Seriously? The Hill reports that Democrats are hoping to see more humility from the president who wrote two autobiographies and always seems ready to break into a Ron Burgundy-esque “I’m kind of a big deal” riff.
Frustrated Senate Democrats hope a meeting set to take place on Wednesday with President Obama will help them turn a corner with a White House they see as too distant and insular.
Aides say the new faces joining the president’s inner circle suggest a possible new humility following a year that saw Obama hammered over the botched rollout of his healthcare law, a series of administrative controversies and an aborted attempt to launch a military strike against Syria.
The White House staff shake-up includes the return of Washington veterans John Podesta and Phil Schiliro, as well as the promotion of a longtime aide to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Katie Beirne Fallon, to White House legislative affairs director.
Podesta was brought in to help facilitate Obama’s executive order actions to get around Congress. Not a humble move. Beirne is a veteran of the senator most likely to trample his own grandmother sprinting to grin into the nearest TV camera. Also not a humble move.
“The White House obviously recognized there was a problem, and I think the shake-up is an indication of good things to come,” one senior Democratic aide said. “I think they recognize that, if we lost the Senate, it would be game over.”
The Obama White House doesn’t recognize that one bit. With every Democrat retirement from Congress, Obama just ratchets up the hints that he’ll spend the last two years of his presidency pretending that we don’t have a Congress at all.
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