Say what you want about White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, but one thing he’s never been is interesting. You kind of need to pay attention to him because he represents the White House, but other than his failed attempts at humor and general lack of likability, he hasn’t really brought much to the job. Lie, deflect, obfuscate, repeat. Yawn.
Now he’s finally done something entertaining: royally piss off the left! After telling the administration’s left-wing critics to get a drug test and move back to Canada, he made a semi-quasi-pseudo-apology, calling his comments “inartful.” Now he’s saying, “You know what? Forget that, you guys really are jerks!”
“I don’t plan on leaving and there is no truth to the rumor that I’ve added an inflatable exit to my office,” the press secretary said during Wednesday’s briefing, referencing the recent incident in which a Jet Blue flight attendant bolted his plane in frustration.
Taking the podium after a day off to tend to a sore throat, Gibbs said he has not reached out to any Democrats to discuss his remarks, in which he chastised liberals for wanting to “eliminate the Pentagon” and pursue Canadian-style health care reform. Nor, he added, has he talked to the president about the matter.
Does he stand by the comments? “Yes,” he replied.
And why does Gibbs, and by extension the White House, feel so comfortable alienating the very group who helped sweep them to power?
“I don’t think [liberal voters won’t show up],” he said, “because I think what’s at stake in November is too important to do that.”
Or: “Whaddaya gonna do, vote for the other guys?”
And now it’s really getting fun. It turns out the left doesn’t like being told to shut up by the White House any better than the right does. Alan Grayson is calling Gibbs “Bozo the Spokesman,” which is kind of like Louie Anderson calling Michael Moore “Fatso McFatterson.” Kos and Jane Hamsher and the rest of the left-wing blogs are ticked off. Keith Olbermann did a whole “Special Comment” on it the other night. Paul Krugman is all Krugmanny about it. None of them can believe the White House could be so mean and take them for granted.
Isn’t it great?
P.S. John Hawkins has a lefty-screech roundup.