For the first five weeks of Barack Obama’s presidency, congressional Republicans sought to avoid direct confrontation with the popular president. (See here.) No longer. At a meeting of the Republican conference this morning, House Minority Leader John Boehner said that his party has an obligation to challenge Obama in a clear, unambiguous manner. “There’s no point in ‘triangulation’ when it comes to this budget. It’s the President’s budget. His name is on it. It’s a bad budget, and we have a responsibility to tell the country that. We can do it respectfully – but we can do it, and we must.” The change in strategy comes as Obama’s poll numbers are settling back to earthly levels and conservatives are growing more alarmed by the day at the vast expansion of the federal government that Obama is proposing. UPDATE: Jackie Kucinich, from Roll Call, has more. UPDATE II: They weren’t kidding. House Republicans have let loose today with a fusillade of emails, statements and press releases targeting the Obama administration. At 11:28, we received this Boehner statement: “Political operatives in the White House are trying to divert attention away from the challenges facing our economy, the sinking stock market, and the irresponsible spending binge they are presiding over. This diversionary tactic will not create a single job or help a single family struggling in today’s economic crisis. That’s where our focus should be. President Obama has said we must change the way Washington operates in order to address the challenges we are facing. In the midst of a deepening recession, White House staff should have higher priorities than this cynical strategy.” At 12:54 came another Boehner statement challenged Obama on wasteful spending. “If the Administration is serious about cutting wasteful government spending, it can start by vetoing the $410 billion ‘omnibus’ spending bill that is loaded with 9,000 unscrutinized earmarks.” Two minutes later, the House Leadership sent a press release linking to a Washington Times blog post headlined: “Boehner Blasts White House for Stoking Rush Story.” At 1:53 Brad Dayspring, Press Secretary to House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, teed off on a comment by White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, who said today that engaging in rhetorical fights with Rush Limbaugh and others might be “counterproductive.” Said Dayspring: “Now that the Obama Administration has declared their own distractions, diversions and manipulations strategy to be counterproductive, House Republicans would like to see this Administration join us in our bipartisan national conversation about job creation, stimulating small business and middle class tax relief. They should apologize to the American people for supporting these tactics and get back to work.” At 2:20 a “GOP Leader Alert” email warned “The Administration’s Budget Hikes Taxes on Every Single American.” At 2:47 there was an email highlighting a post from Kevin Smith on Boehner’s blog, headlined: “President Pushes for Anti-Worker Card Check Bill That would Hurt the Economy.”
