Maureen Dowd Berates Obama While Senators Durbin and Boxer Want Us To Kiss-y The Prez and Make-y Better

(bumped up from Thursday late evening)

U.S. Senators are asking us to “thank President Obama for his [two weeks of] public service” while in her latest opinion piece, Well, That Certainly Didn’t Take Long, Maureen Dowd takes Obama to task for his arrogance. Cognitive dissonance anyone? Ms. Dowd writes:

It took Daschle’s resignation to shake the president out of his arrogant attitude that his charmed circle doesn’t have to abide by the lofty standards he lectured the rest of us about for two years.

What happened to the McDowd love fest for Prez Obama? Gee, Mo, I bet Hillary’s starting to look pretty good to you about now. Clueless leadership sitting in front of the hoi polloi of newscasting to refreshingly, but frighteningly, offer a mea culpa about Daschle:

Unlike W. and Dick Cheney, who heroically resisted acknowledging their historically boneheaded mistakes, President Obama summoned a conga line of Anderson, Katie, Brian, Chris and Charlie to the Oval Office to do penance, over and over.

“I think I messed up. I screwed up,” he confessed to Couric.

He told the anchors that the man who helped make him president, Tom Daschle, had made “a serious mistake” by not paying taxes on a car and driver….

Mr. Obama admitted that “ultimately it’s important for this administration to send a message that there aren’t two sets of rules. You know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes.”

Uh, yeah.

Before he recanted, his hand forced by a cascade of appointees who “forgot” to pay taxes, his reasoning was creeping perilously close to that of the outgoing leaders he denounced in his Inaugural Address: that elitist mentality of “we know best,” we know we’re doing the “right” thing for the country, so we can twist the rules.

Wow, Mo. Everyone campaigning for Obama had a ‘we know best attitude,” telling us we had to vote for him even though his resume was paper thin. Don’t worry. Be happy.

Someone needs to explain how the likes of Dowd, or any of Brian, Katie, Charlie, George S., the late Timmy, Chris Matthews, any of them who have been around politics as long as they have, could possibly have fallen for this splendid piece of marketing.

Ms. Dowd then talks about President Obama’s “high standards”:

Betrayed by their bankers and leaders, Americans were desperate to trust someone when they made Barack Obama president. His debut has left them skeptical about his willingness to smack down those who would flout his high standards or waste our money.

High standards? This lofty talk was never backed up by anything. Certainly not his twenty years in the unfortunate cesspool that is Chicago politics. Perhaps his staff thought he could get away with a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ attitude. The press, including Ms. Mo enabled him to do so. And you can never convince me they didn’t know it was the height of recklessness to do so.

Ms. Dowd rightly points out that “Companies that have gotten bailouts continue to make a mockery of taxpayers” by spending untold millions on disgraceful recreational junkets for their higher ups. What will Obama do about this? While I don’t think we should get into salary setting for the private sector, if you come with your hand out – you better show me you are using the money responsibly. Or that hand should be lopped off. Can you imagine a friend coming to you saying they are in dire straits and you lend them $2000 so they can pay their bills for the month – then you find out they blew it on caviar and champagne? Where is the outrage. A snarky column, Maureen? Is that it?

Dowd is merely an example of the willful blindness exhibited by all but a few press and pundits. She complains that President Obama should have cut the pork in the stimulus package that the Republicans and some Democrats are rightly complaining about. How could she, or anyone, possibly think that a man we spent almost 2 billion dollars electing – one who thought the tit was ever-flowing – would have any notion of fiscal discipline or holding anyone else’s feet to the fire. He relegated putting the initial package together to none other than Nancy Pelosi. Hell, he just successfully confirmed a man who cheated on his taxes as Treasury Secretary.

The title of Ms. Dowd’s piece is most interesting. “Well, that certainly didn’t take long.” Could the bloom be officially off the rose for her as well. Just like it was for many of us a year ago.

Dowd irreverently comments on his need to escape the White House after two weeks there to hang out reading a story to a bunch of school kids to make himself feel better.

Senators Dick Durbin and Barbara Boxer are also trying to help him feel better by asking us all to sign “thank you” letters to our new President as we speak. No, I kid you not. The text follows:

Dear Friend,

As Barack Obama begins his term as the 44th President of the United States, please join me to thank him for his public service, and offer our best wishes as he guides our nation through these challenging times!

Please click the link below to add your name to Dick Durbin’s Inaugural Card to Barack Obama.

Thank you!

Forgive me, but what public service are we thanking him for? He’s been in office two weeks! Does he really require this kind of stroking and adulation on a constant basis?

Yes, he’s had a rough couple of weeks. But who wouldn’t, walking into this disaster of a situation. Surely, I would not want that job. But he did. Very badly. So he shouldn’t complain about it now. He knew what he was getting himself into – or at least pretended to.

Do we need to send him thank you, feel better letters – like a teacher giving a kid a gold star? The comparison is terrifying.

I hate to keep harping on this. Well, actually, I’m lying. I lurv to keeping harping on this – do you think anyone would be sending little consoling missives to ‘President Hillary Clinton’ right about now? No. But she probably wouldn’t expect or need them. She’d just put her head down, plow forward and keep doing the job. As she would be expected to do.

Well, I am putting all these types on notice: every single one who trashed Hillary in favor of the man with training wheels, every one who stood silent as she was unfairly dragged through the mud and caricatured while he received a free pass:

None of the pundits and reporters, and NONE of the politicians who staked their reputations backing him better turn their backs on him. EVERY LAST ONE BETTER STICK BY HIM TILL THE BITTER END. They stuck us with a man whose own wife rightly said “it’s too soon, he hasn’t done anything yet,” but still they trumpeted his name from the highest hill. They better NOT criticize him now in a feeble attempt to stay relevant.

“McDowd,” as President Obama liked to call her, made her bed. Now let her lie in it.