Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) Tells President Obama "No Enemies List," "Let's Push Street-Brawling Out of the White House"

I have been wondering why the Obama Administration is picking fights with everyone who disagrees with it policies, but I find the hypocrisy from the right wing equally offensive. In any case, I was surprised somewhat to read that Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) has come out swinging against the perceived "enemies list" the Obama administration is accused of compiling. Funny how these people were silent when President George W. Bush waged his reign of ineptitude during his eight year tenure during which he literally kept everything close to the vest. Alexander accused the White House on Wednesday of "street-brawling" with opponents, and said the West Wing's strategy of freezing out opponents amounts to a latter-day "enemies list," a reference to an infamous practice of President Richard Nixon, who was a Republican.

"An 'enemies list' only denigrates the Presidency and the Republic itself," Alexander said on the Senate floor. "These are unusually difficult times, with plenty of forces encouraging us to disagree. Let’s not start calling people out and compiling an enemies list. Let’s push the street-brawling out of the White House and work together on the truly presidential issues: creating jobs, reducing health care costs, reducing the debt, creating clean energy." Wow, isn't that basically what the president is trying to accomplish but the Rethuglicans are hellbent on not being cooperative.

Alexander didn't bother trying to be original but took the easy way out by quoting from a POLITICO article headlined, "Obama strategy: Marginalize critics."

"According to Politico," Alexander said, "the White House plans to 'neuter the United States Chamber of Commerce,'an organization with members in almost every major community in America. The Chamber had supported the President’s stimulus package and some of his early appointments, but has problems with his health care and climate change proposals.

Here is a portion of Alexander's prepared remarks:

In 1969 and during the first half of 1970, I was a wet-behind-the-ears, 29-year-old staff aide in the West Wing of the Nixon White House. I was working for the wisest man in that White House, Bryce Harlow, who was a friend of President Johnson, as well as the favorite staff member of President Eisenhower, and President Nixon’s first appointee.

Based upon that experience and my forty years since then in and out of public life, I want to make what I hope will be taken as a friendly suggestion to President Obama and his White House: don’t create an enemies list.

As I was leaving the White House in 1970, Mr. Harlow was heading out on the campaign plane with Vice President Spiro Agnew whose job was to vilify Democrats and to help elect Republicans. The Vice President had the help of talented young speechwriters, the late Bill Safire and Pat Buchanan. In Memphis, he called Albert Gore, Sr., the “southern regional chairman of the eastern liberal establishment.” He labeled the increasingly critical news media, “nattering nabobs of negativism.” Source: Politico

I do agree that the course we are heading down is a treacherous one and I would have preferred to see the Republicans work more with the President than constantly whine like babies when they don't get their way. I am equally disheartened by the fact that neither side has any concrete solutions for the massive unemployment rates many states are grappling with. Add the high foreclosure rate and high school drop-out rates to the mix and you have a country that is crumbling while Wall Street bigwigs are living it up at our expense. To be clear, I have serious issues with the Obama Administration and I believe that the president is not being as forceful as he ought to be. I also believe that he should quit dancing around the issues and confront them directly. He's acting as though he the Vice President of the United States. The buck stops with him, so he should come out swinging to get healthcare reform passed, lift the ban on gays serving in the military, send more troops to Afghanistan once a new administration is in place, return Social Security to solvency, help the millions of Americans who are on the verge of losing their homes and find a way to create more jobs.

I would much rather see Sen. Alexander and our Congressional leaders make some concrete proposals as to how we can stem the bleeding and fix this economic mess. Think of the thousands of children who will not get a present this Christmas because their parents are unemployed. Think of the thousands of state employees in Pennsylvania and Chicago who are staring at the prospects of furloughs and lay-offs. Think of the 170,000 school children in Hawaii who will lose 17 days from their school year because the state doesn't have the money to pay the teachers, who will be furloughed on those days. So, excuse me if all you are whining about is an "enemies list" coming from the White House. The reality is that if President Obama doesn't make good on his campaign promises, no matter what he does, he will be a one-term president and to all the elected officials in the Congress, you should also be thinking about the very real possibility that you will lose your seats as well.  For God's sake Mr. President, stop trying to be everybody's friend and stop whining when you don't get your way. That goes for the Republicans as well.

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