership, last month in a scathing speech during the health care debate, and staffers have reported other run-ins.
The White House, the Democratic National Committee and Franken’s office all declined to speak on the record about Wednesday’s session. Begala did not respond to a request for comment.
Thanks, looks like a lot of info there.
And to think some folks are concerned about Sen Brown’s photo in Cosmo years ago.
Franken is a useful idiot...useful, to US! If we can just get cameras to record his nasty outbursts...
Franken's a jerk but in this instance he's also right. Zero is offering no leadership and standing on no clear positions but is rather hovering above the process sniffing disdainfully at all. This is screwing the Democrats big time.
I love it... the ‘RATs are imploding!
Ugh... zelig shook Franken’s hand! Remember? :-O
Even our guys are better looking!
me too, I even told him how happy I was to hear he went to Iraq to entertain the troops!
Fact is, I WAS happy he did! It was a nice gesture!
“Boy. Where’s a frickin’ shoe bomber when you really need one.”
Really,...I’d settle for a three legged “shoe thrower”,...at close range.
I mean is there anyone on the planet who ever thought this douchenozzle was funny?
they are afraid and fragmented now, they are starting to eat their own.
Watch for the bodies being thrown on swords next ...
.
You can't provide "clarity" when you are trying to slip some provisions in under the radar so that the American public is not wise to the content of the Bill until it is passed.
Franken’s not making any friends, is he? Even among his own kind. LOL
He's right, but he underestimates how hard it is to institute leftwing solutions without using the words "socialism", "Marxism", "communism" etc.
It's like trying to define an elephant without using the words "large" "animal" or "gray".
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