Prior to his reelection, I don’t think the president would have profited from schmoozing with Republican senators much, if at all, but we’ve reached an impasse in the post-election period and something needs to give. Speaker Boehner has given up trying to negotiate and Mitch McConnell is paralyzed by his fear of a primary challenge, so the president is wise to go around them and try to craft deals with rank-and-file senators. It’s interesting to see the guest list at his dinner last night. I don’t think I would have bothered inviting Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson or Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, but I guess there is no harm in including them. It sends a message that he was willing to sit down with some of his most implacable foes.
Here’s the guest list: Sens. Mike Johanns (Neb.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Dan Coats (Ind.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), Bob Corker (Tenn.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), John Hoeven (N.D.), Ron Johnson (Wis.), John McCain (Ariz.) and Pat Toomey (Pa.) .
Obama is following up by having lunch with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen.
Reporting from the event indicates that the GOP folks had no idea what Obama has actually offered. Which should be remarkable.
They have to be pretending. How could us rubes be more informed then these people? If we really are more informed, that says a lot things, none of which are good.
They don’t actually have to be pretending. if they live in the right wing bubble they might never hear anything Obama actually says. Via TPM:
TPM goes further: “TPM Reader SR is heartened but amazed if this could really have happened …
Steve Benen touched on a sentence from a First Read report on Obama’s dinner with Republican Senators: “[O]ne senator told us that he learned, for the first time, the actual cuts that the president has put on the table. Leadership hadn’t shared that list with them before.” He called it “amazing” and then moved on. But if NBC News had been an actual news gathering organization one would have expected to follow it down three paths of inquiry: 1. Really? Or did you just skip the meeting?
And, now that I think about it …
4. Are the Beltway pundits insisting that both sides are being equally intransigent getting their facts from Mitch McConnell and Fox? Has the entire power structure of Washington truly become the caricature of elites so engrossed in an alternate reality of cocktail party chatter and platitudes that objective reality no longer matters?”
http://editors.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/03/that_deep_in_the_bubble.php?ref=fpblg
“…if NBC News had been an actual news gathering organization…”
So, so, so many things would be different.
I remember an episode during the Iraq War in which a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, and then a Democratic member, both said that they’d never heard of the Sunni-Shiite split within Islam before.
I recall the questioner explaining it to Sylvester Reyes – he was the Democrat, I think – and Reyes replying, “Ohhh. That really explains a lot.”
facepalm
So, yeah, it really is possible for these people to be appalling ill-informed about the central facts of the issues they’re handling.
I don’t think this will change anything or anyone involved thinks it will. At times you have to meet with people just to say you met with them. Given that it’s a farce, why not make a meal out of it and expense account it? It’s time honored DC tradition.
This won’t do anything but make Versailles diddle themselves with excitement. The whole Tipper and Ronnie swamping stories over drinks crap.
I think it was a good idea. It’s good PR and it shows a common sense effort at reaching out to the most stubborn members of the Republican party.
I can’t imagine sitting down for dinner with Lindsay Graham and John McCain, though. They’re two of the most hateful pricks in our government today. They probably choked on every bite.