Emanuel: Bill just gave me the hairy eyeball
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel shared some thoughts over breakfast today with 40 or so Washington journalists — he dubbed the group “esteemed” and then marveled that the word is rarely heard in that context. Indeed!
Emanuel said the health care bill is “right on schedule.” We’ll see. The White House had hoped to have a bill worked out by the end of July — now they are saying the president will sign one by the end of the year.
He talked about the inclusion of a public option for health care, saying consumers can comparison shop for a car but not for medical services, and this would be better. He downplayed the estimated $1 trillion cost of reforming health care, saying the “money is already in the system” and just has to be reallocated — it’s not a matter of raising a big bunch of new money to pay for it.
“I want in another life to come back as CBO,” he mused.
Other topics: Asked to compare Clinton and Obama, he hemmed and mulled (doesn’t he get the question a lot, though?) and said Clinton was more creative and Obama is more disciplined. But he said there’s no real comparison between their presidencies, because the world is so different now than it was during the Clinton administration.
“President Obama has what President Clinton had by a quotient of 10,” he said.
He raised at least a few eyebrows with an initial claim that after Obama’s speech in Cairo, “America is no longer the issue in that part of the world.” Really? He said “the radicals are back on their heels” but then partially recovered by adding “it’s not just one speech, it’s a series of policies.” Still — quite a claim. This blogger would fear the jinx, but we’re superstitious like that.
On Mark Sanford, Emanuel said the South Carolina governor is one guy who needed a cigarette. Saucy!
Trying to answer a question with his mouth full, Emanuel said he would feel better about doing so if the assembled journalists were more like a Jewish family. “I can say that,” he said, scanning the tables. “Some of you can’t.”
President Obama today is having a meeting on immigration reform at the White House. Asked about Robert Gibbs statement recently that the votes aren’t there for immigration reform, Emanuel said the meeting wouldn’t be necessary if the votes were there.
He said Republicans are in as bad a shape as they have been in a long time — worse, even, than they were after the 2008 election, because their opposition to stimulus put them on the wrong side of most people. Republicans were a national party that became a regional party that is not a national threat, he said.
The country voted against the Republican defense of the status quo, he said — and then he stopped when White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton, sitting in the back facing Emanuel, abruptly sat up in his seat.
“Am I being too political?” Emanuel asked his handler. “I got the hairy eyeball from Bill.”
Burton: He’s watching you.
(hotline photo)
