Bloggers Furious at the White House Over Anonymous Ridicule by Obama Adviser

Wow, the last thing I expected from the White House is to ridicule bloggers, who have mostly been in President Barack Obama's corner. Well, the uproar stems from a comment made by a White House "adviser," who didn't have the guts to reveal his or her identity, but relayed a ridiculous message through NBC White House correspondent John Harwood, saying that progressive bloggers should "take off their pajamas" and get serious about politics. The quote was relayed during a segment Harwood shot for the Nightly News following the gay rights rally in Washington D.C. yesterday. Either this so-called adviser is two-faced or Harwood didn't convey the message properly, but no matter how you look at this, it was a Palinesque comment.

"For a sign of how seriously the White House does or doesn't take this opposition, one adviser told me today those bloggers need to take off their pajamas, get dressed and realize that governing a closely-divided country is complicated and difficult," said Harwood, who has solid sources inside the Obama White House and routinely talks with top administration officials.

In an email to the Huffington Post on Monday, Harwood clarified that the quote was not meant to convey any displeasure on the part of the administration for the gay community's public advocacy. "My comments quoting an Obama adviser about liberal bloggers/pajamas weren't about the LGBT community or the marchers," he wrote. "They referred more broadly to those grumbling on the left about an array of issues in addition to gay rights, including the war in Afghanistan and health care and Guantanamo -- and whether all that added up to trouble with Obama's liberal base..." Source: Huffington Post

I would hope that the White House isn't using bloggers, like myself, to help it pass legislation  -- whether by ginning up support for an initiative or fact-checking media reports and then discarding us when they think it doesn't work in their favor for a particular issue. The reality is that the White House can't have it both ways.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/12/bloggers-furious-at-white_n_317424.html

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/12/bloggers-furious-at-white_n_317424.html