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 The Ways of Washington - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 1/29/09 — Thursday, January 29, 2009 —  MR. GIBBS: Sheryl.Q Robert, something you said earlier struck me. You said that it's going to take longer than 10 days to sort of change the ways of Washington. Does the President believe that the vote in the House was the result of sort of the deep ingrained patterns of the parties voting along party lines, or does he think that it was the result of philosophical differences over whether this bill would in fact work? MR. GIBBS: Well, I think that's in many ways a question to ask those that exercised that vote yesterday. Q Well, no, you're assessing the bill and the vote and the way -- MR. GIBBS: It's hard for me to speak to the mindset of -- either collectively or individually -- members of Congress. The President and his team formulated a proposal that they thought, and a framework and principles, that they thought would put money back in people's pockets and spend money to create jobs. That's what we endeavor to do, and what the process endeavors to do as it moves forward. Q Can I follow on that, though? Q Robert, you're the one that said, "changing the ways of Washington." What did you mean by that? MR. GIBBS: Well, I think there's any number of ways. I mean, obviously we've had a several-day discussion about bipartisanship. We've had -- we've talked about different vote counts. We've talked about nominations and confirmations. And we've seen somebody -- certainly some people in this room seem surprised at the lengths the President will go to to reach out to the other party, regardless of the results that happen on any given day. But that's not going to change the President's desire to do that reaching out, and to try, as I said earlier, figure out a way that even while we disagree we don't have to do it in a way that's disagreeable. Q Well, I guess the question is, doesn't your statement imply that it was politics as usual? If you say, there were no Republicans, it's going to take awhile to change the ways of Washington, doesn't that imply that it was a political move by the Republicans? MR. GIBBS: Again, I'd leave it some to them to figure out motivations. I think we all believe -- Democrat or Republican, Congress or the executive branch -- that we're going to be held accountable to the American people to get something done. Again, whether it's unemployment claims, whether it's GDP numbers, whether it's layoffs, we're in a crisis that requires us acting quickly to get something done. Bipartanship | Congress | Economy | Legislation | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | White House Press Corps Labels: Bipartisanship, Congress, Economy, Legislation, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:14 PM
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