CURL: Obama now in combat mode

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen

By Joseph Curl POLITICAL THEATER

President Obama, fresh off his first Washington apology tour, grew combative Wednesday, asserting that America voted for him, not the other guy, and demanding that lawmakers "put aside politics" — well, Republican lawmakers, anyway.

A day before he headed to a luxury resort to meet behind closed doors with Democrats, the Harvard graduate lectured the less economically astute, ridiculing the Reaganomics Doctrine held dear by Republicans, who prefer tax cuts to new spending to bounce America out of its financial mess.

"Now, in the past few days I've heard criticisms of this plan that echo the very same failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis — the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems," the president said at the White House. "I reject that theory, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change."

The statement, the first of its kind in public, was reminiscent of what Mr. Obama said in private just days after taking office. In the White House's Roosevelt Room, he told a Republican senator who opposed an element of the stimulus package that "I won. I will trump you on that."

Mr. Obama, beaten bloody for weeks over his nominations of high-powered lobbyists and tax scofflaws that have rapidly drained his political capital, is no longer making any pretense of seeking to change the tone of Washington, as he repeatedly vowed to do when campaigning. The politics of mirage continued Wednesday in full force, with mixed signals coming out of the White House, from Capitol Hill, and, of course, from beleaguered Tom Daschle, who saw his nomination to head the Health and Human Services Department scuttled for failure to pay his taxes.

A day after banning corporate executives from earning more than $500,000 a year via taxpayer bailouts, Mr. Obama on Thursday will head to a Democratic retreat that has burned through half a million dollars in taxpayer cash for annual retreats at luxury resorts.

While President Clinton's first trip as president was to Detroit, where he held a town hall meeting with average Americans to talk about how to fix the economy, and President Bush flew to Fort Stewart, Ga., to visit soldiers in the 3rd Infantry Division, Mr. Obama's first trip aboard Air Force One will take him to a luxury resort in Williamsburg.

"Well, I'd — you know, I'd — Williamsburg is — has a lofty place in our country's history," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, when asked if there was any special significance to the president's choice. "I don't know that there's any great symbolism in this one in particular," he added at Wednesday's briefing off the West Wing.

Mr. Obama will head to Kingsmill Resort and Spa in the historical Virginia city to start a three-day planning session. The resort boasts multiple championship golf courses, a full-service spa and six restaurants, noted the Hill newspaper, which broke the story about the Democratic retreats.