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Obama Administration Plays Defense
July 15, 2010
This weekend, Senior White House adviser David Axelrod made the Sunday talk show circuit to discuss President Obama’s decision to use a recess-appointment to install Dr. Donald Berwick as the new head of CMS.
While recess appointments are not rare, this one was unusual given Congress was on a relatively short break (11 days) and Berwick had yet to return requests for information to Senators. Instead of having Berwick answer crucial questions, Obama made an “outrageous decision to take advantage of Congress’s absence last week to sneak Donald Berwick in…” Senator Mitch McConnell said.
Axelrod struggled to answer questions about the decision on ABC’s “This Week.” Host Jake Tapper, like Republican and Democrats who’ve spoken out against the move, suggested the move to bypass the Senate was an attempt to avoid a “political fight.”
Axelrod offered a weak rebuttal, saying Republicans would have delayed the hearing; however Tapper reminded his guest that Senator Grassley wanted a hearing scheduled two weeks ago.
“You didn’t want to have a hearing, because he was going to be attacked,” Tapper said.
“That’s – we didn’t – we – we wanted to move because we needed someone in place, and we knew that – that the plan of – on the other side was to draw this out, and we simply felt, given the gravity of the situation we face – understand that Dr. Berwick is – is – is widely and highly regarded,” Axelrod stumbled.
Moments later, Axelrod confessed, “But what we don’t want in this midst of an election is to – is to let this be drawn out in a long kind of political circus…”
(You can watch the full interview here.)
Axelrod appeared on several other Sunday morning talk shows, including “Fox News Sunday” where he insisted Berwick’s installation was vital to “move forward.” He then brushed off questions about the nominees most controversial statements, including “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care. The decision is whether we will ration with eyes open.”
“He is not coming to implement the British system,” Axelrod insisted.
Axelrod’s media tour did little to gain support for the President’s move or the Democrats, who are trying to distance themselves from the President ahead of midterm elections. Just a day after Berwick was sworn in, an ABC/Washington Post poll found 51% of Americans would rather have the Republicans run Congress “to act as a check on Obama’s policies.”
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