I had the impression several days ago that momentum for health care reform slowed down some while President Obama was overseas. A lot of the news in the past couple of days has been that reform will only get done if the President is actively working to push it through congress.
I was also under the impression that most Republicans would prefer that health care not pass.
He [former Senator Zell Miller] drew more applause from the mostly Republican legislators …when he said Obama needed to spend more time in Washington and less time traveling abroad. “Our globe-trotting president needs to stop and take a break and quit gallivanting around,” Miller said, adding that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel needs to put “Gorilla Glue” on his chair to keep him in the Oval Office.
Ignoring the possible racial slur here, I don’t understand the applause. If the Republicans want health reform to fail, then I would think they would not want the President glued to his chair in the oval office, but would prefer him flying around the globe.
Unless it was the racial slur.…
Hat tip to The New Republic
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
If Washington can govern Hawaii from where it’s at, I fail to see how Obama being elsewhere affects his ability to run things, especially given the current state of electronic connectedness of, well, just about everything.
Also, I’m not sure what “racial slur” was used. I checked “gallivanting” to see if it had some sort of racism in its etymology, but it doesn’t, so I’m left with “Gorilla Glue” and the possible association of a black man with a gorilla. If that’s the case, then I guess it’s possible it was used racially, but Gorilla Glue is the go-to glue for getting things to stick. I use it as a suggestion whenever something needs glued — much like I would use duct tape if ever something is moving that shouldn’t be.
So perhaps Senator Miller was just thinking like me.
Unless he had something racist in mind, in which case, he can duct tape his mouth shut.
Governing the country from Washington is not at all analogous to trying to ride herd on congress to pass a particular bill.
The former is done through the existing infrastructure of the various federal departments. The latter requires lots of face time with various representatives and senators.
Since Miller was addressing legislators, it is reasonable to assume that the audience understood that Obama’s absence from Washington would make passing health care less likely.