New WH advisor thinks Republicans are “a cult worthy of Jonestown”; Update: Apologizes

8/13/2019 New WH advisor thinks Republicans are “a cult worthy of Jonestown”; Update: Apologizes

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New WH advisor thinks Republicans are "a cult worthy of Jonestown"; Update: Apologizesposted at 12:01 pm on December 18, 2013 by Ed MorrisseyThis piece from Politico on the man brought in by Barack Obama to rescue his second term fromhubris and incompetence contains no small amount of irony, especially coming within hours of Barbara Walters' admission that the media saw Obama as "the Messiah" in 2008. John Podesta, whofounded and chaired the Center for American Progress until the White House called, wasn't evergoing to be a voice for moderation and outreach. However, calling Republicans the equivalent of amurderous cult is just a little sharp-elbowed for an administration whose leader claims not to be"particularly ideological":

According to interviews in recent weeks with an array of Obama insiders and a dozen current andformer senior aides, Podesta's hire is explicitly meant to shake things up inside the White House. Ineffect, I was told, it represents the clearest sign to date of the administration's interest in shiftingthe paradigm of Obama's presidency through the forceful, unapologetic and occasionally provocativeapplication of White House power. Podesta, whose official mandate includes enforcement of numerous executive orders on emissions and the environment, suggested as much when he spokewith me earlier this fall about Obama's team. "They need to focus on executive action given that theyare facing a second term against a cult worthy of Jonestown in charge of one of the houses of Congress," he told me.

"I think [White House officials] were naturally preoccupied with legislating at first, and I think ittook them a while to make the turn to execution. They are focused on that now," Podesta added."They have to realize that the president has broad authority, that he's not just the prime minister. Hecan drive a whole range of action. They always grasped that on foreign policy and in the nationalsecurity area. Now they are doing it on the domestic side."

How Podesta chooses to execute is not a settled question, and how his formidable personalitymeshes with Obama's no-drama palace guard--led by gatekeeper-in-chief McDonough--remains to beseen. Genial, wonky and self-effacing in calm times, Podesta is also known for having a short fuse;

subordinates in the Clinton White House even had a name for angry Podesta--"Skippy"--a sulfuric eviltwin so fearsome that even the brash Rahm Emanuel scrambled for cover. "It will be culture shock,"said one Democrat close to the White House. "But I guess Skippy will be the bad cop, and Denis willbe the good cop."

Hey, look, sometimes I'm no fan of GOP and grassroots strategies, either, and have argued thatthey're self-destructive politically. No one's committing mass murder by dictated suicide, though,and the comparison is both outrageous and ridiculous. Arguing by analogy is also a legitimate tacticfor debate and criticism. However, at a certain point, hyperbole says more about the wielder than itdoes about the target, and Podesta's viewpoint here makes it clear that he's an extremist -- which

says volumes about the President who hired him, and about his plans for the next three years.

Rory Cooper, a GOP strategist, reminds people that Jonestown was a lot more than a politicalanalogy -- especially for Democrats:



Dem Rep. Ryan was killed in Jonestown. His then-aide, Rep. Speier was shot 5x. Podesta's commentsshow them no honor.

-- Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) December 18, 2013

RT @dwallbank Free advice: Comparing something you don't like but doesn't kill people withsomething where people actually died = bad.

-- Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) December 18, 2013

@pfeiffer44 @peterbakernyt "The year is ending with some real positive signs." Not sure how thatworks with a cult worthy of Jonestown

-- Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) December 18, 2013

Don't expect much better from Pfeiffer, though. This was the same White House adviser thatcompared a Senate filibuster to a suicide bombing back in October. This isn't a new turn at theWhite House as much as it is a shrugging off of the false veneer of moderation. That's why theyturned to Podesta in their moment of crisis. Their own cult of personality is failing as theincompetence of this administration becomes fully exposed, and their answer isn't to clean house butto find a meaner True Believer to attempt a strategy of projection.

New tone, huh? By the way, a judge yesterday threw quite a wrench into Podesta's governingstrategy yesterday, at least in terms of carrying it out quietly:

Chastising what she called "the government's unwarranted expansion of the presidentialcommunications privilege at the expense of the public's interest in disclosure," U.S. District JudgeEllen Seal Huvelle ruled the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development is not exempt fromFOIA.

Judge Huvelle's 20-page decision took a shot or two, or three, at the Obama administration's

penchant for secrecy.

"The government appears to adopt the cavalier attitude that the President should be permitted toconvey orders throughout the Executive Branch without public oversight, to engage in what is ineffect governance by 'secret law,'" Huvelle wrote.

The Center for Effective Government, formerly known as OMB Watch, filed a FOIA request in 2011for the document. It is not classified, and has been widely distributed within executive agencies. TheObama administration nonetheless sought to keep the document to itself, claiming an executivecommunication privilege under FOIA.

This is an important case; as Huvelle noted, it's the first time an administration sought to apply theexecutive communication privilege to an executive directive. The administration's legal posture,Huvelle declared at various time, was "limitless" and "unbounded."



That's the same perception they have of executive power, too. Hopefully Podesta & Co. will findthemselves disappointed in that area as well.

Update: Our new Salem colleagues at Twitchy have more reaction.

Update: Podesta apologized to John Boehner on Twitter (via the Washington Post):

In an old interview, my snark got in front of my judgment. I apologize to Speaker Boehner, whom Ihave always respected.

-- John Podesta (@johnpodesta) December 18, 2013

Yeah, he's "always respected" that cult leader. Riiiiiight. At least Podesta offered a real apologyrather than the non-apology "sorry if that offended anyone" apology.

Update: Speaking of snark, my friend Olivier Knox at Yahoo News drops the snark hammer onPodesta and his apology:

In a notable de-escalation of the White House's rhetorical war on its critics, an incoming senioradviser to President Barack Obama has compared House Republicans and the tea party to theinfamous Jonestown cult that was behind one of the worst mass-murders of civilians in history. Andthen apologized. ...

Still, how is that first comment a de-escalation, you ask, quite reasonably? Well, it really wasn't thatlong ago that the White House was unrepentantly comparing the House GOP and the tea party to

terrorists with bombs strapped to their chests. This is arguably a little less inflammatory. The UnitedStates isn't waging a global military campaign against cults, after all. Or that could just be my snark getting in front of my judgment.

Olivier makes a good point, though, about the ubiquity of the phrase "drink the Kool Aid" as criticismin politics. That's a direct reference to Jonestown, too, but it's a bit more oblique and isn't quite asdirectly referential to the mass murder/suicide thanks to decades of use in criticism across thepolitical spectrum.Tags: Barack Obama, Dan Pfeiffer, extremist, incompetence, John PodestaRelated Posts:CBS poll: ObamaCare hurts more than it helps, say insured and uninsuredVideo: "We

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New WH advisor thinks Republicans are “a cult worthy of Jonestown”; Update: Apologizes