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 Let Them Eat Pork - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 3/10/09 — Tuesday, March 10, 2009 —  MR. GIBBS: Mark.Q Robert, is it still the President's intention to sign the omnibus bill when it reaches his desk? MR. GIBBS: It is. Q He has no second thoughts about it? MR. GIBBS: No. Q Does he believe that everything in that bill is essential spending, considering the over $1.5 trillion deficit he's projecting for this year? MR. GIBBS: Mark, I dare say that -- I bet many Presidents have signed bills that may not meet a hundred percent of their desires. As I've said before, this is -- we're finishing the appropriations process that is generally concluded before the fiscal year starts on October -- this would be October 1, 2008. This stuff should have been done before Senator Barack Obama became President-elect Barack Obama, and certainly before he became President Obama. That having been said -- and I've said this from up here and I think it is safe to assume that tomorrow we'll have more on our concern for the appropriations and the spending process moving forward -- because though this represents one bill and several different appropriations bills, over the course of the President's tenure in Washington, dozens of those bills will come to his desk and that there will be some new rules of the road. Q Are you saying the bill contains more spending than he thinks is necessary or warranted? MR. GIBBS: Again, I have not and I think it's reasonable to assume that the President has not gone through each and every item in the legislation. This is necessary to continue funding government. It represents last year's business. Although it's not perfect, the President will sign the legislation, but demonstrate for all involved rules moving forward that he thinks can make this process work a little bit better. Q Is it going to be a public event? MR. GIBBS: I don't know. The President signs -- certainly some events that he signs things on are public, and some of them are not. Q These are the rules of the road? MR. GIBBS: Yes. Congress | Legislation | Pork | President Obama | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | White House Press Corps Labels: Congress, Legislation, Pork, President Obama, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 10:50 PM
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1 Comments:
Stop asking Robert Gibbs for his opinions as if he were the President.
Let him say if he know what the President thinks about the matter under discussion.
Examples.
"Does the President bear any responsibility for
what Warren Buffett described as confusion and
fear --"
"any room for improvement there?"
(B - This should be prefixed by 'Does the
President think_____' )
"So, I mean, do you think this makes even a dent
in the psyche of the American people?"
Don't ask the President's representative or the President
what he thinks about every twerpy politician's remark
- selecting them to represent an ideolgiy of the
questioner or his or her publisher or media owner.
Choose the point of view to be asked about in terms of
the genuine importance, long term influence or power,
or serious knowledge or questioning of the person being
quoted. Just being a Republican is not enough to merit
turning the press conference into a media war rather
than a questioning on behalf of the American people.
The press corps should go back into asking questions
about strategic FACTS - rather asking about opinions
or prognostications about the future, which are the
President's private business and which he has no
responsibility to answer.
If there are questions about such matters that ARE the
public's business that will be obvious enough.
I.E. Let the press restore civility and intelligence to
the public discourse by exercising some judgement
and restraint on what they ask. And learn again the
difference between finding things out and simply trying
to pretend to an authority they should not possess.
Example of inserting argumentative ideology representing
the forumulation of the reporter rather than just asking the
question with which they begin:
"Q Does he believe that everything in that bill is
essential spending, [ the question - stop here - B. ]
considering the over $1.5 trillion deficit he's projecting for this year?"
(the tag remark is NOT relevant to the question. It
may be relevant to a follow up of the answer.)
etc.
I hope the Press Corps takes these comments to heart.
I also suggest that Robert Gibbs rephrase the questions
so that they are questions - or ignore the truly contentious
ones (contentious in introducing extraneous matters in
trying to set the agenda inside the question. If reporters
are thoughtful instead of roosters of ideology than they
can reveal new information by strategically focusing
their questions.
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