White House Refuses To Say Whether Officials Pressed Germans To Nix Obama Speech
There's been yet another odd twist in the story about alleged pressure by the Bush administration on the German government to block an Obama speech at Berlin's historically-charged Brandenburg Gate: The White House isn't denying the allegations.
At today's White House press gaggle, reporters asked for a comment on the charges...
"I'm not going to comment on any conversations," said White House press secretary Dana Perino."We have no view on the locations of candidates' speeches or events. Our position is that the candidates have to make their own decisions."
This is a bit odd. On one hand, Perino seems to be saying that the White House has no official and public position on whether Obama should deliver a speech before the Gate. But she isn't denying the charge that officials privately urged the Germans to nix the speech.
So here's where that leaves us. The one Bush administration official who supposedly expressed hostility to the idea on the record denies he ever did that. But respected German media outlets have reported, based on anonymous sources, that such pressure was privately brought to bear.
The German government denied this. But the White House didn't.
Comments (15)
If her lips were moving she was lying....
July 11, 2008 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
perino is a professional liar. period.
July 11, 2008 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I often wonder how Dana can go home and be proud of her day's work. I am sure the check is lovely, but imagine being her spouse. You would have a hard time wondering when she was telling you the truth. Makes one proud to be a mouthpiece.
July 11, 2008 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
You could make the same statement about most of the people who work in government. One thing is certain, Dana doesn't spend her evenings boning up on U.S. History (see: Cuban Missile Crisis... huh?).
July 11, 2008 9:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have long learned not to be shocked at the craveness, the cowardice, the stupidity and the corruption of the Bush Administration...but they still manage to shock me with the small-minded pettiness that governs them.
July 11, 2008 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
...and thats how they get the idea out there and keep the pussywhipped compliant media talking about it until it becomes a tidal wave of opinion...
July 11, 2008 6:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I cannot understand why Obama needs to go to Berlin to give a speech. Ah, I see he wants to look Kennedyesque. Well he should just pick up the phone and call Holywood, I am sure they can build him a nice movie set. This way he will not have to suffer from jet lag.
July 11, 2008 8:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Internet version of the Wash. Post this morning is screaming that Germany "strongly denied" this happened. Not far down the story, I have to quote this, they reverse themselves 180 degrees and say the opposite, points 1 and 2.
1. "German Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed her displeasure with Obama's interest in giving a major speech on transatlantic relations at the site."
Huh?
2. The U.S. Treasury Secretary (former Amb. to Germany) opposed it publicly. While visiting Berlin! Yes, IN BERLIN! It is a simple fact, and he doesn't deny it and he can't.
White House claims they're not really sure. Fratto: "Not that we're aware of." The lying fucks!!!
July 12, 2008 12:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wouldn't surprise me one bit if Angela Merkel, the corrupt Bush Administration's favorite toady in Europe (next to Nicolas Sarkozy), uttered some crap like this. She is a conservative closet racist herself who is just as hateful of Asians (especially Chinese) as she is of African-Americans-- she's been trying to push many German companies to divest from China and even South Korea on some obscure trade disagreement basis, which is royally pissing off not only the Asian countries but German companies themselves, which are furious at her since this is probably the most important area in the world to be promoting investment. And she's appalled at the prospect of having to deal with an African-descended head of state in the USA. She can't take the idea of a non-white political figure that she'd have to toady up to. IOW, Merkel is both racist and utterly incompetent.
Fortunately, the German people don't agree with her and are increasingly turning against her. She was popular for a while due to economic improvement in Germany, but now that the German economy is going south-- thanks in no small part to Merkel's racist policies toward Asia, which have cost her country's companies precious market share there-- the people are turning against her, and even her natural support base, the companies themselves, are rejecting her. She's also flubbed royally on the Iran issue (which is also costly to German businesses) and Kosovo, creating an even bigger mess there, and she was humiliated when Ireland rejected the Lisbon Treaty, of which she was the most prominent advocate.
My expat friends in Germany (those fluent in German at least) now see blood and are working overtime to get her ousted. I'm talking real high-intensity acts-- humiliating protests, tough letters to the editor, all kinds of things to make her even more unpalatable than she already is to the public. And considering how much of a pathetic, ignorant Bush Administration toady she's become, it'll be good riddance.
July 12, 2008 3:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
You know what kills them? They have got it all spun up in their minds that Ronald Reagan is some demigod, and the Brandenburg Gate somehow belongs to him in their delusional cosmology.
By the way, he delivered the "Tear down this wall" line not particularly well.
July 12, 2008 1:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Shouldn't that headline be "White House refuses to incriminate self under Hatch Act"?
July 12, 2008 8:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
OK, I'll settle this once and for all !
By virtue of having a very distant ancestor from the House of Hohenzollern, and by virtue of the 'one drop rule', I declare that Barack Obama may speak before the Brandenberg Gate,,,,, my family built it, so I declare that he has the permission of someone who really counts. Poor Angela is a commoner afterall.
July 12, 2008 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, the old Agitprop gal got *owned* with that one, hoot! Your gesture on your behalf of your family is gracious indeed!
July 12, 2008 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe instead of speaking in front of the Brandenburg Gate, Obama could just give Angela Merkel a shoulder rub.
Oh wait. That's a White House prerogative too.
July 13, 2008 12:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well surely someone will put Obama's germany speech on the internet for all to see, and we can get it anyway, on youtube or whatever, and somehow Bush can't really stop it in the end.
Surely some blogger out there will record the event and knows that we don't have to follow Bush's hatred for freedom of speech.
Anyway, looking around on the news this morning, it seems that Republicans and their media cohorts are genuinely horrified at the amount of money Obama raised in June.
I suspect Obama’s FISA decision lost him some dough since his vote for the FISA bill was early July. Anyway, McCain was at the bottom of the barrel for Republicans, so that is why he is now the nominee, he was the least reprehensible candidate after conservative voters rejected everyone else. Republicians had to pick someone and McCain was the only obscure candidate left standing.
ALSO there was this LA Times Blog about how McCain was only going around to fund raising events and gave his schedule, which showed that instead of being able to simply campaign like Obama does, McCain was busy fund raising all the time. It was written by a very upset Republican blogger who said that McCain need to wait for his public financing to kick in after September to start campaigning - then like magic - it disappeared off the Internet.
I went to LA Times blog pages - but it's gone. It's been pulled. Is it because McCain will not be taking public financing or because it was very damaging information, so the corporate controlled media owners of LA Times quickly rip it off the internet ASAP?
It was pretty weird indeed.
July 18, 2008 11:33 AM | Reply | Permalink