10/21/2009

Enemies List




It now appears that the White House is not only maintaining an enemies list, but is also acting to punish those who appear on it. This is not something that we have seen since the Nixon Administration. I’m sure our friends on the left find this distasteful for two reasons. First, a Nixonian political strategy cannot possibly be consistent with liberal principals. Second, as someone who ran on a platform of bringing the country together (the “purple states” strategy), maintaining an enemies list by President Obama is hardly the foundation of national unification.

The Obama Administration is systematically working to marginalize not only the Republican Party, but any other organization that opposes its left wing agenda. Top White House officials; including the chief of staff, the senior political advisor and the communications director, have been sent out to undermine anyone and anything that opposes the President’s initiatives.

Let’s take a look at some whom the President and his minions have set out to destroy:

1. Rush Limbaugh – in the opening days of the Obama Presidency, White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said that Rush was the leader of the Republican Party. White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, actually spent time at the White House press room podium mocking Rush. Evidently, Mr. Gibbs didn’t feel that there is anything more news worthy than Rush Limbaugh is a conservative to speak of.

2. Humana Insurance Company – When Humana sent a mailing to its policy holders that health care reform would increase the cost of health insurance to them, the White House went crazy and issued a cease and desists order against the company. It didn’t matter to the White House that the Humana may be right or that it had a right to say these things.

3. The health insurance industry in general – When the health insurance industry issued its report that the current congressional health care reform proposals would not control costs and would, in fact, result in increased costs, the White House first said that it felt blindsided and then went on to make an ad hominem attack against the industry without giving any data or evidence as to why the report was incorrect. The White House’s reaction presupposes that they are entitled to advanced copies of any materials that are critical of their policies. Also, we have seen Congressional Democrats threatening to remove the industry's anti-trust exemption.

4. PriceWaterhouse Coopers – They were the authors of the insurance industry’s report. This firm is one of the oldest and most widely respected accounting and consulting firms in the world. However, if you are critical of President Obama, your conclusion are not worth the paper they are printed on, even if the President can’t provide evidence to rebut the criticism.

5. Fox News – Over the past two weeks, top Obama advisers, Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrad and Anita Dunn have all claimed that Fox News is not a legitimate news organization and have tried to isolate Fox New from the rest of the so called mainstream media by admonishing other news organizations not to follow up on stories that are originated by Fox. Of the other networks, only ABC White House correspondent, Jake Tapper, has questioned this strategy. After being confronted by Mr. Tapper, Robert Gibbs’ final response was to give the great intellectually honest answer of, “That’s our opinion”. In any event, everyone should take the statements of Anita Dunn with a healthy dose of skepticism considering her admiration for Moa Tse-Tung, one of the greatest mass murders of the 20th century.

6. The US Chamber of Commerce – Since the Chamber of Commerce opposes health care reform and cap and trade, the White House had made the declaration that it no longer represents business in America. The administration has made Valarie Jarrett available to discuss the Chamber and has said that since several companies have dropped their membership, the Chamber is no longer a legitimate organization. That’s a huge leap, don’t you think.

I’m sure as time goes on, this list will get longer. It is perfectly acceptable for any administration to debate and counter its opponents. It is an entirely different thing for an administration to use the prestige and power of the White House to de-legitimize its opponents.

If President Obama receives any benefit from this (which does not seem likely since his approval rating continues to fall), it will only be short term. Sooner or later this type of politics of personal destruction will make the President of the United States look small, petty and thin skinned. And, once that happens, a President who campaigned on hope and change will look an awful lot like any other Chicago politician. And, I can tell you from living in Chicago, that’s not a pretty sight.

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